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Old Man in a Campervan

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Old Man in a Campervan

Watching sunsets, not boxsets. Join Liz, River, Arty and me as we wander Europe one road at a time. Current Location: Serbia 🇷🇸

12/09/2026

6,000 miles.

That’s how far we’ve travelled since the new engine went into Arty.

And every now and then, and when another milestone like this comes along, I can’t help but think about everything that happened to get us here.

The worry. The stress. The uncertainty. And then, amongst all of that, the incredible people who stepped up to help us - financially, with messages, encouragement, advice, or simply by checking in and letting us know we weren’t on our own.

You probably don’t realise how much those things meant to us at the time. And you probably don’t realise how often we still think about them.

So, 6,000 miles on, I just wanted to say thank you. Again.

To everyone who helped us get Arty back on the road, in whatever way you did - you haven’t been forgotten. Not for a second.

We’re still out here. Still travelling. Still exploring.

And every mile is a reminder of the people who helped make it possible. ❤️

Here’s to more of that. Thank you 🙏🏻

12/09/2026

After saying goodbye to Serbia, we said hello again to Montenegro and Prokletije National Park.

I’ve posted a load of photos over time from here and it remains one of my favourite places to visit. Feel free to flick back - you’ll spot them easily.

But this time, all I’m showing is an early morning shot of the sun showing its rays around the back of the mountain, and another play with the GoPro in catching the star trails…

More practice needed I think but I’m enjoying seeing my efforts.

09/09/2026

Sadly our final night in Serbia and we’re on the katun still.

Having seen one decent night I felt an urge to get something out I’ve not got out in a long time. Mainly because I didn’t really know how to use it…

Not that!! My GoPro! 🙄

And this is the result. I’m sure seasoned GoPro’ers and night photographers can find all sorts of improvements I could make - and feel free to contribute - I didn’t think it was a bad effort. What do you think?

But thank you Serbia. You’ve left me with one last memory and we leave you (again) knowing we’ll be back (again).

And to all of my new Serbian followers, I hope you’ll stick around for our travels elsewhere.

Hvala vam svima što ste pratili našu avanturu! Bilo je predivno. Doviđenja i sve najbolje!

Хвала вам свима што сте пратили нашу авантуру! Било је предивно. Довиђења и све најбоље!

08/09/2026

Sometimes there really isn’t much to say about a place.

No famous landmark.
No tourist attraction.
No restaurant.
No souvenir shop. 😂

Just a little katun - a traditional mountain pasture - a rough track, some grass, mountains in the distance and enough space to park Arty and enjoy the view.

We spent two nights here in Crčevo, high up in the mountains of Serbia, and it was one of those stops that reminds us why we love travelling this way.

During the day, there wasn’t a great deal going on. And then the sun started going down…

The sky changed, the mountains disappeared into the haze and everything went quiet.

Sometimes the best places aren’t the ones you go looking for.
They’re the ones where you stop, make a coffee and think:
“Yeah… we’ll stay here tonight.”

And that’s pretty much what we did.

07/09/2026

Gradac Monastery is a medieval Orthodox monastery founded by Queen Helen of Anjou during the late 13th century.
It’s located north of the city of Ras, a medieval capital of Serbia. This area is known as the “Serbian Valley of Kings” as many emperors and rulers constructed their monasteries throughout the region.

The monastery church represents the fusion of western European culture and art that represented the queen’s heritage. It’s believed she was of French or Italian descent.

Gradac Monastery was founded as a friary and hosted a number of monks during the 14th century. It was devastated and renewed multiple times over its history. Nowadays, it’s a nunnery.

06/09/2026

** See my comment below re where we are **
We moved on to the Kopaonik National Park, and high up to a parking spot near to the town of Kopaonik. This was a viewpoint.

And what a view! There’s no way I can do them justice but trust me, it was a stunning view. It sits around 1000m above sea level and has one of those views you can just sit and stare at. The clouds change the look of the horizon constantly, and although the road was busier at night than we expected, it still threw up a lovely sunrise.

Serbia just keeps giving… and this area is just incredible and one we will explore more on our next visit here.

05/09/2026

The path into Đavolja Varoš, or Devil’s Town, winds through the woodland, and before you even reach the main attraction you’re confronted by these strange, dark wooden figures.

They appear among the trees, one after another. They’re modern artworks, created during artists’ colonies held here.

And after a walk past the Red River then you reach the reason this place has its name. Oh, the Red River has Red Mud. It’s slippy. I got covered in a full on splat, Liz less so but she looks prouder of her splat 😂

Anyway, scattered across the hillside are 202 enormous earth pillars, some reaching around 15 metres high, each wearing a great lump of rock like a hat.

Millions of years of geological activity followed by rain, wind and erosion have slowly carved away the softer earth, leaving the hard capped pillars standing.

Of course, the locals have a better story…

One legend says they’re a wedding party turned to stone after the Devil tried to make a brother and sister marry.

Science says erosion.

The legend says the Devil.

Another fabulous stop on our travels through Serbia — and one that was worth the walk in. 🇷🇸

05/09/2026

On our travels we expect to see memorials to the fallen. I never expected to see one dedicated to plums.

Yep, plums!

Residents in Blace, a small town in Serbia, are so thankful to plums that in 2012, the town erected a statue in their honour.

They unveiled Spomenik Šljivi, "Monument to Plum" during their annual "Plum Day" festival.
Many residents of the region work with plums, making jam, juice, compote, or Rakija fruit brandy, the most popular alcoholic drink in Serbia. (apparently.. )

Along with the statue, the festival every year gathers plum lovers to the area, with concerts, a fair, and many educational lectures about fruit growing.

There was none of that and honestly, the spomenik was a tad underwhelming but I understand the sentiment behind it.

Better still was, what seems to be, a funeral parlour. Or at least an arranger…
Seemingly your burial is sponsored by the excellent Serbian b**r, Jelen!
I don’t think the chap running it was impressed with me snapping that photo though.

04/09/2026

We stopped here for a coffee and somewhere to walk the dog.

What we found was something rather different. At first, we honestly had no idea what we were looking at.

I had to do something serious digging and this is Slobodište, a memorial complex on the outskirts of Kruševac.

It’s a WWII memorial built on the site of a German concentration camp and ex*****on ground. Around 1,650 people were executed in Kruševac, with the largest single massacre taking place on 29 June 1943, when 324 people were shot.

There are these strange stone shapes rising out of the hillside — almost like enormous wings or birds — along with circular stones and inscriptions carved into the landscape.

Something else to dig into…

The twelve stone “birds” were designed by architect Bogdan Bogdanović. They are seen to rise from the earth towards the sky, symbolising the souls of those buried here and the idea of life and freedom emerging from death.

And then there are the words carved into the ground:

“Under this sky, human, straighten up.” or that’s what Google Translate came up with. Anyone got anything different?

There’s something incredibly powerful about a memorial that doesn’t simply tell you what happened. It makes you walk through it, around it and try to work it out for yourself.

And that’s why we found the place so fascinating. We only came for a coffee and a dog walk 😆

We left after sitting in a hot car park for a bit, and discovering one of the strangest and most thought provoking memorials we’ve come across in Serbia. Actually, anywhere…

Have you ever stumbled across somewhere completely by accident that turned out to be far more significant than you realised?

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