Bikes, bridges and bats; our two days of cycling in Bosnia and Herzegovina

We hadn't originally planned on spending much time in Bosnia, and it wasn't somewhere we'd read much about, beyond hearing its name on the news growing up. We did only spend two days there, but feel like it's deserving of its own blog entry...

An unexpectedly beautiful detour into Bosnia 

After leaving Slovenia we first headed towards Trieste,  where we had a lovely afternoon with Rhys' mum and friends, who just happened to be on a fortuitously timed cruise around the Adriatic. A leisurely afternoon off the bike drinking coffee with Carolyn felt very enjoyable.

The unscrupulous characters you encounter in Trieste

We then travelled down through Croatia, mainly on the islands, as we'd been told by multiple sources that cycling down the mainland coastal road was quite unpleasant. (Spoiler alert- they weren't wrong).

We had a blast through the quiet istria region of northern Croatia, making the most of more old Austro-hungarian train lines that are now gravel tracks. Gentle gradiants, car-free, and great for linking up old small towns and beautiful scenery.

Enjoying some Beeching-esque austro-hungarian rail lines

We then travelled down through the Croatian islands; these were all very beautiful, with crystal clear and warm water to swim in. However, they could be expensive, on some islands we were sruuggling to find a campsite for less than €55! This prompted our first wildcamp of the trip. 

In amongst the olive trees and by the sea - not a bad first wildcamping spot

After rejoining mainland Croatia we found it quite overwhelmingly busy and the least bike friendly place we've been. The German tourists on the islands had all been quite good. However the cars and buses on the mainland coastal road were predominantly Croatian,  with a seemingly willful disregard for cyclist safety. 

We had done some reading about inland cycling options and came across the Ciro trail. Another disused rail line that had been repurposed as a long cycle path crossing through Bosnia. We'd read a variety of different reviews of the route online with a number warning how tough the terrain was and that mountain bikes were advised. Over the last few months we'd come to expect these reviews to overexaggerate the extent of gravel and thought we'd give the route a go...

After getting the ferry from the southern croatian island to Ploce, we headed inland and crossed the border into Bosnia. The Bosnian side of the border was so much quieter than the Croatian coast, we immediately went from feeling unsafe due to unfriendly traffic, to cycling miles without seeing another vehicle! After 20k of quiet roads we left and joined the offroad Ciro trail. We quickly realised that the reviews did not overexaggerate the extent of the gravel.

This is not the Monsal trail

We had a 25k uphill stretch of some of the most uncompacted gravel we've ever seen; it was like trying to cycle through a ballpit. It looked like all the EU funding for this route had been spent on the website and signage, and not the trail itself! It was pretty slow going in places but also pretty epic. There were very long unlit tunnels that were full of bats (and some very pungent bat guano). 

Bike lights on, and hold your nose, this looks like a long one

A fun old bridge 

The day was really fun (most definitely in a type-2 kinda way). We had cycled almost 100k without seeing another person or shop. After a number of days along the very touristy croatian islands this felt very remote! Most of the buildings/towns looked empty with most buildings with "ok" written on them.

Typical empty building that we passed in Bosnia

It was hard to know which buildings were still in use. This was an area that was one of the front lines of the Bosnian conflict so there were many signs regarding the dangers of landmines. We found it incredible that these landmines were still there given that it's nearly 30 years ago. It's so sad that some complex politics and mismanagement has meant that lives are still lost and it holds back other development/tourism of the region.

One of the scary landmine warning signs along the trail

Given how quiet and unpopulated the area was, it would've been ideal for wildcamping, however, due to the landmines, we weren't keen to step off the trail! (We have read other accounts of braver people than us who had absolutely no problems - we're just a little timid!). We noticed on googlemaps there was a solitary accomodation offering along the route, a converted train station along the ciro trail. We weren't expecting much from a rural hotel in the middle of nowhere, but upon arrival, we were met with a fantastic boutique hotel, complete with aircon and wine tasting, that was inexplicably in the middle of nowhere with a mere handful of other guests. We spent the evening relaxing, discussing the wonders of air conditioning and the questionable business model of such a hotel.

Our hotel felt like a mirage

Our three course breakfast set us up for the day

The following day we blasted along the more asphalt based ciro trail towards Dubrovnik. We found it amazing that we had a mere two days in Bosnia and for the majority of that time we were less than 75k from the major tourist cities of Dubrovnik whilst going through ghost towns with very little signs of post-war habitation. We'd gone from spending 5 hours without seeing another person to being in one of Europe's busiest tourist cities in the space of a few hours.

A relieved Mary arriving at Dubrovnik 

After taking the obligatory photos in Dubrovnik, a week or two earlier than initially planned we quickly escaped the city and moved on to a quieter campsite a few miles down the road. 

So here ends "Derby to Dubrovnik" and here starts "Dubrovnik to TBC"....