In the Mountains [Part 1/4]: The Journey into the Valley

This here is a new series of images that were taken on Saturday, January 4th. My friend Selma and I made a drive to Rujište, a small village located on top of a nearby mountain. Snow was nowhere to be found. When we left Mostar it was a sunny day, and when we arrived on the mountain, dark clouds began to form on the horizon. It would actually rain that very same night, so we did in fact manage to get nice images with a moody sky and some of the sun on the horizon. 

This is a multi-part series. Other parts include:
Part One: The Journey into the Valley
Part Two: Still life in the Valley
Part Three: Return through the Forest
Part Four: Lunch and the drive Home

click on the images for a bigger view

This is really the first thing you see once you make the drive up. I immediately parked my car and went to the edge of the cliff and took the next couple of photos.

A sign welcoming you to the mountain. The height of the mountain is 1050 meters above sea level (which is approximately 3.444 foot).

Dark clouds circled in the landscape, with the sun still visible in the valley. That's where we wanted to go first and it's a longer hike down there.

As we made our way down, the clouds began moving in closer, reminding us, that in a few short hours the darkness of the night would return.

Along the path, interesting objects can be found in the woods, like for example a mini trailer parked on a side path.

This Sycamore tree Forest would greet us on our way back later. Climbing down we could already see the other side of the path that would take us back up. More on that in part three.

To our surprise we discovered a newly plastered road leading far into the mountains. Later we came across a sign that said that this road leads to the Boračko jezero, which is a lake near the city Konjic, further up north. I think this road is worth a drive, a we may just do that soon.

The pine tree forest was all around us. And some parts are very thick and moody.

Coming closer to the valley, the sky was much more inviting and blue, with few white clouds.

It takes around 30 minutes to reach the valley. And while that doesn't seem like much, it's actually the return that takes a bit longer. While getting there was all down the mountain, returning, was a hike up the hill. In the second part I will show you the images we made inside the valley, that also include a very nice water spring and mini lake. But more on that tomorrow.