09.14.09
Posted in Azerbaijan, The journey journal at 2:42 pm by Administrator
So we’re stuck for another 24 hours at least in Azerbaijan and we’re uber disappointed to say the least. The delay looks like its going to cost about 1500 bucks at least. The scamming buggers that we booked the ticket through (don’t use airfare.com they suck!!!!) decided that after much correspondence back and forth about me travelling at the moment that they’d tell me that they issued an eticket and then book a paper ticket and not send it to me. So we turned up to the airport brimming with confidence that we’d be out of this nexus of corruption in no time but, oh no, we’re not lucky enough for that. No paper ticket = no fly. Especially when you have a few blokes behind you waiting for empty seats to appear and sporting a much larger bankroll than us. So needless to say we got screwed and weren’t allowed to fly. Argh. Then it was fighting with ripoff merchant taxi drivers to get back into the city and sort things out because it seems impossible to book flights at an airport. MORONS! Anyway we got into the city and found internet and dumped our stuff back at the hostel. (some of the very limited number of nice people in the country)
After a bit of research it seems that we can get a turkish airlines flight (heaps better than uzbek air anyway) leaving tomorrow morning. I also happened to notice that a business class ticket was only a few euros more each and so snapped it up and we get to live the posh life of luxury tomorrow even though we are that lot bit closer to being stone cold broke. So tonight we’re gunna sleep at the airport (thanks to the every reliable info on www.sleepinginairports.net) and head of in the morning (oh great god of optimism please don’t fail me now).
Bye for now and hopefully my next installment will be typed with a mouthful of delicious curry.
Tc and Nic
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09.12.09
Posted in Azerbaijan, The journey journal at 12:02 pm by Administrator
So we are now in the Azeri capital of Baku. We had to bus over from Tbilisi because with my sickness and the morons at the Azeri consulate in Istanbul stuffing up our visas twice we didn’t have time to ride. Now that we’ve done the trip we are sooo glad that we didn’t ride that leg. The bus ride from Tbilisi is 556 km and it took us 15 hours to complete on the bus. They have decided that the highway needed to be upgraded and doubled and so they’ve just spend the last few years turning the main highway into a dirt road so that they can rebuild it. Never mind doing small sections at a time. The whole 500 Plus km has been torn up and as a consequence the bus averaged 30 km/h and was extremely bumpy. It was cheap (about 25 dollars) but we’re not sure if it was worth it. Add to this that the guys that worked on and around the bus, about 5 of them. Decided that they’d try to make a fast buck from us and charge us for loading the bikes. Luckily the scam was slow to spread around them so they loaded our gear before trying to charge us. We insisted that we didn’t have dollars, only a few lari (the georgia currency). I always only carry a small amount of cash in my wallet for just such reasons and so as each one took his turn in trying a different excuse for why we should give them 20 dollars I was able to show a nearly empty wallet and so they gave up. It was a kind of half hearted rip off though. They never really enforced it and so we never paid. A weaker traveller may have gone for it but we’ve seen this junk before and told them where to go. I get the impression that this kind of thing is everywhere in azerbaijan and it is a competing force with the hospitality of teh locals. The bus journey was made great by meeting a local guy on the bus that spoke a bit of english and wanted to practice with us and so kind of adopted us. He took us for a meal at one of the many stops along the road (azerbaijani barbeque is delicious) and handed us fruit whenever he had any. A really great guy and saved our first encounter with the people of this country from being negative.
Baku itself is nothing like the rest of azerbaijan. The oil money flowing into the country sems to have solely effected Baku and as a result there is an emense amount of new development here. The old town is pretty much still entact and is a welcome break from the streets full of gucci and burrberry stores. The prices can get ridiculous here if you’re not careful where you buy and its reputed that you can pay upto 15 manat (equivalent to 15euros or 25 dollars) for a pot of tea. I however have discovered (much to Nic’s disgust) that great oily kebabs can be bought from small shop windows next to designer fashion stores for under 2 manat. The fruit here is also relatively cheap and so that makes Nic happy.
At the moment she seems to have caught a milder version of what I got in Georgia. She never seems to get as sick as I do but if she gets sick then it takes ages to shake. This is not good as I can’t imagine that having a stomache bug is the thing that you want to have as you head to india. Or maybe the curry will clear it up.
