Author: bengarbutt

Climbs, cranks, peaks and pedals

Bosnia really is stunning, at least the part I am in. It’s a range of heavily wooded mountains. The fact that I have to work for the views in every pedal stroke make them more satisfying I guess. And there are times when, at the foot of a climb, my heart sinks as the GPS calculates I have another two and a half hours of pure uphill sweat to come. But I’m a sucker for the views and quickly forget the hours of toil

I left Rumboci knowing that the only way out was over the bowl of mountains that surrounds it. I hit the pass after a couple of hours over tarmac, knowing that it wasn’t even the big one of the day.

I took a short break in Gornji Vakuf to refuel. I’ve visited a few bakeries in Bosnia already. No burek yet! Perhaps bakeries don’t do them here. The language barrier means I just point at something and get a surprise. Will it be sweet or savoury? It barely matters when you’re constantly needing to refuel.

The Big One today was over rough ground, which made the going difficult, less than walking pace at times and the miles to the top ticked down slowly.

Once over the top I nursed the bike on the downhill, fearful of hitting a hole or a rock at speed and breaking something on the bike.

It was here I met my first other Trans-Dinarica cyclist, heading in the opposite direction. They’re easy to spot. Nobody else would be carrying that much stuff on a bike on these back roads. We laughed at the coincidence that she, a Swede, had spent ten years living in Oxford, and here we were meeting on a remote Bosnian hillside.

I had a late lunch and climbed even more hills to reach my very rural hotel for the night.

The lovely lady who runs the place had written down the three things that are available to eat. Using Google translate I asked her to bring me whatever she recommended, and a plate of pork belly and potatoes had just landed in front of me. Good, filling mountain food.

Tomorrow I’ll reach Sarajevo, three days ahead of schedule. Perfect, then, for a day’s break to take a day trip by train to Mostar the following day.