Unspoilt natural beauty.

Mokra Gora, Ann looking like she's about to growl!!



So, at 08.30 on Sunday 19th June, after an excellent hot breakfast, we loaded our kit onto the bike in temperatures already burning at 30 degrees. After a discussion with one of the tourist information staff, we changed our plan and decided to visit a place by the name of Mokra Gora (wet Mountain in English), on the northern slopes of mountain Zlatibor, part of the Prokletije mountain range, on our way to the Serbia/Bosnia border. Quite a tourist attraction by all accounts, which became popular after the reconstruction of a narrow gauge railway called Sargan Eight. Its route viewed from the sky, looks like the number 8. Once over the border we would follow the River Dina through the mountains to Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, population approx 310,000, and their currency, the Mark (approx 1.95 to the euro). Our general direction would be South west to Mokra Gora about 125miles, then turning in a westerly direction to Sarajevo a further 90 miles away.


Newly Weds, Ahh don't they look sweet

 We got to Mokra Gora without a hitch, in temperatures reaching a record high for us, 35 degrees!!!! I couldn’t wait to get out of my jacket when we parked the bike, I was sure that once I undone the zip, there would be a flood of water, even Ann admitted to being extremely hot (not under the collar). We spent a short while in Mokra Gora and had something to eat before leaving to cross the border into Bosnia and on to Sarajevo. I have to say the route we had chosen was beautiful, it followed the river Drina through the rugged mountain terrain, real bike riding. Truth be told, we probably passed more bikes on that stretch of road than anywhere else to date, confirming that it was great biking territory.




Glorious Scenery



Sarajevo Old Town



We arrived into Sarajevo around 5 ish and found ourselves a bed and breakfast guest house by the name of ‘Focin Han’, yes an unusual name, and no it wasn’t hell!! One of the first things that struck us whilst we wandered around the old quarter of the city looking for something to eat, was the strong muslin influence, not just the presence of several mosques in a relatively small area, but also the significant number of people dressed in traditional muslin attire; and finding a beer proved to be quite challenging, but one, we rose to. The weather had turned cool (down to about 22 degrees) and actually started to rain, we ate dinner and retired back to the b&b to do some catching up.

We got up early on Monday morning 20th June, the weather had improved and though still some cloud cover, the sun was out and about. Our plan was to move on out of Sarajevo, heading in a south westerly direction to Mostar and on through to our ultimate destination Dubrovnik, in Croatia, 170 miles away and country No 9 on our travels. I only have vague memories of the Serbian/Sarajevo conflict back in 1992, (reported through the media), which lasted for three years. Today it seems that on the surface things are much improved and Sarajevo is a city that is emerging from the shadows of war. Personally, we were not that impressed by what we saw, or what was on offer for that matter in Sarajevo, but we only spent a very short time in the city - we left at around 10.30hrs.


Taken from the back of the bike



The water proved too much of a temptation


The journey to Mostar was absolutely beautiful, the Bosnian scenery was quite breathtaking, so much so that we stopped off several times (photo opportunities). The sun was burning, we were once again, travelling in temperatures of 34 degrees, and starting to melt. The river Neretva, which we had been following for many miles through the mountains, became too much of a temptation, it looked so chuffin inviting. We decided to park the bike and next thing we’re up to our knees in ice cold water – it was magnificent. We motored on through Mostar and eventually crossed, trouble free, over the border into Croatia. We had decided to stay a few miles outside Dubrovnik due to the excessive hotel costs, we picked the small coastal resort of Neum and located a great studio apartment overlooking the sea. It turned out to be an excellent choice, so good in fact, we stayed four days. It was an ideal location, by the sea to relax and chill, and a great base to tour out from.



Magnificent Croatian coastline



St Blaise Church.



The fountain in the Franciscan Monastery

 Tuesday 21st June, we were up early, the current bun was out and temperatures were creeping up beyond the 30 degrees. Dubrovnik was our destination and we were going to spend the entire day in the old fortified part of the city, one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic coast, and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. Surprisingly, a population of only forty four thousand. Our first priority was to obtain some money – the main currency in Croatia is the Kuna and there are 7.37Kn to the euro. Once armed with the right ammunition, we were free to enjoy the delights Dubrovnik had to offer – The Placa main street, City hall & Marin Drzic Theatre, The beautiful high domed St Blaise catholic Church, The Franciscan Monastery and museum, the big Onofrio’s Fountain and of course the magnificent ‘Raddison Blue’ hotel, where Lisa (daughter No 1) stayed on a recent working visit (shame it didn’t coincide with the time we were there). The sun eventually took its toll, the temperature inside the the old city rose to 35 degrees and was just too hot to continue. We decided to curtail the site seeing and head back to the cool of our apartment.