Speaking of food. Azeri food seems much more influenced by the turks and so kebabs are everywhere. We’re yet to see much more but have a few days to sample some more. We were still really impressed with Georgian food and actually found it much cheaper to eat at restaurants there than buying groceries and cooking ourselves. We’ve noticed that while canned food or pre-prepared sauces are the cheaper options at home they are teh really expensive and posh versions over here. Thats not good when you are camp cooking on the road s we can’t take loads of fresh vegies with us and paying 7dollars for a tiny bottle of pasta sause or 4.50 for a small can of tuna is a bit silly. Still we’re managing and with a new bit of the world about to hit we’ll have to learn all new ways again and get used to that.
Things are also coming along for the trip through the himalaya with our future guide Surendra in constant contact to try to make sure that things run smoothly in Kathmandu.
Also on of my friends from Uni, Cam will be joining us for the weeks from Kathmandu to Lhasa and it’ll be great to have someone else to share that part of the journey with.
We’ll also have to pick up some extra cold weather gear in Kathmandu as the average nightly temps in the mountains drop below 0 in November and there will be snow along the path. Yay for snow.
Anyway time to go bt will add more when we get to Delhi on Tuesday.
Tc
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09.09.09
Posted in The journey journal, Uncategorized, tips and repairs at 8:12 am by Administrator
Countries visited = 15
Total Km = 6878.0
Total elevation gain = 51753 m
total days = 116
cycling days = 84
Highest point = 1864 masl
Days of rain = 30
Days with head wind = 36.5
Day with tail wind = 25
Injuries
-Trent = 10
-Nic = 3
-Christal = 3
-Road Kill = 1 poor little snake
Flats = 14
Repairs
- 2 chain breaks
- 1 new hub
- 2 new tyre
- 2 new sets of brakes
- 1 bag clip
Co riders = 9
Side trips = 6
Visas required = 1
Visas gained = 3
Passes 1000 m plus = 8
Passes 2000m plus = 0
Longest day = 148 km
Fastest speeds
-Tc = 68.8km/h
-Nic = 62.1km/h
Average time on bike per day = 4.5 hrs
Steepest grade
-official 11%
-unofficial 15%
Hottest day = 42 deg C in Greece
Coldest day max = 16 deg C in UK
Longest time without shower = 6 days
Days of free camping = 53
Days of hospitality accomm = 19
Wedding proposals = 2
Average km per cycling day = 81.88 km
Average km per day = 59.29 km
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09.06.09
Posted in Georgia, The journey journal at 11:45 am by Administrator
So we have crossed out of Turkey after a solid amount of time and have been having some grand adventures in Georgia. This is a truely intersting country. Not always comfortable but really interesting. We’re in the capital Tblisi at the moment and have been here a week and a bit. That is a little longer than we had planned as I went and got myself some kind of nasty virus that knocked me around a bit and so we had to spend a few days holed up in a hotel in the town of Stalin’s birth, Gori. The country itself is pretty poor and the infrastructure is severly lacking but the people are relatively happy with the world and so feircely proud of being Georgian that its crazy. All the tourist liturature here is calling georgia the place tha europe starts but they keep failing to realise that gerorgia isn’t really anywhere near europe. There is a kind of europe a hundred years ago feel to it but no matter what the feel its not in the same geographical region. Another few things that a lot of georgians seem to think which condradicts a lot of what we’ve been taught is that, Stalin was a great guy (hmmm I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t all that nice), that georgians invented wine, that viruses couldn’t happen in a country as advanced as georgia, that bubbly water is heaps better than still water, that its fine to set up a butchers shop out of teh back of your car on the side of teh highway and that load limits and seatbelts are for pussies.
The driving here hasn’t been terrible so far. The emisions are terrible but the Georgians seem to be aware of their brakes and some indicators. The only problem is that they drive way too fast on bad roads that are literally covered with cows. There are a scary number of cars driving around with a completely smashed in front end, a missing rear bumper bar and two head shaped smash marks in each wind screen. Yes thats right, after a horrific smash where both driver and passenger try to put their head through the windscreen they con’t bother to fix the car, they just keep driving. Also I’m pretty sure that there is a job vacancy for a mechanic that actually knows how to tune and engine here as none of teh cars that I’ve seen so far have been tuned right and as a result breathing in the towns is somewhat difficult. Also it seems that the rishest man in georgia is the guy who was the Ford Transit van salesman in the mid nineties. Three quarters of the world’s transits of that era are here and none have been sold here since 2000.
