A Workaway in the Bosnian Mountains
Two weeks in the village of Biokovina
After almost three months crisscrossing Europe on trains, we've decided to go for a change of pace. Workaway is a website that links travelers and hosts for what could be described as mutually beneficial cultural exchange - typically the traveller gets a place to stay and food and helps out with whatever the host has going on in return. Since the Balkan countries are outside the common travel area and we have much less pressure from visa free travel periods, this part of our trip gives a great opportunity to slow down (in terms of sightseeing), mix things up, meet new people, dive deeper into local culture, and spend less money.
We spent two weeks in the village of Biokovina about 9 km from the town of Jajce up a windy single track mountain road. Our host, Tom, is in the process of setting up a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility in the Bosnian mountains - the first in the country. Biokovina Wild is very much a work in progress with many projects on the go. Thanks to Bosnia's flexible charity structure, they are able to incorporate different revenue streams under one banner with the aim of creating a financially stable and self-sustaining project. We helped with construction work for a music studio, village stay accomodations, and a new building for workshop space. In the future, profits from these endeavors will fund the wildlife activities. See https://www.biokovinawild.com for more information.
Arriving, Settling In, and Work Activities
We arrived in Jajce by bus from Zagreb on the evening of 26th March and were met by Tom's friend Michael. The last leg of the bus journey between Banja Luka and Jajce was ridiculously stunning on a narrow winding road between with the cut back rock of the valley on one side and a river or lakes in the gorge below. Tom was out of the country when we arrived which contributed to some initial confusion with regards to the project and what our daily life in Biokovina would look like (although other workawayers did their best to fill us in). Michael is also British and met Tom on a forum for expats. Michael recently lived in China with his wife; Micheal did not want to have children in China so they moved to Bosnia where it is relatively straightforward for both of them to get visas. Their 2 year old daughter is very sweet and energetic. They are planning to build on some land that they bought and to join Tom’s plans for a community in Biokovina, so Michael comes up a few days per week to help out with the various construction projects. After having some pizza, Fadil picked us up to take us to the village, a short steep drive up a windy road.
Fadil grew up in Biokovina and his Mom still lives in the village - she also rolls his cigarettes for him. Fadil organizes the various projects and builds the various structures; he turns all the crazy ideas for the project into reality. He has a big personality and energy, and it is always obvious when he has arrived as his yelling can be heard across the village. Fadil chooses to do this work because he likes the lifestyle that it allows: flexibility, time with his family, community, fun, and the ability to mix things up. Fadil’s favourite word seems to be “Suka” (go ahead and Google the Russian translation); we are not sure why this word is so special to Fadil, but it will be yelled frequently throughout any normal day. Fadil is also a big believer in coffee and smoking breaks - a staple in the Balkans. He is full of jokes and a really fun person to work with. Given that he leads a group of volunteers, he does a fantastic job in making the work fun to the point that volunteers don't want to leave.
When we arrived in Biokovina, we were welcomed by the other workawayers and had some tea. At this point, the other volunteers included Josh and Sarah (a couple cycling from the UK to India, see more on their YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@joshandsarahride ), Mint from Singapore, Monan from France and Chris from Ireland. Later in our stay we were joined by a young couple Sasha (from America, Cape Cod) and DeeDee (from Bulgaria near the Black Sea), the very lovely Maria from Slovakia, Jack from the UK, and Garry, an American in his 60s.
After meeting the others, we settled into our accomodation - a small and rustic cabin heated with a small wood stove. Making things more interesting, our room was right next to the wolf. To get to the door, we had to climb up wet, slippery wooden stairs right next to Stone (the wolf) and Moon’s (dog that gets along with Stone) pen, duck under the low corner of the building's roof, and avoid getting snagged on the edge of the enclosure. For the first few days, Stone would try to playfully nip at our hands or arms making the journey up and down from our room very tricky in the rain. After a few days we got the hang of things (direct eye contact seemed to keep Stone back from the edge of the enclosure) and Stone thankfully lost interest in nipping at us.
With the exception of a couple days, the weather was either wet or cold during our stay in Biokovina; it took most of the two weeks to get used to starting a fire with slightly damp wood (thankfully there were some miracle chemical fire starters to help with this), remembering to start the fire early enough to avoid a cold room at bedtime, and to get into the habit of adding a couple of logs anytime we woke up in the middle of the night to keep the fire burning.
On Thursday morning, we got into our first day of work! We learnt immediately that the schedule is very relaxed. Mornings involve waiting around, having coffee and breakfast, waiting for people to gather (we tended to wake up around 7 am but the group gathered closer to 9), keeping the fire going in the common room, and waiting for Fadil to arrive. Once Fadil arrived, it was time for another coffee (with lots of sugar in his - the Bosnian way), the smokers had a cigarette, and at last it was time for tasks to be assigned somewhere between 10am and 11am. Fadil likes to try and keep people from getting bored so tasks get mixed around and often only partially progressed each day.
