Trans Dinarica Balkans Tour Part 1: Slovenia & Croatia

I spent six weeks from the end of August to early October following the Trans Dinarica bike packing route through the eight Balkan countries.
I started by flying into Ljubljana, Slovenia and generally following the whole route and finished by doing a little bit extra in order to finish at the coast at Split, Croatia.
I need to say that I did deviate from the main route a few times during the ride but I estimate that I followed it about 80% of the time.
Excellent route and experience….very hilly as expected.

So another adventure begins. Arrived into Ljana in Slovenia. So the plan is to do the Trans Dinera route which is a fairly new route which we put together and it goes around eight of the Bulan countries. But yeah, planning to take about 6 to 7 weeks to do it. It’s about 2,000 miles, but it’s very, very hilly. And I can just see the mountains here straight away right from the airport over there. So, let’s go. We’re about seven or eight miles in today. Be really, really nice roads on the quiet roads. They pretty much all got cycle lanes marked on them. So, they’ve been really, really brilliant. Just riding through this little town and uh got to drop down by the river, I think. Well, nearly at the end of the first little day’s riding. It’s been really lovely in the countryside at the moment, but got a bit of a headwind to finish the day off with. But okay, I got a couple of miles to do. Okay, just arrived in Scoffield Locka. Lovely little place. And Marco here. Yes. Yes. Looking very welcoming. And he’s also got out some freshly produced grape and and plum plum juice from his garden right here. No. Yeah. So plums are from our farm between Cran and Ljubljana. We have one farm Napoleani. Yeah. Oh, there we go. Napoleani mean on a field. Oh, right. Okay. Here was the best field since time I grow here. And this this house my parents made now 19 90 19 75. Oh wow. Now all region is more than 50 years old now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it’s really green, isn’t it? It’s really green. And and here’s here’s the juice. Right. Start of day two. Beautiful morning. Bit cooler than yesterday. Probably about low 20s already, but absolutely perfect. Leaving a place called Scotchia Locha, which uh probably hasn’t been out properly, but uh that’s where I stayed last night. Lovely little place. and uh heading for Tolman about 45 to 50 mi today. So, I decided to take the off-road version of the route. Uh it kind of drops in and out of the the main road down there, which was absolutely lovely. Uh the off-road track is pretty tough, so I’m going to probably drop back onto it cuz uh I’m having to push some of the hills already and it’s pretty pretty hard going. So, probably going to drop back onto the uh road, I think. Okay, things have improved a bit off that crazy track. Main road’s just over there. I’m going to follow parallel hopefully on the quieter road. So, I picked up a proper cycle route trail. Really nice gravel. I think it goes on for several miles. So, uh this is going to be fun. So, the first big climb of the trip. It’s been a long one. It’s been lovely though. Beautiful road. Most of it was about 4%. In the last K and a half, it’s been around 10% on the switchbacks. So, I guess I’m getting near the top. But yeah, it’s been absolutely fabulous. Stopped for a coffee. 2/3 the way up. Give me a boost. I think I’m approaching the top here. And now we’re going to have a magnificent downhill. It’s going to be huge. Views are stunning when I’m out the trees. Woo! Unbelievable. [Applause] Okay, this is day three. So day two was fantastic and then overnight massive thunderstorms, thunder and lightning all night right over the the uh the tent. So I was camping on this nice little spot. So picked up a nice gravel trail which uh is kind of following the river, but it’s it’s away from the river now. It’s it’s all up and down, up and down. and it suddenly turned a bit gnarly. So, it’s going to be a bit of a hiker bike. Thankfully, the uh rest of it so far has been lovely. Hard, but ridable. So that was a pretty tough section up and through the mountains on an off road when there was a lovely big road in the valley, but this was much more fun. And the sun’s actually popping out, but we’ve got a bit of a reward now. Bit of a downhill into the valley. So I’ve dropped down to the uh Satcha River finally. Just had a little coffee. Just crossing the river and there’s a diving platform right off the river. It’s pretty high. Must be pretty amazing to jump off there. Well, having crossed the river, been on the quieter roads again. Main roads over that side. Picked up a lovely cycle way. I think this goes on for about another 3 or four miles. Absolutely superb. So, I hadn’t actually realized, but I crossed over into Italy, probably six or seven miles ago, and I think I’m going to cross back out in about a mile or so. So, yeah, it’s quite fun crossing into that. I’m heading for Novo Gicha which is about another 2k. Uh it’s back in Slovenia. So did a little bit in Italy. Now crossing back into Slovenia. Well, wow. What a climb right from down the valley about 40 miles in and uh bit of a brute anyway nearly at the top. Really long switchbacks actually. So the gradients 5 to 6% I think mostly. So it’s not too bad. Just potting away. Okay, just about to start day four of this trip. I’m still in