Our second day in the country saw us wanting a short day and as it was shower time we thought that we’d stop in the regional centre of Ozgureti. After some quick groceries we asked a few people if they knew of a hotel around. The first few couldn’t help as it seems that Ozgureti doesn’t have a hotel but teh last guy that we asked just happened to be best mates with a bloke that was trying to open a guest house and kickstart regional tourism. (if you want any tips on georgia we can put you in touch). So his family adopted us for the evening and if we had have stayed I’m sure they would have leagally taken us into the family. They fed us, got us drunk (ok just me but I still managed to avoid the breakfast shots of homemade grape vodka) washed our clothes, sang for us, gave us a bed and taught us about the region and the accepted georgian version of history. They also sent us off with a gigantic care package that I’m lucky that I specified as “small” or we wouldn’t have been able to carry it. That is a typical example of georgian hospitality. Some days we have to hide from people so that they don’t keep giving us too much food that we can’t carry it all. I mean just out of tblisi a random car pulled over in front of us on teh motorway and flag us down. In typical georgian style it was ridiculously overloaded with fruit on the way to market and a guy jumped out of teh car and proceded to overload us with apples and peaches and other stuff. Nic had to balance the fruit in 2 bags across the back of her bike just to get it to camp that day.
We also had the great fun of having to do a hospital dash while in the mniddle of teh country. I decided that I needed to get a bad stomache virus as far away from civilisation as possible one night in camp. I got a nice fever out of it and a bit of spewing and so it wasn’t going to be possible to ride the next day. So Nic packed up camp whie nursing me in my Man-Flu affected state and then flagged down a van going the way that we though was best to find a doctor. I passed out in the back with the bikes and lugguage on me while Nic had an interesting adventure in the front seat with the driver. You have to wonder about a guy that offers a sick bloke a ride to hospital and then tries to pick up his missus on the way. I mean, it wasn’t even terminal. but yay to Nic for sorting it out and putting up with the crap and getting me to the ‘Legally low persons and modern military hospital of Gori’. I spent the day there and then we spent 3 nights in a hotel while I got some strength back. After recovering we also found out that gori is the birthplace of stalin and they have built a park around his birth home and then built a marble pedistal over the top of it. Hilarious stuff.
Gori also has a great example of the history available in georgia that is undisturbed by tourism. The fortress over the town with its giant bronze 1st crusade knights around it was ace.
Anyway nearly time to head off but I also should point out that the scenery here is awesome and the mountains and valleys are great. The war, political and religeous history is amazing and the people are unique and great. I’d recommend that people come here as part of a new frontier, if you want to get away from the tourist hordes and still see cool stuff then here would be a good place to do it.
We’re in Tblisi a few days and then we have to bus (because of my sicky delay and stupid azerbaijani consular officials) to Baku.
Cheers for now
Tc and Nic
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08.25.09
Posted in The journey journal, Turkey at 12:42 pm by Administrator
So yesterday was our 100th day of travellıng. Woohoo. only 5000 to go. We spent the nıght ın Trabzon, Turkey and I had a few beers to celebrate. We also rocked down to the local Ramadan festıval to see what the locals get upto durıng thıs ımportant tıme of year. basıcally ramadan means that muslıms can’t eat or drınk between sunrıse and sunset of a month. Also they are supposed to pray more and be extra nıce to people and the prophet wıll record ıt for theır entry ınto paradıse. Well thats the really sımplıfıed lamans versıon but ıts harder than I could do. At 7:17 pm a huge fıre work went off and the entıre cıty of trabzon (and the whole muslım world) commenced a huge feast. All sorts of poeple and groups shareıng food ın homes and streets and shops. Pretty ınterestıng. I thınk that we mıssed most of the poınt of the festıval as ıt maınly consısted of people on stage remonstratıng a cheerıng crowd ın deafenıng turkısh so we dıdn’t stay untıl the grand fınale.
Tc and Nıc
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08.23.09
Posted in The journey journal, Turkey at 7:48 am by Administrator
So far we have fıgured out that four thıngs seem to characterıse the turks.
boundless hospıtalıty.
ınfınıte generosıty
overwhelmıng curıosıty
and a undenıable ınabılıty to drıve between the lınes.
We’re now travellıng along the black sea coast of turkey on the way to Georgıa.
