Wednesday 29 April 2015

2015-04-29 - Sarajevo - Mostar (BA)

This day was simply calm, easy pleasant with everything helping out! Even expecting leaving Sarajevo uphill, it was a soft way up and the light wind helped out.
Then on the way up met 2 local cyclists who were going to their lake house and once we all went downhill (made a video to be uploaded with proper internet speed and some cutting) in the first part had a drink and then we stopped to have local lunch! After biking a bit more on the lake I was also invited to stay with them on the house by the lake, but as on this trip I am quite limited concerning available days, unfortunately had to decline the offer.
Continuing Solo, was still enjoying the wonderful mountains, road, weather and let gravity helps on the way to Mostar! Simply beautiful!





And so it was like this: Sarajevo-Mostar (BA): 138.34km in 6h28m33s, average 21.36km/h Max Speed 77.65km/h trip total 467.17km, bike total 8680km
And a lovely song: Alt J - Every Other Freckle

Tuesday 28 April 2015

2015-004-27 Zvornik - Sarajevo (BA)

On this second day started to be hilly, but was not counting to be that hilly!
The first 40 km were fine and with wonderful landscapes still biking beside Serbia , even had for the very first time the police to ask me to stop, on which had a nice quick conversation, then started to be a bit steeper, which was also fine, but then the inclination started to be more extreme and in most cases had to walk as pedalling with the cargo and also making effort to the bike was kinda quite the same!



Then reaching the first top, I was convinced that going downhill would allow me to recover a bit, but... there was the biggest obstacle I hate the most: strong opposite wind! I even had to pedal to go down and in some cases at 15km/h!
 Then there was another big way up again for more 7km, this time completely walking as I was already exhausted from facing gravity and opposite wind, but at least had a wonderful downhill almost all the way to Sarajevo amongst bridges, tunnels and outstanding wild river and rocks until the city limit!

These stats don´t lie! See graphs too: Zvornik-Sarajevo (BA): 151.79km, in travel time 10h10m, average 14.91km/h, max speed 79.16km/h trip total: 328.83km bike total: 8541km
And for the soundtrack: Lower Dens - To Die In LA

Sunday 26 April 2015

2015-04-26 Beograd (RS) - Zvornik (BA)

So as I have 2 weeks off, and while currently living in Sofia, I have decided to make a Balkan bike tour, on which is kinda continuing my trip made last Summer.
So, was a very interesting trip on the night train between Sofia and Belgrade on which I saw for the very first time a huge inspection of the train from the Bulgarian border control and adding to baggage inspection there was also inspection of the train compartments itself. My bike and baggage apparently was the exception. but a very friendly couple from Alaska on one compartment and 3 guys from Tunisia had to show their entire baggage. So this made the train arrive to Belgrade 90 minutes later (which was very convenient as the planned arrival was at 5 AM).
Started the trip at 7AM, the journey was mostly flat alike, quite intense traffic, some stray and home dogs on the way, and mostly cycled on a road with a very good shape and many local cyclists (which is good to raise awareness on the drivers).
One thing that really surprised me was that there was a funeral taking place on the main road and the drivers on my direction simply made queue, not passing anyone, and the drivers on the other side simply parked their cars and some even left their cars.
Then when leaving Serbia and entering Bosnia Herzegovina, had again a very nice welcome and with language skills testing, such as German, Spanish, Portuguese and some words that I have remembered from the Slavic speaking countries! Was a cool quick chat!
Now I am resting in Zvornik, put some sleep up to date as had not slept much on the night train, and... moving on for the next challenging day as it promises some mountains on the way.


And for the stats: Beograd RS - Zvornik BA: 177.04km in 8:36:16, average 20.58km/h, max speed: 48.43km/h bike total: 8382km
And for the audio: mq3-25-04-2015