The Balkans by BMW 1200 GS / Yamaha Super Tenere
July/August 2019
July/August 2019
8/3. We are planning on a four day trip, a big loop from Split to Mostar, Sarejevo, back to the coast and camping on a peninsula, then taking the ferry back. We'll be passing through pieces of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenagro.
We had a slow start, as we had to drop Hildegard and Julia at the airport, worry about Rosana etc. driving to Dubrovnik and trying to park a relatively large car in a tiny parking space while dealing w/ tourist traffic, pick up Than, and then find the bike rental place. Non-trivial!
Once there, we decided to start out with Reinhard on the big brand new adventure bike, Than on the smaller Yamaha, and Ervan and I on the 2009 and 2017 GS's. Tomorrow we rotate.
Once on the open road we realized that we really didn't know which way we were going, had to stop multiple times. We stopped to get sandwiches only to find that the first two places we went to had no interest in making sandwiches for us, but found a Tommy's next door where we could buy the ingredients and make them ourselves. Than made the first official drop into a bush here when trying to get back on, though the bush prevented the bike from going all the way down.
Outside the local area, however, the fun began. Reinhard was leading, but unsure of how much we wanted him to push the pace. Than and I are still pretty new to motorcycles. Ervan, of course, was all for ramping it up, whereas I wanted to wait a day before that happened.
But Than and I got more comfortable quickly, and when Reinhard ripped past the car in front I followed....and understood why riders don't feel the need to spend $100k on a fast car when a $20k bike can accelerate more quickly. Then Ervan tired of the resulting pace and ripped past Reinhard and of course I followed him as well. Good times.
We ended up in an "Auto-Park Campground" which costs all of 30 Euros for the four of us, w/ complementary cake and fruit, and possibly the first beer down in the cafe next to the river.
About that river. It was a hot and ultimately very slow day, and we were all very overheated. So we (Reinhard, Than, and I) jumped in the river despite the 12 Celsius temperature. Invigorating!
Dinner was "paprika w/ meat", which basically translates to stuffed peppers with mashed potatoes, all tasting better than you might think.
First (after another dip in the frigid water), we packed up and rode down the road to Mostar. We were a bit concerned that it would be difficult to find parking, but parking was easy, and just a couple tourist-and-beggar infested blocks from the bridge itself. Some of the knick-knacks were actually quite cool, but I resisted.
The bridge was pretty neat. It's a 12-foot wide pedestrian bridge that is 75 feet high in the middle. You can jump off, but for some reason it's not recommended :-). Folks do routinely jump to make a spectacle for the tourists, w/ accomplices working the crowd to fill hats. When some critical threshold is reached, they jump off. The jump itself isn't that exciting, as it's feet-first, but to be fair, it's high!
After we left Mostar we tried to take a roundabout route on tiny roads over the mountain, but the road eventually turned into nasty looking gravel and the only other traffic was the occasional four-wheel drive. Reinhard wasn't willing to give up, so we sent him on a 20-minute scouting expedition to see if the tarmac returned, but well before he got back we were able to learn from a passing motorist that the next tarmac was 50 km down the road from where we were. Very carefully turning around in the deep gravel we made our way back to safety.
Once back, we found another way through via some absolutely spectacular winding roads. Up, down, around, leaning this way and that, roaring out of the corners until the next one slowed us down. It was an absolute blast, culminating in the picture of Reinhard and the cross at the top of the mountain (many other pictures, but not on my phone).
Coming down from the mountain we found ourselves too far from Sarejevo, and so bailed to a nearby campground, which of course turned out to be much further than we thought, and up and over another mountain w/ tiny roads and aggressive drivers coming the other way. This was actually pretty dicy, but we made it through.
After this afternoon I was feeling pretty good about being able to make it through the trip alive, and still haven't dropped the bike yet. Reinhard actually dropped my bike at an intersection (while not moving). My bike was set higher than he was used to. I might be reading too much into it but he seemed to be stewing over this later in the afternoon :-). Turns out Ervan dropped his bike while threading some bollards coming out of the rental office, so I'm the last guy standing. Hope that's not famous last words...
Camp was a bit sketchy; we ended up paying almost $60 in a variety of currencies, but there is a beautiful lake (no shower), so all is good
- Taking off on one of Reinhard's tiny roads, which quickly turned into gravel. This was very dicy, as it was downhill w/ large channels from water, some filled w/ gravel. We finally stopped and considered the map, coming up w/ an estimate of another 23 miles of gravel, at which point I said I was REALLY not comfortable on this surface. Surprisingly, Ervan also agreed and we headed back. Of course, going back was fast and fun; uphill is much easier than downhill as you have more control of your speed.
- Once back on the road we made good time and eventually made our way onto a beautiful clean road, speed limit 130. We opened it up a bit, most of us hitting about 100 mph. Reinhard decided that in the name of science he had to see how fast he could hit 200 kph, which turned out to be surprisingly fast.
- Overtaking cars on crazy curvy uphills, two lanes each way, a bit white-knuckle.
- Absolutely stupendous valleys in Bosnia, gorgeous bridges, tunnels, dams. Hopefully Ervan's camera captured this because I didn't get many pictures, and my gopro battery crapped out right before we got there. This entire area is filled w/ shepherds herding sheep, goats, cows. We passed a shepherd guiding his goats across a high bridge by yelling at the goats from the other sidewalk. The goats were dithering between staying on THEIR sidewalk and jumping down in front of oncoming trucks. They stayed.
- Trying to find our campsite we ended up at the bottom of a couple very steep gravel ramps, really scary to contemplate getting back up on a powerful 550-lb bike. After a few false starts we made it. Video of coming out of our campground in the morning is forthcoming.
another one-lane road that took us to the actual coast. This road was almost funny because it was narrow, smooth, and new, essentially a beautiful bikepath through the woods. However, there was no one else on it, so we took this idyllic shortcut through the hills over to the highway on the coast, where we headed out to the Peljesac Peninsula.
First stop there was Ston, which is home to what is called the second-longest preserved fortification in the world, at 4.3 miles. The walls surround Ston by being placed on the steep slopes of the surrounding hills, so steep that one might think that adding a wall is overkill. Ice cream.
We stopped briefly at an overlook that was evidently a memorial to Croatians who served in WWII. The text was not in english and it wasn't entirely clear what message the long medal mural was saying. There are Germans getting threatened, Russians with knives, and many other combinations. The complexity of the mural, in combination w/ what little I know of the fascist Ustase Croatian government during the war, makes it possible that this mural was trying to pay homage to all the losses, while respecting the moral ambiguities. At least I prefer to think so.
Arriving at the campground we found that we essentially needed to set up our tents intermingled w/ a couple other families. Fine, we were tired, and the beach across the road made up for it, and we made our way over as soon as the tents were set up. Reinhard soon disappeared and reappeared w/ several large beers, which made it even better. For dinner, Reinhard, Ervan and I (Than was having back issues) wandered down to a recommended restaurant. I honestly don't remember what I ate, though I remember the "wide-ranging" conversation, and the many drinks, starting with a Cosmo (which Ervan claims is a gay drink, but I beg to differ), then beer, and then more beer, and then some other liquor, and we were given free shots w/ the check, and.....
However, I didn't actually see anything above 205 on my speedometer. My ridewithgps on the phone says I hit 220, but it also records me as having flown completely off the road at one point, so it's possible I never hit 130. But I think I did.