The first day of work everyone was together in the music studio due to persistent rain. The first week of our stay was rather rainy with low cloud shrouding the valley and often fog hiding even the rest of the village from view. Today, Mary painted walls - a new skill for her. Meanwhile, Scott was asked to sand the floorboards and the others sanded the drywall on the ceiling. It was not what you might call the conventional (or proper) way of finishing a room, but this everything, everywhere, all at once approach was common on rainy days - we figured we'd do as we were told and get on with it. With dubious order of operations and untrained volunteers quality being less than professional, but that's how things get done around here and throwing bodies at the task does speed up progress. Today Mary managed to get impressively covered by paint, literally from head to toe (although we were warned that our clothes will get dirty).
After around two hours of work, just as we were getting a rhythm going, it was 12:30 - so lunch time! We do lunch slowly, do dishes, have more coffee or tea, and sit around before returning to work around 2pm. We finished work between 4:30pm and 5:30pm which makes for what feels like a short day. The workaway posting said 4-5 hours of work per day, so what feels short to us is probably right around what is expected. After finishing working, there's a bit of down time to relax or take dogs on a walk while one of the volunteers cooks dinner for the group (we took turns preparing lunch and dinner) - luckily everyone seemed to be pretty good cooks and we were well fed throughout our stay.
Most week days followed a similar schedule with varied tasks including painting, sanding drywall, sanding floorboards, texturing walls with rocks and concrete, preparing rebar or concrete forms, mixing and pouring concrete, and chopping wood. Often, curious villagers would stop by to say hello and see what was going on - often distributing Bosnian candies to anyone that would accept them.
Here's a video Fadil took while perched on a wall and waiting for a batch of concrete to be mixed (complete with some over the top background music):
Experiencing the Bosnian Community
28-Mar-2025: After work, we made our way to an end of Ramadan celebration in Jajce (the Iftar before the last day of fasting, after which the celebration of Eid would begin). The community event featured lots of sweet snacks, some singing performances, and very friendly locals. We stood out like a sore thumb - Jajce is a fairly small town, so outsiders would stand out anyway; a number of foreigners that are underdressed and a bit grubby definitely stand out. At the end of the evening, we were struggling to find a taxi to take us back up to Biokovina and one kind man even called his fried or driver (we're not sure which) to take us up. He said it didn't matter what time he got home so he'd have a coffee while he waited for the vehicle to return!
While we were mingling with the locals, a number of teenagers asked us the same question: “Why Bosnia?” We suppose a number people try to leave Bosnia for better paid work elsewhere, so maybe out of season tourists seem a bit strange. We didn't have a great answer at the time, so we said something like wanting to visit places we didn't know much about and that are less popular with other tourists. Now we would say something like: Why not Bosnia? It is a beautiful country with friendly people, unique history and is much cheaper than western Europe. The country's history is also complex and fascinating sitting at the confluence of east and west, Muslim and Christian, Ottoman and Western European. Although at the time of writing we've only spent two and a half weeks in the country, we have been thoroughly impressed so far!
The new arrivals to the workaway, Sasha and DeeDee came into town as well and entertained the locals with their accordion playing. Due to Sasha's accordion antics, frequent practicing on the hill above Biokovina, and Fadil posting videos of him on a community Facebook page, Sasha would become a bit of a local celebrity over the course of a couple weeks: many people in Jajce (and probably everyone in Biokovina) knew who he was and Fadil's video had well over 30,000 views (the population of Jajce is around 25,000 for reference). One of the videos that went viral in Jajce is below:
31-Mar-2025/1-Apr-2025: Edin, a villager in Biokovina, invited all 10 of us down for dinner. He lives at the bottom of the valley in the village, with his wife Senada and their 3 year old grandson. One of their sons was also there. All were incredibly kind and welcoming. The little boy is a very calm little guy and warmed up slowly to all the odd strangers his family had invited into their home. We brought a bit of food with us, but they had a massive spread (Senada's cooking is absolutely amazing) - a creamy chicken dish with a bready base, some pasta, homemade bread, and homemade cheese. The homemade cheese was salty of sort of feta-like, absolutely delicious.
Sasha entertained with his accordion and we had a late night gorging ourselves with food and constant offers of pivo (beer) and cigarettes (for those who smoked, those that didn't got the haze that filled the room). We had a fun time using gestures, limited word's, DeeDee and Sasha knowing the language a bit, and Google translate to communicate with the family. Some of the entertainment with Monan singing and Sasha playing is below:
The next night, Edin and Sedana invited us back and plied us with food once again. It was a smaller group of us this evening and some of us made the mistake of having dinner before heading down. This time bean soup and borek filled with meat or cheese was on the menu. Sedana insisted we all continue to eat until we were barely able to make our way back up the hill. With a smaller group, Sasha and Deedee were able to translate a bit more with Google translate filling in the gaps. Mary had a facetime call with Jana, Edin and Senada's daughter, who is studying in Germany. Jana was very patient with Mary's broken German and they were able to have an interesting conversation and translate things between us and Jana's parents as well.