Wed 22nd - The weather was glorious, temperatures hovering in the 30’s, we went down to the beach and swam in the sea. Done naff all today, went out in the evening and had a lovely meal and a few beers.


Statue of Our Lady at Medjugorge

 Thurs 23rd. We decided to go to the town of Medjugorge, once a simple village parish, but now, famous, thanks to the apparition of Our Lady to six young people, the first of which took place on 24th June 1981. Medjugorje has become a shrine to Our Lady and a place of pilgrimage for millions of people. I have to say this was a completely unplanned destination, we just decided that we would go visit Medjugorje because we had seen a road sign pointing to it on our way from Mostar to Neum, three days previous, and, I’m ashamed to admit, we weren’t even sure if it was the same place we’d heard about from our Marriage Encounter friends. Well, there is no doubt in my mind, this was Gods Plan. Literally, we arrived into Medjugorje in Blazing temperatures (a new record high of 39 degrees), there was considerable congestion but somehow we found our way, or perhaps were drawn (on the bike) to the church. We parked, changed into shorts and t-shirts and headed straight for the church. It seemed there was a service going on, there were lots of people standing outside the main entrance and music was coming from the speakers. We made our way into a packed church just as Mass was about to start, Lo and behold we discovered it was Corpus Christi, we were about to participate in the celebration of Corpus Christi with an English Mass in Medjugorje, and on the Altar, over forty visiting priests from across the globe, also ready to celebrate this Feast Day. It was a truly uplifting experience, one we will both always remember.


Can u pass me the soap please





39 degrees, absolute bliss





OMG! It's a Chuffin Donkey in the Trailor

 We left Medjugorje around 14.30 hrs and headed to the nearby national park of Kravica. We had been told of this park with it’s wonderful waterfalls and lake which you could swim in. Well that’s exactly what we done, the place was packed but there was just enough room for Ann & I to squeeze into and enjoy the rest of the afternoon – we had great fun as the pics might suggest. On the way back to our apartment we passed a car towing an open trailor, as we rode past it I realised there was only a chuffin donkey in the back. I couldn’t believe it, so a little further on we stopped to let it pass, so that when we caught it back up, Ann could take a picture of it ......LOL.




The sea front, Podstrana



Next morning we left Neum heading north west, back up the coast to Split about 100 miles away, the second largest city in Croatia with a population in excess of 227,000. It was an interesting journey to Split, at times we weren’t sure that we were travelling in the right direction - the mapping for Croatia on the satnav has been very poor, and many times in Croatia its’ gone AWOL, causing us considerable consternation. Anyway, we arrived into Split and headed out to Podstrana, a coastal resort about 5kms outside Split with a plentiful supply of accommodation. We found ourselves a great self contained apartment, ‘Casablanca’ owned by a lovely family who really looked after us. The strange co-incidence here was, the eldest son, Neeno, was a time served mechanic and motorbike fanatic (in fact it turns out the whole family, including mum & dad are serious motor bike enthusiasts), he operates a servicing and repairs business from premises below the apartment. After a couple of days, checkin out his credentials (don’t be rude Pauly More), I asked him if he would help me do an oil change. Papa, had once again, provided us with an answer to an ever increasing concern......, we’ve done 7000 miles on the bike since our adventure started, and an oil change was overdue!!


Ace Mechanic Neeno doing oil change.
Note the specialist tool to remove oil filter



Yadstrana, bbq'ing dorado fish for dinner

 

Yo Ballinger Bob, you’d be proud of me the way I’m lookin after this “incredible piece of German Engineering, that I’ve bought into”!!


Krka National Park - cascading Waterfalls


Podstrana, like Neum, was a great base from which to tour, we spent four nights at ‘Casablanca’ and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Whilst we felt Split was a bit of a disappointment in terms of site seeing, though it did have the Diocletian Palace, and is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites, we did discover another Croatian treasure in the form of Krka national park. Similar to Kravica but much bigger and once again we swam in the lakes around the waterfalls with temperatures in the mid 30’s.



Monday 27th June. Today we received some very sad news, one of the boys at St Ben’s, George Vale, lost his battle for life with cancer. Ann & I have known George, and his family for many years from our days at Studley News, we have been privileged to know them and to share through Adele’s letters, after we left Studley, the achievements of their courageous young son. We will pray for the repose of the soul of George and ask God to give his loving support to Dad Paul, Mum Adele, brother Billy and their families at this sad and difficult time.

