260 miles by car
After rigorous study and consultation with locals, we decided it was not feasible to bike the northeastern part of Bosnia. The roads are too busy, too narrow, have too many tunnels and too many huge climbs. We priced out renting a car and taking a bus. The rental car was expensive and we could not get an answer from the bus as to whether our bikes would be allowed on (depends on the driver). Luckily we found a taxi driver willing to go 260 miles for a reasonable price!
We met Dragan walking around Belgrade. He did not speak a lot of English so we took his card and had the woman at the front desk of our hotel call him to explain what we wanted and to help us negotiate a price.
Two days later we were loading up Dragan's car! Dragan kept phoning a friend who spoke English. Then he would hand me the phone to have a conversation. The first thing Dragan asked, was if his 19 year old daughter could come for the ride! She had never been to Bosnia...so we picked her up too.
We drove through Sarajevo and witnessed damage still left from the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. It was the longest seige of a major city in modern times.
0 miles traveled
Mostar is a cool city along the Neretva River. We spent two days there preparing for the next leg of the bike trip and looking around.
"Red Army 1981" is Mostar's soccer fan club.
Like the rest of the Balkans, amazing street art....
In the background of the photo below is the famous "old bridge" in Mostar.
A closer look at the "old bridge."
More scars from war...
Standing on the old bridge looking at Mostar. One side of the river is predominantly Muslim, the other side Christian.
The tall building in the background was labeled "sniper tower" on our map. The map made it look like a tourist destination. It was not.
Mostar (and other cities) have obituaries posted on bus stops and utility poles.
Day 16 Mostar, Bosnia to Hutovo Blato, Bosnia
30.5 miles by bike
For the next 3 days we will follow a bike trail called the Ciro trail. It follows an old railroad in southwest Bosnia. I read this article about it before our trip and it peaked our interest:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/25/cyro-trail-new-cycle-track-dubrovnik-mostar-bosnia
We tried for two days in Mostar to get some information on the trail. Nobody seemed to know about it. We were beginning to think this trail did not exist. We finally spotted a sign for the beginning of the trail in Mostar.
It ended up being an amazing trail the first day. It is very well marked with signs at every possible intersection or point of confusion...
Today the trail followed the Neretva River.
It was a mix of gravel roads and paved country roads.
We ended the day in Hutovo Blato - which is a very scenic and seemingly under-visited nature park. It is essentially a marsh land. We took a boat ride...it reminded me of taking a fan boat through mangroves in Florida. But oddly, the ride into the park looked like Arizona desert, complete with lizards and cacti.
Some photos of the park...
The park had a motel. We were committed to staying there because it was 15 miles back to the next closest one. The motel was odd...it had the feel that in 1974 it was 5 stars. But nothing has been done since. I think we were the only guests.
The hotel did have a nice bar/restaurant. They seem to get some day tripper visitors to the park who stop for a beer. Plus the bar is decorated with pallets...
Our choices for a boat ride.
Looks like Florida ...
Our captain was not the cuddliest guy. He said nothing to us and smoked about 12 cigs in a 45 minute ride. Also, the price for the ride is for 10 people. But since there was no one else around we had to buy the boat ride for ourselves.
The grounds had some interesting rock/flower pots around the bases of the trees.
Day 17 Hutovo Blato, Bosnia to Ravno, Bosnia
38.5 miles (approximately 33.5 by bike and 5 walking/pushing)
Today was the toughest day yet. We once again followed the Ciro trail. We (meaning I) made a huge mistake early on. The trail split and we had the option of staying on the paved road...or following the old railroad track. I really wanted to go over some of the old bridges and through the tunnels, so we chose the rail road track.
It turned out to be very difficult/technical mountain bike riding. Our bikes are not the best for mountain biking and not easy to handle on rocky paths. Some scenes from the ride and commentary below...
I wonder when the last soccer game was played here...
Looking out from a bridge at Hutovo Blato (yesterday's nature park).
What could be so dangerous???
These bridges were not USA safety approved. Many loose boards and a few missing. Julie road right over this gap! I walked it.
Honey, where did you park the car????
We went through about 10 old railroad tunnels. One information sign said they were all hand dug...but that seems impossible. Some of the tunnels were extremely long - we could not see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
The tunnels were also filled with bats! We could hear 100s of them squeaking as we went through with just our headlamps on. They made a lot of noise but did not bother us.
Notice the solid man sweat I have going in the picture below. This photo was taken around 10:30 a.m. Temperatures were already nearing 100 degrees. The 38.5 miles we did today took us over 8 hours. We did not finish until near 5 p.m.
Water became a real issue today. We each started with about 3.5 liters. Early in the ride Julie took a nasty fall. As the day wore on, I was suffering from heat exaustion (stroke?). We were using hydration tablets but ran out of water. We did not realize this path would be so remote. Thankfully we came across a few house village and asked some people for water. They let us sit in their shaded yard and filled our bottles a few times. Not to sound dramatic (traumatic), but that pit stop saved our lives. Ironically, after stopping at their house, we realized we had made a wrong turn. So the wrong turn led us to water.
Another bridge...
A look at some of the bat infested tunnels....
We did a lot of walking/pushing today. Either the road was nice, but the grade was steep...or the grade was gradual but the path was unrideable. Very frustrating to be going 2 mph and have 18 miles left to go!
I did not tke too many pictures the second half of the day because I was too tired to get the camera out.
This is what Julie's legs looked like after the ride was over. She has a golf ball size welt on her left shin from the crash (along with requisite road burn on her back and rear). Other nicks and scrapes from rocks, branches, hitting the pedal, etc... She is badass...I could not keep up with her today.
Artistic butterfly shot to end the day on a high note...
The plan is to ride two more short days in Bosnia and then onto Croatia!
