Winter is fast approaching. While the days here, have yet to see snow and winds, the still, freezing air is promising a harsh season to come. In these shots I took recently you can see nature trying to hold on to that last fruits of the season before spiraling into the long winter sleep

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I took this first shot from an unusual perspective. I shoot the subject from below, looking up at the sky. Luckily the sun was covered by the clouds, and I didn't have a blown out sky.

 

How is winter treating you in your neck of the woods?

Mostar is not a big city, but even here it can get pretty crowded during rush hour, and the cars can pile up in long, seemingly never-ending lines. This is of course true during the period when people get home from work, but also Saturday Mornings. Lots of cars flood the exits of the city, on their short journey for the weekend.

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I am linking this to the new and improved Friday My Town Shoot Out. If you haven't seen it click on the logo below and visit this group blog. We have a new design, thumbnail link-ups, and new content! Every Friday a new theme is posted and you get to link up your post with the rest of the world. Try it out!

The visit to the Fortress of King Herceg Stjepan concludes in this final part. We discovered a small closed-off part of the fortress, where once guards used to stand in and take watch over the surroundings. After that we made our way back home.

This Series Includes:

Part One: A Wrong Turn

Part Two: Inside the Fortress

Part Three: The Journey Home

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This is the view from the lookout.

I like this soft grass growing down the fortress, and the little red dots punctuating it.

This is the south side of the fortress. Along these walls, a path can be found which leads you back out of it.

The day was slowly giving away and darkness came rushing in. These were the last images that I took before dusk.

This is the entrance through which we came in in part one. You can see a bit of the narrow path beginning after the doorway.

A look at the path on our way back. Getting down was of course much easier, then climbing up.

In this image you can see the road that we followed up, when we took the wrong turn, and at the bottom the path we should have taken. In this image it looks very clear, but...

... in this one, taken from the road down below, it's quite hard to notice that there is a path on this hill.

This concludes out adventure on the hills over Blagaj, and our visit to the old fortification of King Herceg Stjepan. It was one of those nearby destination I never visited before, and had on my to-do list for a very long time. I'm glad to have finally made the journey and I'm happy with the photo results this trip yielded. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Our stay on the hills continue, as we march our way into the fortress. Judging from the outside the fortress is very well kept and in shape, but once you enter, different views greet you. Still, it's one of the biggest fortifications in this region, and it's very impressive to stand inside of it.

This Series Includes:

Part One: A Wrong Turn

Part Two: Inside the Fortress

Part Three: The Journey Home

click on the images for a bigger view

I doubt that this was the main entrance during the days when this fortress was filled with life, but now the only path up the hill leads to this opening in the walls.

The entrance is very narrow and secluded, offers shelter and a somewhat in tact inner structure.

But once you pass through the entrance the inside of the fortress becomes visible.

The central part is missing all of the walls that made out the fortress, and you can really get the scope of how big this place used to be.

The fortress is located on a cliff, and If you climb the outer walls (which I did, even though I don't like heights), a wonderful view of the valley presents itself. (Can you manage to spot my parked red car in the image below?)

Even though destroyed by time, the walls are still a very impressive sight.

A portrait on the edge.

But this inner part is not the only part that remained. In the back of the next image you will see steps that lead into a higher part of the fortress.

We climbed it, and the views from up there are equally mesmerizing.

I shot some video footage too (will also be uploaded and posted), and as we made out way back we noticed a couple of spots inside, that we missed. But more on those parts of the fortress and of the sights on out way back, in the final third part. Thanks for watching and reading!

On my 500th post I posted a preview of the location in this new series. My cousins and I visited the old fortress of the medieval Bosnian King Herceg Stjepan last weekend. The medieval building – also known as Stjepan city, is situated on the late antique fort above Blagaj, and was actually a city palace enclosed by hard walls with jagged peaks, that are still visible today.

This Series Includes:

Part One: A Wrong Turn

Part Two: Inside the Fortress

Part Three: The Journey Home

click on the images for a bigger view

The journey to the fortress brought us far away, since we made a wrong turn and ended up deep in the mountains. But let me start at the beginning...

Everything started in Blagaj, a small town nearby Mostar, where we parked the car. Immediately a sign welcomed us, and informed us that a 30 minute hike was upon us.

So we took the road as shown on the picture above. It was a very steep hike, and most of the 30 promised minutes take place going up the road.

The sky was very moody that day, with the fortress looking down on us, waiting. There is really only one road you have to follow by foot once you park your car. But something seemed off after 30 minutes passed and we still didn't arrive there.

The fortress became smaller and smaller, moving off into the distance. This only path we were on was leading us further and further away into the mountains...

The road just kept on going and after an hour it really didn't seem like we were ever going to get there. So we decided to go back, and look for the fortress. It's really a big shame that there are no signs at all to lead you there. We stopped for some portraits.

And then we discovered this stone structure. Far away on the top of the hill, it was all that was left from an older fortress that was also part of this medieval city. 

As we returned on the same road, we actually saw a small path hidden on the mountain slopes. The path goes along rocky, rather arid terrain, with constant zigzag rise up the mountain. After a 30 minute walk, you reach the medieval fortress of Herceg Stjepan.

This is looking down at the narrow path. And even here you can barely see that this is a path you should be following up. No signs here.

This shot was taken in the small mountain path that leads directly to the main entrance of the fortress today.

As you can see the path is very narrow and steep, not much secured, since the cliff is right beside the path, but it is secure enough to walk up to the fortress.

Finally the winding path ends at the entrance, and only a couple of footsteps parted us with the main destination. Dark clouds began to from on the sky promising a coming storm... 

That's it for the first part. It's funny, even though we ended up taking a wrong turn, it gave us some great images from the mountains, and even better angles of the fortress itself. The second part takes us inside the old walls, where we examine what is left over from the centuries. 

Linking to Outdoor Wednesdays