Former athletic trainer and entrepreneur Nikola Borić he stirred up the public again, but this time not because of his life in the forest on Papuk, but because of his decision to leave it. The man who rejected urban comfort more than a decade ago and began an ascetic life in nature has now announced a radical turn. He says he has sold everything he has and is setting off on a 3,500-kilometer journey to the Atlantic.
In a post that quickly resonated on social networks, Borić openly admits that he and his partner broke up Zoran decided to give up all material security. “We sold our forest farm, we sold the house, stables and chicken coops, we sold 5 hectares of fertile Slavonian land… Zorana quit her job recently, and I haven’t had a job for 12 years. We have nothing material left to bind us and now we’re panicking. She’s been complaining for days that her head hurts and her stomach hurts…”, he wrote, not hiding his nervousness before traveling into the unknown.
He announced a kind of pilgrimage through Europe, on horseback, without saddle and reins, without the safety frames that symbolically accompany his entire life journey. They will start, he says, from a sultry Slavonian morning, through misty Slovenian meadows and merciless Italian asphalt, all the way to high alpine passes and finally – the ocean.
“It will be my pilgrimage of 3,500 km, to strip myself to the bones,” Borić writes, and his sentence from another, recent publication echoes: “I realized that years of running away from myself didn’t make me better for others. They just wore me out.” It is this realization, it seems, that is behind the decision to leave everything again.
Borić is not an unknown name to the local public. The wider audience got to know him in the show Nedjeljom u 2 kod Aleksandar Stankovićwhere is the first time told in detail how he left a successful career and moved to the forest. Then he revealed that he had lucrative jobs in athletics, including collaborations related to Olympic cycles and international projects, but that, despite everything, he decided to “listen to his heart.”
His story gained an additional international dimension when a British adventurer filmed an episode about him Ben Fogle in the series about people who live outside civilization. It was then that many saw for the first time what the life that Borić and Zorana are building looks like – almost completely self-sustaining, far from the noise of the city.
For years, their project on Papuk was a kind of experiment, but also an inspiration. As we already wrote, they managed to reach an impressive 80 percent self-sustainability: they grew their own food, used spring water, heated with wood, and depended minimally on shops. Zorana, an English teacher, was simultaneously developing a whole series of natural household products – from soap to toothpaste.
In recent years, Zorana has developed her own creative project – handmade ceramics under the Shumska Ceramica brand. She came into contact with clay for the first time during the construction of their straw and loam house, and after that she decided to devote herself seriously to this medium.
He creates cups, bowls and plates for weeks in a process that includes shaping, drying, baking and glazing, and he finds inspiration in his immediate surroundings – plants, stones and forest textures.
Let’s remind Boric in his previous speeches, he often warned about global problems, especially the rise in food and water prices, claiming that self-sustainability is the only long-term answer. His “Made in Papuk” cluster was an attempt to connect small producers and create a shorter, fairer supply chain.
However, just as he surprised by going to the forest then, he surprises now by leaving it.
In a new post Boric he writes that for years he lived according to other people’s expectations: “For a long time I thought that I had to be always available, always ready… and only for myself when something was left on the edge.”
Just as he once abandoned his career because of his inner voice, he is now abandoning the forest. He also announced a farewell “tour” of Croatia – from Rijeka and Pula to Papuk, after which he will set off on his journey.
Whether it will be another radical experiment or the final destination, no one knows yet.
