Trans Dinarica – Kupres Plateau to Fojnica

The official route starts in Slovenia, runs through Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. We have no set plan and we don’t know whether we will finish the whole route or stick to it. We just start by taking a train out of Hungary, through the boring part of Croatia and start at the border of Bosnia and Hercegovina: Kostajnica.

Dogs can be an issue in the Balkan. My reaction to dogs is to come to a full stop. I don’t wear earbuds with music playing and am aware that dogs can come to me from scrap yards, semi-abandoned houses as long as there’s someone feeding them, lonesome homes, restaurants on top of hills and pits where food is thrown out. One times I encountered being surrounded by more or less 30 dogs! Try to keep cool, talk to them in a friendly tone and treat the leader of the pack accordingly.

Most people tackling this route do so in the bikepacking-mode. We not. In carrying the minimum I do need the full pannier set-up. My kitchen is elaborate in comparison with being lightweight. I take an Optimus multifuel stove (unfortunately, not all gas stations will provide a small amount of gasoline). Geo, who doesn’t like cycling to begin with, takes his city bicycle without the chain ring small enough needed to climb steep inclinations. I have a 32 teeth chain ring which makes me cycle smoothly over 7% inclinations. Geo has a chain ring of 42 teeth and often has to push the bicycle.

Bike-packing, to me, is impractical and only makes sense when you are fast and strong, and when you never open your packs until setting up the tent, and when you aim at reaching a certain destination. My aim is to find beautiful camp spots. Geo’s aim is to experience what I have over so many years. One thing he is much quicker with is not only speed, strength and goal orientation but also tossing out his annoying cycling short. I got the solution to the one thing I hate about cycling.

I made a saddle attachment. Using a discarded, synthetic sweater that is filled with sheep wool. Two buttons hold the pad in place at the Brooks saddle whereas one cord straps underneath. An elastic cord pulls the whole pad tight. This attachment makes me not feel the bolts in the saddle and does not hurt my bottom. Another fantastic thing is that I do not need to wear these terrible annoying padded shorts. It truly feels I mount the best horse possible!

Geo had said: ‘I follow you, take your time and don’t ever feel rushed,’ and it works. Of course, I adjust a little bit too, I do feel a little pressed for time but the company of my husband does also add a lot. I like cycling with Geo because it joins a dimension that hides in the shared experience. The new environment allows different selves to come forward, meeting each other outside the choreography of home is exciting. Seeing Geo cycling far in front of me makes me smile very broadly, even soundful laughing!

Geo dislikes cycling and hates camping. Our plan that Geo sleeps in motels whereas I camp nearby, fails. With starting our tour in mid May temperatures are still pleasant. I carry an Enlightened Equipment quilt and am never cold in combination with the Therma-A-Rest NeoAir mattress, but Geo has no such top level stuff, and is cold at night. Not only that, he lacks about everything he thrives on. Maybe that is the reason he does like what he is doing. As we all know, the novelty effect increases energy and curiosity. He impresses me big time and I feel constantly proud. First thing in the morning is popping my head out and check his tent. Often he is gone at dawn.

Getting into the hills goes gradual, my mind is set to this and I am in wholeheartedly. To be out of our known environment in situations that are always new and never seen before boost my mental health. Burek, the filo dough with a filling of meat, spinach or cheese, and cevapi, minced meat with raw onions, comes our way and while we have plenty of coffees we meet with an equal amount of people. People who fled the 1992 – 1995 war and the new generation, enables us to speak German and Dutch. These exiles and their children are immediately recognizable as German or Dutch, dressed and moving just the same as our fellow country people. As soon as we reach Bosnia and Hercegovina we are in the midst of life and it feels marvelous. Suddenly, we feel not only spectators but also participants of life.

We manage to combine our needs: Geo is two nights in a hotel and I in the Hilleberg. Plenty of food and a creek 4 meter away. Horses neighing, I am embroidering and giving my tired limbs a break.

Kupres to Ramsko Jezero

My plan is to bring a photo to a lady I met on my previous cycling tour. By doing so we zigzag through the landscape which is no longer flat. A thousand meters up means a lot of downhill on the other side and repeating what has been done the next day. My mind get focused and prepared by knowing what is coming but Geo just follows me, although he is hours in front of me.

