Summer 2023. For the third time, Kosta and Jovan held a joint lecture on bushcraft for students of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education during practical camping classes on Tara. That was when the idea emerged to join forces and open a Bushcraft School in Serbia. That autumn, they held their first course for their friends as a trial session, and after the positive feedback from the first participants, they organized additional courses for everyone interested.
Today, the School exists and operates with the goal of bringing people closer to the beauty of spending time in nature and equipping them to independently set out on various adventures through forests and mountains.
Jovan Bjelanović was born on November 5, 1980, in Kać near Novi Sad. Physically highly capable and, at heart, a brave explorer, he has shown an interest in nature from an early age. His first adventures were trips into the wetlands along the Danube, where experienced local fishermen taught him his first skills for living and surviving in nature.
His interests took shape even then, and later in life he devoted himself intensely to studying both old, forgotten skills and more modern techniques used during extended stays in nature.
Jovan Bjelanović is a trained veterinary technician, but for the past 20 years he has worked in construction. He successfully transferred his nature-based skills to this field and, in recent years, has closely specialized in building with wood and stone. Working by hand and using only primitive tools, he built the educational tourism camp Forest Yurt (Šumska Jurta).
In addition to working with and using wood and stone in construction, Jovan also makes wooden canoes, bows and arrows, forges iron, sews leather items, and crafts cookware and other objects from wood, among many other skills.
For years, he studied primitive methods of hunting and is well versed in both the making and use of primitive weapons and traps. Jovan Memedović filmed several episodes of the show “Sasvim Prirodno” featuring him, and as he put it:
“If a fight for survival ever comes, I’d like to be close to Joca Bjelanović.”
Kosta was born in 1995 in Gornji Milanovac, where he completed both primary school and high school. In 2019, he graduated from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in Belgrade, and in 2023, he defended his master’s thesis there, titled “Specific Survival Procedures Characteristic for Mountain Conditions.” Since 2021, he has worked as a teaching assistant in the course Activities in Nature, where, during practical camping classes on Tara, he has served as an instructor in the field of “Basics of Survival.”
He loves nature and the mountains and works as an archery coach, mountain guide, and member of the Mountain Rescue Service. In recent years, he has spent a lot of time camping and practicing bushcraft—carving and whittling wood, forging, sewing leather, and more.
Although he is not one of the instructors, Aco is one of the three main pillars of the School. Having worked in culinary arts and catering for nearly two decades, Aco is responsible for preparing all the meals during the courses at the camp. His skills and the care he devotes to each dish leave a deep impression on every participant. Thanks to him, amid numerous hours of lectures and practical work, course participants spend their meal breaks in pure hedonistic delight.
Jovan Bjelanović was born on November 5, 1980, in Kać near Novi Sad. Physically highly capable and, at heart, a brave explorer, he has shown an interest in nature from an early age. His first adventures were trips into the wetlands along the Danube, where experienced local fishermen taught him his first skills for living and surviving in nature.
His interests took shape even then, and later in life he devoted himself intensely to studying both old, forgotten skills and more modern techniques used during extended stays in nature.
Jovan Bjelanović is a trained veterinary technician, but for the past 20 years he has worked in construction. He successfully transferred his nature-based skills to this field and, in recent years, has closely specialized in building with wood and stone. Working by hand and using only primitive tools, he built the educational tourism camp Forest Yurt (Šumska Jurta).
In addition to working with and using wood and stone in construction, Jovan also makes wooden canoes, bows and arrows, forges iron, sews leather items, and crafts cookware and other objects from wood, among many other skills.
For years, he studied primitive methods of hunting and is well versed in both the making and use of primitive weapons and traps. Jovan Memedović filmed several episodes of the show “Sasvim Prirodno” featuring him, and as he put it:
“If a fight for survival ever comes, I’d like to be close to Joca Bjelanović.”
Kosta was born in 1995 in Gornji Milanovac, where he completed both primary school and high school. In 2019, he graduated from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in Belgrade, and in 2023, he defended his master’s thesis there, titled “Specific Survival Procedures Characteristic for Mountain Conditions.” Since 2021, he has worked as a teaching assistant in the course Activities in Nature, where, during practical camping classes on Tara, he has served as an instructor in the field of “Basics of Survival.”
He loves nature and the mountains and works as an archery coach, mountain guide, and member of the Mountain Rescue Service. In recent years, he has spent a lot of time camping and practicing bushcraft—carving and whittling wood, forging, sewing leather, and more.
Although he is not one of the instructors, Aco is one of the three main pillars of the School. Having worked in culinary arts and catering for nearly two decades, Aco is responsible for preparing all the meals during the courses at the camp. His skills and the care he devotes to each dish leave a deep impression on every participant. Thanks to him, amid numerous hours of lectures and practical work, course participants spend their meal breaks in pure hedonistic delight.
In a forested setting, without electricity or running water, lies the eco-camp “Šumska Jurta.” The camp was started in 2020 by Jovan Bjelanović, and everything in the camp was built using primitive tools, without the use of modern electric machines. For accommodation, he chose a yurt—a round Mongolian-style tent.
Throughout the year, the yurts are available as accommodation for nature lovers who wish to escape the city and the modern world. Most of the Bushcraft School courses are held at the camp. Participants have access to a solar battery for charging phones, a composting toilet, a hot-water shower, and a summer pavilion with a kitchen and a fireplace.
The camp is located on the slopes of Tara, near Bajina Bašta, Serbia.