On Tuesday 28th, we left Podstrana, heading north west to Zadar and on to Starigrad Raklencia, 160 miles away, but still in Croatia. At 18.00 with temperatures still in the 30’s we arrived into Starigrad and found an hotel - The Rajna. We booked a room for one night, and quickly unloaded our kit into our room. There wasn’t a great deal to do, so after a couple of refreshing drinks over a good dinner, we retired early to get a good nights kip, ready to make an early start the following morning. At this point we were unsure whether we would head up to Ljubljana in Slovenia, or across to Zagreb, the Capital of Croatia; We were going to sleep on it and make our decision the next morning.




The Croatian coast from the Velebit Mtns


Over breakfast the following morning, we struck up a conversation with a couple of Israeli guys staying at the hotel, who, as it turned out, were touring Croatia on pedal bikes. It was a conversation with them that helped us to decide that Zagreb was the preferred choice going via the National Park Plitvicka Jezera - A most beautiful and in their words ‘a must see area’ of Croatia, and part of the reason why they had travelled over from Israel to tour Croatia. At At about 09.30 am on Wed 29th, with glorious blue skies and temperatures already up to 27 degrees, we loaded up our trusty steed, and set off. Initially we headed north for about 15 miles and then turned due east, up through the Velebit mountains and on to Plitvicka, a further 55miles away. Oh boy, what a bike ride, an absolute delight, probably (for me), one of the most enjoyable rides throughout our entire tour - the scenery and the views were stunning and the winding roads, whilst challenging, were fantastic fun. It made for a perfect start to the day.


Magnificent torquoise colour of  water at Plitvica

 Plitvicka Jezera continued in the same vein. It is famous for its natural lakes arranged in cascades which are renowned for their distinctive colors, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colors change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight. It was incredible and exactly as the Israeli guys said, we were so fortunate to have visited this magnificent protected natural area (a total of 295 sq kms) on such a beautiful day. With visitors approaching 1 million a year, the park is maintained and well managed, swimming in the lakes is forbidden. According to the scientists, the reaction of the natural minerals in the water with the human body, would some how, damage the ecco system and thus destroy what has taken centuries to develop naturally.


Nature at its' best!!!


We spent about four hours walking in the national park in temperatures reaching 32 degrees, and probably covered in the region of six to seven miles. Though it was difficult and at times very tempting, we did resist the urge to jump into the water to cool our biriyani down. There were other walks on offer, and with more time we would have gone further, but the park closed at 20.00 hrs. We’d gotten to the furthest point where we had to catch a trolley bus back to the main entrance, else we’dve been left behind with the bears!! Riding back to our accommodation, we stopped off for dinner at a restaurant, we had a lovely meal, a fitting end to a perfect day.




The National Theatre in Zagreb



The Cathederal of The Assumption Blessed
Virgin Mary in the background

 Thurs 30th June - At around 11.00am we set off for Zagreb, approx 115 miles away, heading in a north easterly direction. The weather had changed considerably and was dull and cloudy with the sound of rumbling thunder in the distance, the temperature on the other hand was just over 30 degrees. We booked our accommodation over the internet and using the coordinates for the hotel Laguna, we programmed the satnav and off we goooooooooooo. Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northeast of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb is a vibrant city of around 800 000 people, it boasts a charming medieval 'old city' with some superb architecture and cobbled streets. Although we only stayed one night we did two days and clocked up a fair amount of ‘shank’s pony’ miles.

All that walking, we had worked up an appetite,
 a pizza the size of a bicycle wheel!!



For Marky Elsmore, I wanted to buy this for you
but they didn't have the box big enough!!!

 At one point we even called into a technical museum which contained loads of gear from the past, it included a section on ancient and modern petrol and diesel engines – Anns dad, Bill, would have been in his element! I have to say, in the short time we were in Zagreb, what we saw, like the magnificent baroque and unmistakably yellow Croatian National Theatre, ‘The Stone gate’, St Mark’s Church, The Cathedral of the Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary, which Pope Benedict had visited literally three weeks previous –if only we’d known....and many more superb examples of exquisite buildings with great architectural merit, all of which we thoroughly enjoyed. In truth, what we had read and what we’d been told about the city, left us with little expectation or anticipation. In reality, what we actually saw, far exceeded our expectation.



Specially for you Mike Baggot to match your other Motor

  At 14.00 hrs we had to leave Zagreb, we had a journey of 220 miles to cover, due north east before we reached our next destination - The beautiful Hungarian City of Budapest, on the River Danube – our 10th country.


Like the T- shirt??



Till the next blog.....

Lotsa luv

The Easy Riders xxxxx