Trans Dinarica Part 8: Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia ; Balkans Bikepacking Tour

The final section of the trip was to pass back through Bosnia-Herzegovina and then on to the coast of Croatia at Split in order to get a flight home.

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.

Okay, I’ve just gone through the border control leaving Serbia. Got the big uh border control here. I’m just going to head over the Dina River and uh pick up the Bosnia Escavina border control just over there. Well, the time finally opened up for a bit of a view straight up from this morning. About 500 m so far. I think I’m pretty much at the top. Well, after all the climbing I’ve done today, this is very, very welcome. Super long descent. It’s just going on and on and on. Amazing. Well, just reached the first little town of the day. after about 43 miles I think it is. Uh, and it’s a big mining area past a couple of huge mines. And here are the big boys toys. So, a little bit of gravel dirt road to finish off the day. Few little small switchbacks at the moment. Ridable. Just about ridable in places. Well, I’ve been on a proper gravel road track for quite a while now. It’s much easier. much better gradient and looking at the the mapping hops out onto the road in about a mile or so. Okay, well just about to start my ride into Savvo. Day 36 and just been outside and I got the first morning of drizzly rain. It’s not very heavy at the moment, but uh I’ve got about 45 miles to do. Stayed in a real nice little place last night. It’s a little kind of chalet affair with an upstairs uh bedroom. So, yeah, just heading outside and going to probably take the more direct route today cuz it’s potentially going to be wet and all the off-road stuff’s going to be pretty horrid. So yeah, I’m just going to take the the tarmac road into Savvo and hopefully be there sort of midafter afternoon, early afternoon. Yeah, I’m pretty much ready to go. So today has been just tarmac munching on the way to stop for a coffee and a cup of tea when it was raining a bit harder. It’s kind of eased off now but got about 10 miles to go. Okay, I’ve made it to Savvo. Woohoo. Don’t really know where I’m going. I’m just going to head into the middle of town, I guess. Well, this looks like the middle of town. There are lots of pigeons here. Let me show you. Okay, I’ve um been in Shova for three nights now. Uh I was planning to stay for two nights, but yesterday was pretty wet and very cold. So, stayed extra night and today it’s paid off. It’s a nice uh well, it’s cold. It’s about 5° uh but it’s sunny and it’s going to warm up to about 12°. So, got all my cold weather gear on, but I’m going to be dry. And Savvo is set into a long valley. Uh, I’ve been staying a little way up one of the hills. Um, probably about half a mile up the hill. So, I’m going to roll down to the valley and then make my way out of town. And this is where I’ve been staying in a little apartment just at the back there. Nice little place. Um, pretty quiet and uh just outside the main city center which is just down the hill. There are the trams running up and down the valley, up and down the city. Went on one of those yesterday. It’s about a pound for a ride for any distance. So, there’s a really good cycle lane both sides of the road here getting you at the city. The trams running down the middle. So, uh found my way out of Savo. It was uh mostly okay. I did end up in a uh immigrants holding camp uh to do a U-turn, but found the right road in the end. And on this little road here, I need to get over onto that one over there in uh about half a mile. I follow that one for quite a long while. So, it was cold the last couple of days, wet in the valley, but there’s snow on the mountains now, which uh looks a bit weird. So, uh just stopped for a coffee in a place called Conjit about 13 14 miles from where I’m aiming to get to today. And there’s a lovely old bridge in the town center which I’m just going to go have a look at. Well, I’ve taken the quiet side of the river on the small track. It’s a bit bit of actually dirt track back there. So much nicer than the other side. I’m going to be crossing back to the busier roads soon. It’s been a bit more up and down in here, but only only little up and downs, but really lovely little road. Beautiful scenery. And we get to the lake when I cross the bridge down there. Okay, so I’m now going to be following the lake for a little bit. I think there’s about 8 to 10 miles to go and then just stopping just off the lake bit further on. So, let’s see what the road’s like. Hopefully not too busy. Not too far from Jablanika now, which is where I’m headed to. Okay, so I’ve just arrived in Jablanika. Found the accommodation. Nice little uh apartment in a little town. So when he arrived, uh person who’s running the apartment is here and then a sister turned up and then a mother turned up and the mom wanted to give me some lunch. So she made some lunch for the family. So, she’s given me some of her broth, homemade cheese and potato kind of pie, which is here, which looks amazing. And then also, they gave me some jam made out of rose hips, which is quite unusual. I’m looking forward to trying that. And then also some homemade elderflower lemonade. and some special little cakes with that jam inside it. I can’t remember the name of the little cakes. They have a special name, but they’re kind of local and a national sort of dish. So, here they are. So, yeah, pretty amazing welcome. So, I’m going to tuck into that lunch right now. Okay, so just getting ready to leave Jablanika and it’s a bit chilly this morning, but no rain. So I think the rain’s all passed through and I’ve got a shortish ride, 40 mi, but first 15 mi is uphill. It’s about a 900 m elevation gain on that one. The gradients don’t look too bad. So yeah, morning’s going to be Potting up Hill and then heading