In this episode, I invite you to listen to something a little different: a 90-minute stereo soundscape recorded at dawn in our village in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As spring arrives, the migrating birds have returned to the area for summer, and the dawn chorus has become stronger each morning. I had originally planned to record at 4:00 a.m., but eventually found myself outside at 5:30 a.m. on April 1st, still early enough to capture the quiet magic of the village waking up.

Using my Zoom H6 field recorder, I recorded not only birdsong, but a wider living soundscape. You will hear birds calling from different directions, dogs joining in, cars passing, and the bus arriving to collect children for the first shift at the local primary school in Laktaši.

This is not a guided episode in the usual sense. There is no interview and no long narration. Instead, it is an invitation to slow down and listen.

For the best experience, listen with headphones. The recording is in stereo, and headphones will help you feel the space of the village morning around you.

There is something meditative about soundscapes like this. You do not need to do anything. Just press play, settle in, and let the morning sounds of rural Bosnia wash over you.

A warm Monday evening stroll through Banja Luka turns into a reflection on matura, Bosnia’s public, elegant, family-centred graduation tradition. From glamorous dresses and proud parents to professional photographers and nervous young men in sharp suits, this episode explores youth, memory, and the Western Balkans’ beautiful sense of occasion.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a beautiful, welcoming, deeply misunderstood country.

It is a place of villages, rivers, mountains, cafés, festivals, family gatherings, hiking trails, and everyday life. But it is also a country where the recent past still leaves traces — sometimes visible, sometimes hidden, and sometimes buried in the ground.

In this episode of An Englishman in the Balkans, I’m recording from the garden here in the village, with the ordinary sounds of rural Bosnia beneath my voice. Birds, dogs, maybe even the distant sound of a tractor. Peaceful sounds. Normal sounds.

And that is important, because this is not an episode designed to frighten anyone away from visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Quite the opposite.

This is a personal, honest, and practical conversation about landmines in Bosnia in 2026 — what visitors, hikers, photographers, cyclists, drone users, and slow travellers should understand before heading off the beaten track.

I share a personal story from more than twenty years ago, when Tamara and I made a careless decision while walking near a former frontline area. It was a moment that reminded both of us how easily curiosity can lead you somewhere you should not be.

Bosnia is not unsafe in the way some people imagine. Daily life here is ordinary, peaceful, and full of warmth. People live, farm, walk, travel, go to school, attend festivals, support local sports teams, and welcome visitors every day.

But landmines and explosive remnants of war remain part of the country’s reality.

The risk is not everywhere. It is not on every road, field, village lane, or mountain path. But former frontlines, abandoned land, remote woodland, overgrown areas, and unmarked tracks still require caution and respect.

This episode is about balance.

Not fear.

Respect.

Respect for local knowledge. Respect for warning signs. Respect for marked trails. Respect for the landscape. And respect for the long, slow work still being done to make Bosnia and Herzegovina safer, field by field, path by path, village by village.

If you are planning to visit Bosnia, hike here, film here, cycle here, or explore rural areas, please listen carefully, use official resources, ask locally, and never treat the countryside casually.

Bosnia is beautiful.

But like many beautiful places, it asks us to pay attention.

Useful resources mentioned in this episode:

BH MAC - Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Centre. EUFOR Mine Information Coordination Cell Mine Action Review. Bosnia and Herzegovina Official mine awareness and suspected hazardous area resources