Bencyclopedia – The Mid-life Cyclist – Page 20

Roadside life stories

The day just kept getting better the deeper I went into it.

I started with a mapping error, definitely not a highlight. When I had gleefully freewheeled down 16km of switchbacks into Novi Pazar yesterday, I hadn’t accounted for having to climb them again this morning. Compounding the error I decided to take the off road route up. I pushed for 16km up tracks so steep that at times I could barely grip the gravel under foot.

It got better quickly. Tutin was my lunch stop. I sat down at the best burek place in town and ordered. Quickly realising I’d spent all my Serbian cash I sprinted after the waiter and asked if it was ok to pay by card. Apparently not, but with a series of gestures and his few words of English he offered the meal for free. “You English? Cycle Serbia? Respect.”

I wondered whether a Serbian cyclist with no words of the local language would be immediately offered the same kindness in a small English town.

Climbing out of Tutin I passed through the Serbian then Montenegrin borders into my eleventh country.

As I began my descent and rounding one of the thousand corners, two kids were playing around on an electric scooter. The one on the scooter had an immediate reaction. Big grin and a shout: “Hey! Race! Race!”

He took off, his acceleration greater than mine, but as I quickly flipped through the gears I caught him until we were whistling together over the undulating tarmac corners, both whooping and laughing!

Finally, coming in to Rozaje another cycle tourist coming from the other direction stopped to speak. Maxime is a 17 year old Belgian. He’s just completed high school and decided to head northwards on his bike through the Balkans towards Italy where he will eventually meet up with his parents.

He told me he wanted to use the trip to think about his next move in life, and to get to know himself better in the joy, adversity, and personal challenge of a trip like this. We exchanged tips and experiences. He asked searching questions and in just ten minutes we got to know each other very well. I wish I had half of his wisdom and level headedness at that age. He’ll go far, literally!