Biking through the Balkan: part 3
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Ciro trail (Ivanica-Mostar)
We entered the country at Ivanica, close to Dubrovnik. This border town is also the starting point of the Ciro trail, a cycling route following an old narrow gauge railway, ending in Mostar. You can also start from Trebinje, but in any case, we really recommend this route. It’s well sign-posted, and it leads you through mountain valleys, tunnels, over viaducts, all the while very easy going. Trains cannot deal with steep inclines, so that’s also good news for us cyclists.
The only nasty surprise was when we entered an old tunnel; bats have colonized it and while they are not dangerous, they do poop. A lot. And we were wearing sandals. We had to get off the bike to push, as we got stuck in the muck and let me tell you; not a nice experience. Not to mention the smell. So our tip of the day is: wear shoes in stead of sandals.
The whole route is about 130 km long, but we stopped just after the town of Capljina at a camp site. The original plan was to visit Mostar, but after checking the weather forecast, we decided against it. 38 degrees, every day for the whole week. Not great to wander through a city. After a rest day at the river, we got up very early, and continued our journey in the direction of Sarajevo.
Our route to Sarajevo (Mostar-Sarajevo)
While at the campsite, we finally took some time to actually plan stuff. We came up with a rough plan how to get to Finland, by checking EuroVelo, Googling a lot and reading countless blogs. That’s also how we found our route to Sarajevo, as the main road (the E73 from Mostar) is considered suicidal for cyclists. So we needed an alternative and we found it here. This couple had the same idea in 2015, and after reading their blog we copied it in our navigation and set off. At 6 in the morning, to beat the heat, especially since we had to climb 1000 meters in the first 40km. We left the main road at Buna, made our way up to Nevesinje, and then turned north on the R433, joining the M18 at Trnovo to Sarajevo. This route had it all to make in fun; steady climbing, views of castles, and a gravel road through a moraine field (the R433 is gravel until about Obalj, ca 40km). Then along a river through a canyon, all the while being alone. We only encountered a handful of cars. Luckily we found several springs on the road (we marked them on maps.me!) so we could fill up on water, which was needed; we both drank almost 6 liters. We also made a friend along the way, a friendly pitbull followed us for several kilometers. In the scorching heat! We gave her water and she was as happy as a puppy. We already started making plans on how to name her when we adopted her, but then she had enough and stayed behind.
We cycled 90 km on the first day, so on the second day we only had to do about 70 km to reach the campsite just outside town, aptly named “Camping Sarajevo”. Because we already decided against Mostar, we couldn’t resist going into the city. We took the bus (all busses in Sarajevo are old German or Austrian busses, with all the signs still in German) and a tram into town. We strolled around the old town, basically Small Turkey, and visited an exposition on the genocide in Sebrenica (very well done, and it made Julia very uncomfortable about being Dutch).
From Sarajevo to the Croatian border
We picked our way north, trying to avoid the major roads. It was hot, so we got up early every day (before 5am!). In theory it would be a good idea to stop for a longer break during the afternoon, but we liked the breeze while cycling. As soon as we stopped, the heat would hit us like a hammer. So we kept going. One night we camped by the river that looked really inviting for a swim. Until we noticed the snake and we suddenly were quite OK staying on the shore. Our last night in Bosnia we camped in a field, and the farmer invited us to his place for coffee and shots. He lead the way, with his wife and son in the tractor, grandpa was packed on top of the hay, and we followed by bike. We had a lovely time and the communication was helped by some slivovitz…
In conclusion: BiH is well worth to visit
The country is beautiful and sometimes reminded us of the alps. There are so many river canyons to cycle through, peaks to be climbed, lakes to swim in, sites to visit, and it’s relatively unknown, especially compared to its neighbor Croatia. Granted, Bosnia does not have seaside (we are ignoring the 9km at Neum), but we did not miss it a single moment. We were worried about landmines and we did see some warning signs, but as long as you keep to well trodden fields and paths, it’s all fine.
Croatia and Slovenia
Well, don’t worry, this won’t take long. We crossed into Croatia at Novi Grad, and spent exactly 2 nights in the country. One memorable night included though; a Warm Shower host in Novi Madof invited us to the 40 year anniversary of his folklore association. Wine Spritzers, pig on a spit, music and dance, we integrated well and we had a great evening. The next day, with a small headache, we crossed Slovenia in 6 hours. Sounds impressive, but the country is very narrow and it was only 70km. So now we continue our journey north in Austria, and we started with parts of the EuroVelo 9!
