After spending a night in the medieval royal town of Jajce, we went for a bit of exploration around town. The care taker of Aida’s house was so cool that he allowed us to check out as and when we liked. First, we trekked down to the Volopod on our way to the bus stand to get a ride to the Jajce watermills.
You can view the Volopod by the road side for free.
If you want to get a closer view, you have to trek down the 5 minutes path and pay the entrance fees.
Be prepared to be splashed and sprinkled with the water from the waterfall. I faced trouble sweeping away the water from my camera lense. We were at the Volopod earlier than the tourist crowd who arrived in tourist buses. Lucky us!
In Jajce, there was no proper taxi. Only normal cars served as transporters. We hired a car taxi to the Great and Small Pliva lakes, which is located 5 kilometers from the old town. Little that we know that it is a significant hydropower resource. It also plays an important role for recreation and fish farming. Because of the specific density of water, it is ideal for kayaking, canoeing and kayaking competitions.
The special attraction of Jajce is the water mills complex, popularly known as Mlincici.
The watermills were used to grind grains. Back then, the usage of the watermills was paid with a tax of 10% of the user production. There was an established practice that each family was assigned one day of the week to grind the grains.
We spent our time walking around the Pliva Lake and found none of the restaurants or stalls was open. As we had requested the taxi to pick us up at the windmills, we had second thought of walking to the lake near the entrance. We walked anyway. 30 minutes walk with a good friend chatting random topics made the journey worth walking. Plus, we savoured the mountainous landscape that surrounds the Pliva lakes, a common scenery all over the Balkans.
Approaching our second week in Bosnia, our taste bud did not seem to want any ounce of red meats. We had enough! We craved for fish based meal. We spent a little extra for a plate of garlic rice and lake fishes.
Under the summer sun, we sat watching world kayaking competition which was taking place near the restaurant at Motel Plaza, Jajce while enjoying our luncheon and a can of chilled coke.