All couples invited into Edin's home were repeatedly offered land and a house in the village, if we were able to have a "Biokovina baby". It would seem Edin is quite keen to bolster the population of the village... Here's one last accordion video to wrap up this section:
Tom: The Enigma
Even after a couple of weeks, Tom remained a bit of a mystery to us. A British man maybe 15 years or so older than us setting up a wildlife charity in rural Bosnia is curious in itself, but every conversation seemed to raise as many questions as it gave answers. Between our arrival in Biokovina and Tom’s return from Hungary, we had heard rumors that some of the villagers suspected he was either a spy, a criminal on the run from the law, or a mineral prospector trying to buy up land in the village. Although Tom dismissed these theories (as any good spy would), his nonchalant way of dropping unbelievable stories from his past or controversial opinions into conversation make one wonder.
It's difficult to perfectly remember each story that came up and we don't want to write a novel, but to briefly recount a few of the tales:
Setting up and managing a network gem traders in the Himalayas.
Property development projects with a mayor in some mountainous village in India.
Setting up a massive medicinal marijuana operation for a Balkan prime minister (we can't remember if it was Montenegrin or Macedonian…)
Theories that USAID is used as the bribery wing of the CIA (along with assurances he has personally experienced this) and the view that despite suboptimal methods, Trump's shakeup of the status quo will be a good thing in the end.
Various stories about arms length dealings with various mafia and parties on Russian oligarchs yachts.
Interesting patterns of sleeping into the afternoon, helping out with projects for a bit, joining for dinner, and working on unknown projects in his house until the early hours.
3-Apr-2025: Tom took Mary and Maria on an impromptu late night adventure into town for errands, providing our own anecdote. We first had a lovely walk with evening light hitting the hills beautifully, to reach where the massive cargo van was parked. First stop: firewood. After spending nearly 45 minutes tossing logs and wood haphazardly into the van (unsure why exactly this was a nighttime activity), we headed for the grocery store with only about 15 minutes to spare before closing time. This necessitated a frenetic shop to acquire provisions for the volunteers. Afterwards, Tom took Mary and Maria out for burgers, gave a brief tour of the town, pointed out an impressive rock that is made of coral, and showed us a viewpoint of the waterfall where we saw a little hedgehog scurrying in the dark. The journey back to Biokovina was filled with discussions about religion, theories of Western meddling in the fall of Yugoslavia, and a recommendation to watch a documentary called “The Weight of Chains” (we found this to be interesting, but somewhere between biased reporting and conspiracy theorist propaganda - perhaps not the most impartial source).
Perhaps it is not surprising that someone inviting volunteers to help build a wildlife rehabilitation center in the Bosnian mountains has a few eccentricities. In any case, Tom was incredibly kind, friendly, and welcoming - the eccentricities just served to add a bit of intrigue to our travels!
Days Off and Free Time
5-Apr-2025: We walked into Jajce on the first sunny day since arriving. Along the way, landmine signs on side of the road warned not to stray into the woods. Fadil later told us that there are only mines near the top of the hill, but we weren't interested in trying our luck. As a result of the war in the 90s, Bosnia has one of the worst land mine problems in the world. Although education campaigns and de-mining efforts have reduced injuries and deaths, a handful of people are injured or killed most years.
We visited the hilltop fortress for views over Jajce, wandered the town centre, and snapped a few photos of the 20m high Pliva waterfall. Unfortunately two museums we tried to visit were closed despite being in the middle of their opening hours. After wandering the town, we had some food and extremely sweet crepes before making our way back up the hill into Biokovina.
6-Apr-2025: We woke up to snow on the ground and a chill in the air. With less than ideal weather, we had a very relaxing day. In the evening, we enjoyed Maria’s traditional Slovakian Haluski for dinner - she was quite surprised we had made Slovak dumpings during our time in Bratislava and showed us that a mixture of feta-like cheese and sour cream is a suitable substitute for Slovakian Bryndza (which is not usually available outside of Slovakia).
Activities during other periods of free time were weather dependent. Sometimes, if it was particularly foggy, wet, or cold, the communal space/kitchen provided a nice warm place to relax.
On the rare occasions where the weather cooperated during our visit, tracks around the village and through the surrounding woods allows easy walking (with or without one some of the project's dogs) with fantastic views over Biokovina and other villages isolated by deep valleys and steep mountains. This little corner of Bosnia may be lacking in development, but it definitely isn't lacking in beauty!
Somewhere between work and leisure, Mary became responsible for the care of Jeremy, a communal sourdough starter (left as a legacy by someone named Diego). The task was handed over by Sarah to Mary when Sarah and Josh left to continue their bike ride. Mary managed to feed Jeremy daily and make various sourdough masterpieces before handing his care over to Maria. Mary was lucky enough to leave the project with a new skill- sourdough making 😋
Continuing on Our Journey
After two weeks, the time came to bid farewell to Biokovina and continue further into Bosnia. After a couple of months spending every moment of every day together, we thoroughly enjoyed the company of others, spending a bit of time apart during the day, and having some chit chat to discuss the day’s activities before going to sleep. A huge thank you to Fadil, Tom, all the other volunteers, and the locals of Biokovina for making our first workaway experience a memorable one!
Perhaps at some point in the future we’ll find our way back to Biokovina. It is a special place and we definitely are curious to see how Tom's project and plans unfold. Next we're heading to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia - back to civilization and perhaps a bit more touristy sightseeing for a week or so!