Slovenia. Stayed in a place called Sana last night. A little uh B&B. Just had a pretty humongous breakfast there actually, which is excellent. And heading into Croatia today, so we’re going to do about another 60 mi. It’s 60 mi yesterday with about 1,400 meters of climbing. Got a lot of it on gravel roads. So, it’s quite tough yesterday, but um yeah, the rain didn’t come. So, that was great. And it’s looking pretty decent today. So, we’re going to head off and uh yeah, cross the border. Okay, pretty much straight out of Sana. picked up this lovely gravel road trail and it’s going to go on for quite a long while looking at the map. I think it takes me all the way to the Lip Designer Stud Farm. It’s a very famous stud farm. So yeah, just going to enjoy the nice good quality gravel gravel trail. Well, here it is. The Lipitana stood farm. Don’t know how much of it I’m going to get to see, but uh just going to ride past and see see what it’s like. Okay. Well, I’ve just been refused entry to get through uh the actual uh main area. I can hear some music going on in the background. Um, so he directed me to go around the back. So that’s what I’m going to do. Well, just skirting around the uh the Bitzana Stud Farm. Lovely road, too. You can see the uh some of the gallops. Okay, I got to the caves and um there was no way to get in. It was all full. But my very friendly guide over here, what’s her name again? Jiva. Jiva, had a little group of cyclists she was taking in and she’s offered to take me in with her, which is absolutely fantastic. And Shiva is actually a cycle guide in Slovenia. Okay. So, so we’re going in now, so we better go. So there’s a diagram of the Scojang Caves. So here we are at the entrance to the cave. A massive, massive group. I think it’s going to be split down, but at least we’re going in. Okay, just done the cave tour. Absolutely incredible. Not allowed to take photos or they’re quite strict, which is fair enough. But now I’m on the walk out. Still pretty spectacular. And here’s the lookout point over where the river goes into the cave which you’ve just walked out of. Absolutely incredible. So, uh, just had a very brutal section of gravel basically pushing up an extremely long hill for I don’t know how long. And then a downhill little section was only just ridable. I’ve come out onto the road and it started raining, but I’m going to stick to the roads now uh for the rest of the day. The rig does take me onto the gravel roads, but I’m just not up for it now. Just going to do another 40 miles on the road. Woo. So, I’m nearly at the top of a really long big drag. Not too steep. Looking forward to the other side. And I think this is the border with Croatia. It’s very low key. No one here. But kind of looks like a border crossing with some flags. So, I guess this is it. Ah, here’s the sign. Oh, well, I’ve just done a Oh, just done a monster climb at the end of the day. That’s only 3 miles now. I think it’s mostly downhill, but that’s finished me off. That has So, the first proper view of the coast and I’m heading down to uh place called Senge, which is by the beach. So, generally downhill, but I know there’s a lot of up and down between here and there. So, yeah, it’s looking pretty good. Well, I’ve just arrived in Senge. Going to have a little ride around the harbor. Check it all out. I’ve got a whole afternoon to chill out today. Much more civilized. Stopped off and had an ice cream. had a nice cold beer actually and went to where I thought the apartments were and the lady said they’re not here. She found someone up. Spoke to another lady. She said head for the cathedral. So I went down all these little side roads side alleys. Got to the cathedral. There she was. And then we’ve walked down some more little side alleys and eventually got to the apartment. It’s not bad actually. It’s up a couple of stairs in really old building. So, I’m just going to carry my bike up and put it on the landing. So, it’s in here. Of course, it’s on the second floor. So, uh second flight of stairs coming up. Okay, just heading out of Senge on day six and going to be following the coast a bit more and dropping onto a couple of the islands today. But some big climbs, I think. Some of those hills over there. Well, I’m well into the first big hill of the day. They look pretty big on the profile. I’m not sure how far I am up it or how far to go. It’s about four or 5%, sometimes 6%. So, it’s not too bad. It’s taking it easy. So, the biggest hill of the day is done. It actually was not too bad. Pretty long. Got to the top. Pulled over to look at the view and there was a couple from the Netherlands sitting there having a cup of coffee with their camper van. And uh they offered to give me a coffee. So I sat with them for a while and had a chat, coffee, some cake. Absolutely fantastic. Really, really friendly people. Okay, I’m just uh dropping down to the ferry place called to prisoner and going across the island down there. It’s always good to get a ferry on these trips. I think this probably going to be the only one. Maybe one more. Here we go. Think I’m the only bike. So, that was the ferry. Very short ferry ride. Only about a mile and a half. Unfortunately for me, still very nice. Now I’ve got to cycle along this island onto the next island. I think joined by a causeway. So I thought we’ll have to do that. Woo. Okay, that’s the final climb done of this day. I’m dropped