Water, water everywhere

A bridge at Rakitnica Canyon. It would have been nice to have more of these!

Saturday we took another hike with our guide, this time to a river canyon. The good news is we can almost walk again. And I guess the good news is that we have all our limbs still attached. More good news: It is really beautiful in the mountains outside Sarajevo, where little villages nestle in high valleys and water gushes from caves in the steep hillsides.

But about that water: There can be a bit too much. We crossed numerous flooding streams - leaping with good or bad aim from rock to rock. Occasionally, strapping fellow hikers with long arms offered me a hand and basically flew me over the rapids. But we all landed pretty much in water.

How do we get over this?

To get to a canyon you have to first go up. Then you go down. Then you must go back up again. Then down to cross some streams. Then up again. You get the picture - except the down was 400 meters steep (1200+ feet in a short stretch), and the up was straight up. The guide does not like paths or switchbacks apparently, preferring the direct approach. Oh, and the snow fields, melting as they were. And the last hour it rained. Hard.

This waterfall is from a spring deep inside the cave at the top.

By the end of the 8 hours of hiking, we were bloodied from wild rose branches, waterlogged, and dripping. Not to mention panting. 

There were two Englishmen, a Dutch guy, an Austrian, one other American, and us (in addition to the guide). True to cultural cliche, the Brits "soldiered on," the Austrian was gazelle-like, the Dutch guy slithered all over the place in city shoes but never complained, one American (intelligently) turned back, and we whined. The guide, of course, joked and hiked about twice as far as the rest of us because he kept scouting the terrain (looking for a nice gentle path? No ...).

Our guide, Fikret, knows these mountains so well and obviously loves them. He's a joy to be around with stories for every occasion, and we are learning so much from him about his country. (He reminds us of niece Laura who has led us on, uh, what might be called aggressive hikes!) Fikret pronounces the word "wilderness" with a long I, as in the word "wild." I kind of like that because it describes the countryside here.

Did I mention it was beautiful? Lots of flowers, beautiful river, gorgeous mountains, nice company. And the shoes are almost dry.

Pretty mountains