Cycling in the rain, first wild camp and turning 26 on the road

baliandbeyond
17 jun 2019
6 minuten om te lezen

Since Salzburg the pace has slowed down and instead I have started to enjoy the journey a lot more. I left Salzburg in the morning with the sun. A very pleasant ride that took me through the small back roads to the mountains. It was a very scenic ride, winding through the valleys towards the border with Germany once more. I would have liked to visit the Eagles Nest, but unfortunately the road was still closed due to the recent snowfalls. So instead I headed towards Konigssee. What a beauty, with the sun high in the sky it was a very pleasant place to have a beer and just enjoy the scenery.

The next day took me back to Austria through the Austrian Alps, with the highlight being the climb to the 2550m Grossglockner pass. With the bad weather of the last days, I wasn’t sure it would be possible to go over the pass. So I found myself a warm shower at the beginning of the mountain pass and went to bed early because it seemed that the place didn’t have electricity or hot water (talking about a warm shower…) The next morning I woke up very early to see the sun was out and the pass was open. I left early after a strong breakfast and headed for the mountain.

The Grossglockner isn’t an easy one. It is about 27 km long on an average of 10-12%. Sounds fun with a light racing bike, hard work for a fully loaded 40kg steel horse. Crawling up that mountain on a 7km/h average was hard, the scenery changed after every turn: cycling through forests, through the clouds, some light snowfall and at the end the sun. The views were amazing, you could actually stop after each corner to take a picture.

After 4 hours of climbing I finally reached the top; my first big mountain pass. Now came the fun part, descending for 25km. That is why we climb a mountain, because we love descending it. “Going up is hard, going down goes hard”. So after a long day of climbing I was finished for the day. I put up my tent 20km before the Italian border, where I would be heading the next day, over the mountains. The weather prediction wasn’t looking great for the next days to come…

The next morning started dry but the sky was already changing and big dark clouds were waiting between the mountains. With a 15km climb to the Italian border I was completely soaked. I had my first encounter with tunnels, a 2 km long tunnel through the mountain. I can’t say I wasn’t relieved when I felt the rain back on my skin, no fun riding through these tunnels while climbing.

The next days it kept on raining non stop. Spending two days in North Italy was great - great atmosphere and nice riding through the mountains. After two days it was time for country number seven, Slovenia. For a brief moment it even stopped raining so I could enjoy the scenery when entering Slovenia. It looked amazing. The first night in Slovenia was spent in Bovec, famous for its outdoors sports activities. A big day was planned ahead: a ride through Triglav National park with another big climb. Weather predictions were awful. It rained all night and it continued doing so for the rest of the day. With temperatures below 10° and percentages above 15%, I felt miserable for the first time and questioned why I’m doing this. Luckily a nice young slovenian guy pulled over and offered me a ride to the top of the mountain. He saved me from 1 hour climbing through the rain. After the ride it was mainly downhill until Bled, famous for its lake and castle. A couple of friends were having a bachelor party not far from Bled and I was able to stay there for the night. although it wasn’t that far, still a fair share of climbing had to be done and to make matters worse I faced a really bumpy gravel/muddy road. It was a relief to arrive at the top and take that hot shower I was waiting for all day. Thursday was spent hanging out with friends, walking around lake Bohinju and lake Bled. In the evening the sun came back. It was a very pleasant sight.

The next days were spent in Ljubljana, the little capital of Slovenia. With the sun back out, it was a completely different feeling, everybody was much more friendly and smiling. The ride out of Ljubljana was very easy, probably the easiest city to cycle in or out. I headed for Zagreb, with no campsites along the way. This was going to be my first wild camp. Exciting but also a little bit scary. Eventually I ended up next to a river, away from the main road and had a wonderful night. Next day I arrived in Zadar, had a hostel booked and stayed there for a day. It also started to get really hot, so I decided to visit the city and take some rest for the coming days on the road.

I left Zagreb on the last day of my 25th year. It was an easy day, taking shelter from a few thunderstorms along the way, but eventually I ended up on a great piece of land away from the road, and with the approval of the owner I could enjoy the sunset on this special day. The next day I woke up quite early, spending my birthday breakfast with a view. I gave myself the present of reaching my 2000 kms on the road and arriving at the Adriatic coast line. In Senj I met Jonas, a 20 year old guy from Berlin who is cycling to Vietnam. We had a few beers together at the campsite to celebrate my birthday and planned to cycle a few days together.

It was nice to have some company - after almost 4 weeks a strange feeling takes over. I’ve never been away from home for longer than 3 weeks, so now it really started to feel like a big trip. I started to miss Eef more and more. I didn’t expect it to be this hard actually. But it’s only 2 weeks to Istanbul now.

Riding along the coast in Croatia isn’t easy. Steep climbs, a lot of traffic and little shoulder and temperatures climbing above 35°. The best thing about riding the coast is that each day is rewarded with a refreshing swim at the campsite. Visiting the the old towns of Zadar and Split makes me feel like a real tourist for a moment.

I left Split on Thursday morning. Another very hot day along the coast with more and more traffic as I went further south. This was the last full day in Croatia and along the coast. I took advantage of this and went for an afternoon swim after lunch. The next day I left Croatia and entered country number 9: Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cycling across the border immediately gives you a strange feeling. Every building has memories of the war that happened here in the 90’s. Bullet holes, destroyed buildings, warnings for unexploded mines…

But it is also a very nice country, a mixture of cultures. Delicious food and good coffee. Passing by Mostar you notice the influences of the old Ottoman Empire. Small buildings, narrow streets, mosques and turkish coffee. For the night I had found a warm shower just outside the city. I could camp on my host’s ecofarm and we discussed the road I should take to Konjic. In BIH there are no highways and the road between Mostar and Sarajevo is probably the busiest road over here because these are the 2 most visited cities. The map also only shows you this road. I had cycled a part of the road to get to the ecofarm and it was no pleasure riding it. No hard shoulder and a lot of trucks. My host told me about a way through the mountains. A shorter but much harder way. I decided to try it and it definitely was a good decision. The road was amazing, no traffic except for a few locals honking and giving me thumbs up when they passed by me. At the end of the climb they decided to stop the road. So a gravel road downhill it was, not the reward I was expecting but the views were amazing.

I arrived in Konjic and met with my host for the evening for some coffee. He’s a hostel owner but cyclists can put up their tent for free in the garden. As there were no other guests that evening I could sleep in a bed and had the whole place for myself. In the evening we went out to have some dinner, some nice lamb from the grill. Next morning I left early to escape cycling in the heat. I would try again to avoid the main road by taking the route through the mountains. I started climbing from the first km. Percentages between 10 and 15%. Hard work. Again all of a sudden the road stopped. But not in a nice gravel road. Loose rocks making it impossible to ride. With the road still climbing for 10 kms I decided to turn back and follow the main road. After all, the traffic wasn’t that bad and I arrived early in Sarajevo. Sarajevo has a strange vibe. A mixture of all the cultures living together and the recent memory of the war in the 90’s. I was planning to stay just one day but it seems that my stomach needed an extra day off the bike - I must have eaten something wrong.

Leaving Sarajevo tomorrow to reach the Serbian border on Wednesday!

Until next time!