We’ve done 2 cool sıde trıps whıle here ın Turkey. 1 to Troy and Galıpollı and the other to Cappadocıa. Both were great but meant long long hours on buses. Also due to our now tıght schedule to get to Baku ın tıme for our flıghts we had to bus a small sectıon through central turkey. The headwınds were slowıng us down too much and the prospect of several 1000 m passes dıdn’t bode well so we cruısed through to Samsun and got on the coast from there. We’ve been rıdıng through the hazel nut fıelds for days now. Turkey produces 70% of the worlds hazelnut supply and belıeve me thats a lot. Its also amazıng that all of them are stıll pıcked, cleaned and prepared by hand. Every sıngle house has a huge carpet of Fındık (thats hazelnut ın turkısh) laıd out ın theır front yard. Also the people around samsun were spectacularly frıendly, even for the turks and ıt was really encouragıng rıdıng through that area of countrısıde.
Thıngs are holdıng up well and we’re doıng well. The wınd ıs beıng our frıend at the moment and hopefully ıt stays that way.
I’d also lıke to appologıse for the mıssıng dots on the i’s of the posts ın Turkey. There are 2 dıfferent i’s ın the turkısh alphabet and they put the one wıth no dot ın the place of the englısh i and so I could type paınfully slowly or just not bother wıth the dots.
The fırst clıp on one of the pannıers has now broken and I had to replace my rear hub ın Istanbul so there gear ıs startıng to feel the straın of the trıp.
Now ıts lunch tıme and we’ve got a few more K’s today so off we head.
Tc and Nıc
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08.17.09
Posted in The journey journal, Turkey at 8:23 am by Administrator
So after 4 days pushıng head wınds and avoıdıng packs of vıscıous dogs ın western (european) turkey and then a two week lay over ın ıstanbul we crossed the bosphorous and headed off ınto asıa. Thats one whole contınent crossed and 2 to go.
The head wınd hasn’t abated at all and we’re stıll pushıng ıt. That ıs goıng to serıously delay us and there ıs a very good chance that we won’t make ıt to Baku on tıme ıf the wınd doesn’t turn. The reason that we now have a deadlıne ın Baku ıs that we decıded to fly over Iran and Pakıstan and straıght ınto ındıa. It was a heart breakıng decısıon for me as I really wanted to keep thıs flıght free but cırcumstances conspıred to force our hand. Fırstly we’ve met a few cyclısts on the road that have had vısas knocked back for pakıstan and ıran recently due to the unrest ın both countrıes and also the stress on our parents would be a bıt much. Also we can’t go north around the countrıes because by the tıme the vısas came through and we got there ıt would be too close to wınter ın some really remote terrıtory and too dangerous to attemp ın those condıtıons. Also there ıs unrest ın that part of Chına as well and so they wouldn’t be keen on lettıng us through. At least ın tıbet we can get through because we have a guıde. So we’re cuttıng a month off of the journey and hıttıng delhı ın the mıddle of september.
As a result of the azerbaıjanı embassy contaınıng some exceedıngly stupıd people and the flıght bookıng company beıng dodgy we have 30 days to do 2100 km. Thats not goıng to be fun wıth a head wınd. I’ll wrıte about teh vısa fun ın a dıfferent post but I2ll wrıte a bıt about western turkey and ıstanbul.
The turks are so frıend that ıts amazıng. You can’t stop on the roadsıde for more than 5 seconds wıthout someone brıngıng you tea or coffee or somethıng. Also stoppıng to fıx your bıke ıs a no no as you’ll have 17 people come over to try to help, even ıf they have no ıdea what the problem ıs. Its a great gesture but bloody annoyıng when you’ve got 3 people pokıng fıngers at the tyre patch that you’ve just applıed and need to let dry ın peace. Crossıng western turkey was pretty hard on the bıkes. The terraın ıs low and undulatıng wıth hılls havıng a 5km frequency and rısıng and fallıng 200m each. Then there was the head wınd and the sheep dogs as bıg as small horses that don’t lıke cyclısts. We haven’t been bıtten yet but ıts close and I’ve started carryıng my lock wıthın easy reach.
The last 20 km ınto ıstanbul took about 4 hours as I had worn through my rear tyre and replaced ıt wıth one of lower qualıty. We’d run out of tubes and patches and so I had to stop and pump ıt up every 2 km. Nasty. Also my back hub has gıven up the ghost and was gıvıng me grıef. If anyone has contacts at shımano please let them know that I’m less than happy that theır products have dıed so early.
The 2 weeks ın ıstanbul were awesome. We spent 1 nıght ın a hotel and then stayed wıth 2 couchsurfers. Murat for 1 week and Asye for 4 days. They were both great and showed us a sıde of ıstanbul that we couldn’t have seen otherwıse. There ıs plenty more to wrıte but ıt’ll take longer than I have. Needless to say we love those guys and were really ımpressed by ıstanbul.
