In the stony hills of eastern Herzegovina, a few kilometres from Stolac, a field of grey limestone blocks lies scattered among oak scrub and dry grass. These are stećci, medieval tombstones carved between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Boljuni has a few hundred of them, many decorated with reliefs: rosettes, crescents, spirals, hunters with spears, dancing figures holding hands, a man raising an oversized hand as if in greeting. Nobody fully agrees on who made them or what all the symbols mean, which makes standing among them oddly moving. Together with other cemeteries across Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours, Boljuni is part of the UNESCO site of Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, inscribed in 2016.
Stolac itself is a small town on the clear green river Bregava, with old mills, stone bridges and a fortress on the hill above. It was badly damaged during the war in the 1990s, and much has been rebuilt since, including its mosques and Ottoman-era houses. Just outside town, the necropolis of Radimlja is the best-known stećci site in the country, right beside the main road and easy to visit.
Herzegovina is hot, bright country. Summers bake the karst, cicadas buzz in the oaks, and pomegranates and figs ripen in village gardens. The local white wine, Žilavka, is crisp and well suited to the heat, and the red Blatina is worth a try too.
The riding is good and often empty. From Mostar you come via Blagaj, where a dervish lodge sits under a cliff at the spring of the Buna, then over the hills to Stolac. Beyond, roads continue south-east through barren karst towards Ljubinje and Trebinje, with long views, fast bends and very little traffic. Surfaces are generally decent on the main roads but rougher on side routes, and livestock, slow trucks and sudden gravel need watching. One serious note: rural parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina still have areas affected by landmines from the war. Stay on roads, marked paths and visited sites, and never wander off into overgrown fields.
Stolac, about nine kilometres away, has fuel, shops and cafés. Order a coffee Bosnian style, thick and sweet, served in a small copper pot, and some ćevapi with fresh bread, and sit by the river in the shade.