Day 37 – Rozaje to Gjakova – 100km 1003m

Spectacular Kosovan hospitality

I started in a grump and ended on a high. The reason for the grump was that the place I was staying at still had no water. No shower, stinky clothes from yesterday. They had initially tried to get me to pay for drinking water. Good luck with that.

Also there was a massive climb straight off, to get into Kosovo over the top of the Dinaric Alps. 800m of relegation gain over 16km.

Once over, things got dramatically better. The road down was possibly the most spectacular I’ve ever ridden, curving and coiling down the edge of the mountain and onto the Kosovan plains. Views for *miles*. Also very hot brakes.

At the foot of the hill I stopped in a bakery. Once again, food was offered willingly and immediately for free. It’s still amazing to me. When I told the guy I met later about this (more on this later) he said “This is Kosovo, you are a traveller and you are family.”

Entering Paje I was keen to get my hands on a Kosovan Burek. So when a kid on a bike latched on to me in the main square and I said “Burek?” he took me to a place where I bought us both a delicious steaming hot, fresh burek. About time I payed for someone else’s food, let alone my own!

Now, as I pulled around a corner to exit the town, a bloke on a gravel bike (rare to see in these parts) stopped me, engaged me in conversation, and bought me a coffee.

Raif is an inspirational figure. A leading light in outdoors activity in Kosovo, he organises a yearly outdoor festival, is a hiking guide, goes on international bikepacking tours, sets up cycling infrastructure, participates and runs various national and international organisations to encourage outdoor activities, and so much more that it would take too long to explain here. We even discovered that he was about to head to the tiny Italian Alpine village that I visit every year with my family.

“Hey, I’ll take you the next 20km on a better route to your destination, through little villages instead of the main road.” OK then!

We whizzed through wonderful little places on quiet back roads, Raif a fountain of knowledge about the area. What a pleasure!

Eventually we said our goodbyes after swapping details and I pootled the next 30km in to Gjakova. The last 50km had been virtually flat, a surprise to me and something I’d not had since Italy.