Bijambare

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This weekend we decided to take a short trip out of town, to some local caves. Bijambare is a park about 50 minutes outside of Sarajevo. One of our neighbors had visited the park a few weeks ago, which is how we came to find out about its existence. Since it wasn't far outside of town, relatively child friendly (as child friendly as a park with caves can be), and we could take a shuttle masquerading as a 'train' to get back to the car, we decided to go. 

Purple hills on the way to the caves. They were brighter in person.

To be honest, it probably helped that the kids woke up at about 6:40 in the morning. I think that, had they not woken up early, we would have likely stayed home. But they woke up, so we went. Which is good, because no matter the destination, it is good to leave early when you are going somewhere in Bosnia, because people generally don't leave the house or begin their day till about 9-10 in the morning. So, if you wake up early and get out of the house early, you generally have the market/grocer/attraction/etc. all to yourself along with all the other early birds.

Getting closer!
There were a lot of ant? termite? mounds on the way to the caves, along the main path. And mini foot bridges branching off from the main road. As we were out of Sarajevo proper, the air was relatively clear, which was nice. The hike up the path toward the caves was slow going with the kids, but we managed. I couldn't imagine anyone trying to go up the path with a stroller, it's just not feasible or sane, but we did see people with strollers preparing to do just that on the way back.

The non-stroller-friendly path (and this was the more gentle section!)
The kids, waiting to go into the caves.
My super blurry shot of the cave entrance from inside.


In the caves!

I wish more of my photos had come out clearly. A lot of them are blurry because the camera failed to focus before the shots were taken, which sucks. I ended up carrying our youngest on my back with the Onya, because he probably would have run off the path otherwise. We didn't hear or see any bats in the cave, but it was very cool inside. So cool, my glasses fogged over when we got out. If you go, there are points on the path where the ceiling goes down pretty low-so low I had to duck down to get past in spots. It is definitely worth going for a visit if you are vacationing in the area, or posted here. 






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