for Tom Lavrad in Bosnia still and that is the last stop in Bosnia and crossing the border into Croatia tomorrow down to the coast where it’s 20° uh to split and that will be the end of my trip. Well, about a third of the way up the climb. It’s been really nice actually. Not too steep most of the time. Few 10% sections, but really quiet road. So, yeah, just going to keep enjoying the uh the climbing. And it’s a lovely little river valley actually. So, yeah, looking forward to getting to the top. Oh, now got a bit of a rain shower coming through, spoiling the party. I don’t know how long it’s going to last. Do I put my jacket on or not? That is the question. Uh, I think I will. Seems to be getting harder. I’m just going to pull in over here. So, that’s where I’ve come from down there. All the way down the bottom of that valley. All the way up. Still got about uh 150 m of uh ascent to do. probably about two miles. So, uh, getting there. Getting there. Turned out to be quite a nice day. Definitely warmed up on the climb. Well, that’s that done. And the weather had a little sting in the tail there for me. Cold rain right near the top. But, uh, I’m on the kind of plateau now before dropping down at about 25 miles to do and that climb was nearly 1100 m. So yeah, most of the hard work done today. Bloody cold wind up the top here on this plateau. Woo. So just passing through another little ski resort. I think it is a very small one. Can’t imagine there’s many runs, ski runs around. It’s got all the nice little pointy roofs. Well, I’ve picked up one heck of a tailwind on the top here. It’s cold, but it’s blown me along nicely. I’m at about 1,300 m elevation here and heading towards a lake down there and then I think I’m going to lose about half the elevation to get to Tommy’s life. But this is pretty nice. So there is Tommy’s love bread in the distance which is where I’m heading and then tomorrow carrying on paths down to the coast. Oh, I’ve had a vicious crosswind, even cross headwind for the last seven or eight miles on the roll into Dis Love Ground. It’s pretty open exposed here. So, uh just about to start my final day of riding on this trip. Uh 42nd day in total including a few rest days and rained off days. So yeah, heading for split down on the coast which is going to be 20° when I get there. 20° C. It’s about 5° here. Bloody freezing. A really really strong wind. And once I get out of the mountains and drop down over the border into Croatia and down towards the coast, hopefully that well the wind is going to drop and it’s going to get warmer. So I’m heading in that direction. The little gap in the in the mountains over there. Little bit of climbing today, but not not too much. Um, and the wind is actually blowing in that direction at the moment. So, should be quite a favorable start, but I’m kind of wiggling around a bit. And this is where I stayed last night on the top floor. Got about 60 mi to do. Um, heading for the coast at Split in Croatia. So, yeah, going to enjoy the last day. Okay. Uh, just climbed out of Tommy Sagrad. Aiming for the gap in the mountains over there. Get myself on a bit of a downhill towards the the warmth. So now I’m dropping down to the lake. Looks like a nice little section of downhill. So I’m going down and round to the bottom side of the lake. and round. Looks pretty awesome down there. Okay, I’m at my final border crossing on the bike and crossing from Bosnia into Croatia. There it is. So, I’ve just stopped at a little cafe to spend the last of my Bosnian marks. uh got poppy and quisson. Um that’s it. All that money’s gone. All that cash. So yeah, I’m going to have that and cross over. Just approaching the Croatian border crossing. There we are into Croatia. And yeah, it’s definitely been warming up during the ride today. And it’s looking uh pretty nice down here. Still on the way uh down to the coast actually. Okay. Well, I’ve been following this river, the river Satina for a little while. This is the best view I’ve had of it so far. It’s pretty nice. So, Split is over there somewhere. I know I don’t have to go over those mountains. There must be a way through somewhere. There’s the first sighting of Split. whizzing down the hill for the final seven or eight miles. Okay, I’ve just called into Decathlon on my way through to um my accommodation for the night. It’s about 4 miles from here. Um, it was on the way into town, so dropped in to see if they had a box for my bike for the plane, and they did. And I’ve flattened it down, taped it up. So, I’m going to carry it now for the the last four miles through through the traffic. It should be fine. Here it is. So, just need to get some tape now in the next couple of days and put the box back together and I’m good to go. Okay. I tried carrying that. It’s impossible to ride through the traffic one hand on the brakes and trying to balance. So, I’ve rigged it up on the back. Pretty good. I think those little bungees I’ve got very useful. It’s pretty solid. So, here we go. Riding through the traffic in split with my bike box strapped to the back. Well, I’m winding my way around the old town. Still got the white box. Nearly got to the apartment. Going to try and find it now and meet the person. So, that’s it. That’s my tour of the Balkans finished. Found the apartment. Uh the lady was waiting outside in the street which is very very handy and just had a look inside. So yeah, the the tour is over. 42 days in total. I haven’t done the maths on how far and how much climbing. I think it’s going to be around 2,000 miles. Uh climbing, no idea. Be a lot. But yeah, got this little apartment for three nights. and she’s organizing a taxi for me for the Friday morning. And yeah, just going to get showered, get freshened up, and have a cup of tea and then go to the supermarket and have a wander around the old town. So yeah, here we are. What an excellent trip that was.