down there. It’s the town of Pag and then out from Pag about 10 miles. Uh then that’s uh to be done today and heading to Pavlejanna. Just crossing the courseway. Okay. So, uh, arrived in Pavljana and again, not sure if that’s the right way to say it, but it looks like it on the map. And yeah, had a good day. 63 miles. Um, about 1350 m of climbing. More than I’d anticipated, but um, basically four big climbs during the day. Yeah, I got a nice little apartment here. Um, kind of overlooking the sea in the very distance, but it’s starting to get dark now. The apartment’s great. Um, had a little freshen up. Got this whole apartment for £35, I think it was. There’s a nice bathroom. There’s actually two bedrooms, but I’m just in this one here. And I’m cooking up some um tuna pasta with some vegetables. Um standard stuff for me when I’m uh out traveling if I’ve got the kitchen. Good feed with some pasta sauce and of course a beer. Okay. So I just stop for breakfast after about 20 minutes. Um leaving Ponuljana and it’s stopped at the supermarket. I’ve got couple of chocolate donuts, some juice and some fruit. So yeah, I thought I’d stop here just before I get onto the busier road. There is a bloody big headwind though today and I’m going that way all day and the headwind is so yeah going to be a little bit tougher than I thought but not too far to go today. 40 miles I think. So yeah, have my breakfast and we’ll crack on. Okay, just to prove it’s not always sunny. Started raining at four or five miles before the end today. Didn’t quite get there in the sun, but just going to carry on like this and uh couple of miles downhill. I’m going to go find a either a campsite or a cabin. Probably a cabin in this weather. So, the rain finally stopped. Um, sitting around waiting for it to stop before I put the tent up. Found a little spot by the river. It’s pretty tight, but uh it’s a nice spot overall. I’m going to go for a little swim in a minute. And uh yeah, right next to the river. Here it is. It was actually the only spot left. It’s uh near the recycling bins, which is okay. It’s fine. It’s uh it’s going to be quiet overnight. So, I’m only staying for one night, so it it’ll all be good. Okay, so last night was ridiculous thunderstorms and really really loud, shaking shaking my body. Uh but it cleared about 4 or 5 in the morning and there we got beautiful sunny morning. Uh packing up a tent away over there and a very very friendly Croatian couple. Um Borak is making me breakfast. Look at this. This is orac or This This looks incredible. Wow. My husband every morning prepare me breakfast and some fish before I go to work. Look at this. I’ll be going fast. Yeah. No. Wow. That’s amazing. And some porridge on top. This is really going to set me up for the day. Well, after that amazing breakfast by those lovely people, back onto the road straight into a big climb right in the mountains now. And today going to be generally an upwards profile back into the mountains. Okay, the first of today’s gravel sections. Looking steep, but all ridable. Just coming to the end of this little section now. Back on the tarmac. Oh, that’s nice. Back on the gravel. They seem to have tarmac that steep section and left flatter sections. So much quieter up here in the mountains away from the coast. It’s lovely. Dropping down into Canin have some lunch. [Applause] So just stopped off at uh the Satina River Spring. also known as the eye of the earth. Beautiful turquoise water. [Applause] So, uh, this is where I’m staying tonight. I’ve already checked in actually and just popped out to a tiny little supermarket. Well, shop uh to get some beers. Uh it’s quite the attraction to stay here cuz it was I don’t know a mile away. But look at this place. And that’s where I’m staying just in here. Really, really lovely people. and they’ve said you I can help them myself to their grapes, their peppers, all the fruit they’re growing. It’s amazing. So, this is the place. Lovely little apartment. Got everything in here. Bed, kitchen, washing machine. Look at it. [Music] So, what a stunning evening. Just had a wander down to the lake. Well, this is where the river Satina comes into Lake Peruga. So, the lake just goes on round the corner. I’m going to be riding along it tomorrow. But absolutely stunning evening. Wow, this is so beautiful here. Away from all the crowds of yesterday up in the mountains and an absolutely beautiful little village. Wonder down to the lake watching the sunset. It’s absolutely stunning. So everything except for the carrots pick from the garden with the Yona’s blessing. Absolutely amazing. Well, start of day nine. What a fantastic sleep I had last night. Brilliant apartment and uh up and ready for the monster climb today to get over into uh Bosnia. What a lovely descent that was. Woo. Now I’ve got to go up again. Okay, this is the one I’ve not been looking forward to today. Start of the big climb. It’s about 800 m of ascent. So, just stopped up for some food, some drinks, and we’re just going to take it nice and steady up here. Uh, probably stop a few times as well. Okay, I’m approaching the exit border for Croatia just ahead. So, not getting near the top. I know it’s not actually at the top, but there it is. So, just crossed into Bosnia and Hzavina with the passport stamped and still climbing up there. That’s looks like that’s the path over there. Hopefully around that corner.