Geo works as a bait for me. Without him I would stop earlier, punctually at 16.00 PM that is. Now I keep going until I reach his chosen camp spot. Sometimes he hides so well, I walk past. Seeing him waiting at a certain point, exactly the place I camped 1.5 years before, I am hopeful (because I am very tired). It is the only spot where camping is possible when reaching Pozor. Cycling together is an exercise in compromising and even though I know certain things, I give in: we cycle a 5 kilometer further to town to find a place closer by. We search for an hour, getting higher above town, a narrow gorge with no where to built but higher up. At the end of the day, pushing the bicycles steeply up is no fun, until Geo opt: ‘Shall we get a room?’ where I opt for: ‘Or shall we go back to the spot you waited for me?’ Watching the inevitable unfold makes me realize what partnership also means. I have grown in that, as I would earlier be impatient, know it better and speak out. The self-expansion experience is at work and I like it.

Wild camping is tolerated in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Often a lot of dirt is dumped in places that are accessible and hidden. It is one sign that where people have been, no unexploded land mines are left (we use this app to figure out where land mines are still left). Many buildings carry the scars of heavy gun fights, like acne pustules leaves small wounds to a face. When we meet with two young New Zealand guys in bike-pack outfit, we come to see how they feel being brought up as if it were kindergarten, fenced off from harm, hate and an undercurrent of opposing religion. It is the best meeting since a long time, we feel invigorated by their freshness and optimistic by their explanation of the next stretch: ‘Both of you, yeah, you certainly can do that!’

Gornji Vakuf to Fojnica

A major climb over gravel, or macadam, with a height of over 1200 meters in a 54 kilometer stretch is what awaits us. Starting with a gradual, smooth, hardly noticeable grade going up along river Bistrica, where we have an ice cold wash together, we brace ourselves. An uneven camp spot that turns wet in the morning has Geo leaving early, only to wait for two hours at a junction: ‘I don’t know what our plan is, to go straight or right?’ Geo doesn’t feel like he has to win the race nor does he wants to impress. He takes it very easy on his city bicycle, I do feel sorry for the long breaks he need to take because of me.

When the beauty arrives, I am more into photography than cycling. Absorbed in getting a great shot, I notice the eager young bike-packer passing me too late, leaving me feeling childish by having fun. But not for long. Later I pass him when he patches up his flat tire.

The long uphill to get to Fojnica is doable, just as the New Zealanders said, but we both dislike the work involved with not one single view in return. When we ask a couple from Kuwait how the road conditions are, the woman veiled in black synthetics replies: ‘It’s perfect, a very good road!’ but they sit in a hired car. They’re so friendly that I want to go instantly to Kuwait. The road we take, the one according the official Trans Dinarica is dusty, sandy and the drops into the ravine deep and steep. At times I feel darted back to South America.

The area we are in feels lumberjackish and raw, tough men drive around in stripped Volkswagen Golf with 4-wheel drive that are jacket-up. The gorge is narrow and Fojnica eventually pops up. A remarkable pleasant town where we decide to stay and rest for 3 nights. My legs feel like jelly and I could sleep many long hours in a darkened room, eat for two and just embroider all day. That is exactly what we do. Geo’s knowledge of the language makes it very comfortable for me: he books the room, arrange with Hamid our stay and safe bicycle storage. All I need to do is… nothing really. I like that.

Fojnica to Ilidza

As if stung by a horsefly, Geo wants to go home. ‘But I not, we just started. I have to go on, we are so close to spectacular beauty now!’ With changing our route a bit and being uncertain what Geo with his 42 teeth front ring is capable of, or rather, capable with a slow wife in tow, we cycled on the main road M-17 to Ilidza and it was horrible. M-roads with one or two numbers attached to it, are to be avoided. Seeing heavy traffic swirl past your partner, being chased by trucks, passed by reckless car behavior and cut by drivers without regard for cyclists, Geo felt even more pushed to withdraw. He had it. Enough. Unfortunately, the train system is Bosnia and Hercegovina is poor and hardly any tracks are useful to get far. The bus station isn’t an option either since they don’t allow bicycles on board. Geo needs to cycle to Split, Croatia, 270 kilometer further.

We enjoy one last camp spot (rather, I am the only one enjoying). We cycle to the suburbs of Sarajevo for a substantial amount of latte macchiato to prepare our good-bye. It’s rather difficult, our ways part 180º degrees, Geo goes right, I left.

Then Geo cycles alone for a couple of days and does so in an alarming high speed, making days of a 100 kilometer. He reaches altitudes over 1300 meters by pushing the bicycle for hours and is on tracks that are nearly too steep to do so. He wakes up early to start at dawn and cycles until he has reached his goal. He stays in motels or at locals every night. He eats pizza’s and drinks ice cold beer. He is totally on and his high is happening only now.

Continued…