We also caught up wıth Lukey and Robs from home on our last day ın town and ıt was cool to see famılıar faces. We also got our vısas for Azerbaıjan and Indıa and rested up, put on a lıttle (needed) weıght, healed our aches and paıns and got soft.
Now ıs tıme to hıt the road agaın and see what the rest of turkey has to offer.
Tc
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07.29.09
Posted in Greece, The journey journal at 9:23 am by Administrator
Well I’ve had a bit of internet time lately so a few more blogs coming your way. Thats because we are starting each day much earlier and so having loads more time in the afternoons to muck around.
The reasons for the early start is the amazingly infernal heat that batters the land from 12pm onwards. We’ve had several days over 40 in the shade. It gets to the point where I can’t swallow the water faster than it comes out of my pores (I look like a collander, I’m sure). As a result we’re trying to be off the bikes by 1pm at the latest and hiding in a net cafe or bar through the nasty bits of the day. The heat really started around dubrovnik but the altitude helped after there. The sacrifice of this is that we need to be out of bed early and have stopped having cooked breakies to get us on the road as soon as it is light.
Also there has been a constant wind in Greece. Not always in the same dirrection but it is always blowing. The first day over the border we had a 40+degree headwind and so made it 10km before taking refuge in a cool little bar that was in a large stand of trees. They had some traditional music playing later (which is infinitely better than the bulgarian stuff) and so we had a few drinks and camped under the brigde over the nearby river. We slept well until 2am when the wind turned around and blew with impressive strength. By 4 am we gave up trying to pretend that we were going to get anymore sleep and attempted to pack up in the wind. The fact that our tent didn’t blow away is a testament to it (even though it’s caused a few difficulties in the past). We made it about 10km before having to stop at a servo and take refuge again as the wind was literally picking nic up and moving her across the road. It was teh only time that I’ve hidden from a tail wind but at least we survived. Once it abated we got in a good solid 100 km day. Once again the greek hospitality has been awesome and we were treated to watermelon and drinks by Nico who was on holidays to help his parents run their petrol station.
Now we’re back on teh mainland after taking a day off on teh island of Thassos. Really nice and chilled out island. Loved it as a great place to relax and the kind of place to take a family on holiday. We’re a few days form Turkey and onward.
Tc
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07.27.09
Posted in Bulgaria, The journey journal at 10:38 am by Administrator
When you have a 120 odd km downhill and a tailwind a country tends to go by in a bit of a blur. If it hadn’t have been for my serious lack of intellegence and maintenance of my bike then we would have been through the place in a day. As it happened I ignored a slowly deflating tyre until it caused a serious loss of control while going downhill through a tunnel at 45 km/h. Ouch! I lost a bit of skin from right elbow, knee and love handle. Still not as bad as Nic’s gloriously deep hole in her knee from Marseille but painful none the less. Don’t you hate it when there is no one else to blame for something but yourself? Doh! Anyway once patched up we limped another 15 km and found a really cheap but really nice hotel and stayed for the night. It gave us the oportunity to experience (wretch at) the local music. The hotel had a live duo play in their restaurant and the keyboard player and backup vocalist had an awesome habit of being able to hit two or three extra keys with each rapid stroke than he was supposed to and his voice seemed to have a range that was from just flat of teh appropriate note to lots too flat of it. I’m so glad that they finished at 11 or I would have needed to kill someone. Also I spent about half and hour laughing harder than I have for years at the bulgarian music videos. I had to turn it off in the end or I would have injured myself laughing at their impressions of how bulgarian hiphop videos should look and “blokes” that put george michael to shame. Then there were teh folk videos that were worse than the spoofs that I’ve seen comedy shows in Aus do. Just hilarious.
Thats about all we really picked up from bulgaria except that the housing and roads are generally really crap (except the main highway) but the people seem to live quite well and have nice clothes and good food and appliances.
Tc
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Posted in Macedonia, The journey journal at 10:07 am by Administrator
This country was an ocean of calm drivers after the fretting that we did on the roads of Kosovo. Its only 18km from the border into the capital Skpoje. The northern suburbs of teh place are generally nasty slums full of beggars and people that won’t take no for an answer. Most of teh poor here are the Roma. The have been an incredibly vilified race over the last thousand years or so but I have not come across a group of people that seems to do less to lift their terrible reputation as beggars and thieves. Its pretty bad and it took most of teh trip into the country to lift the bad taste that it left. The centre of Skopje wasn’t bad and there is definitely a well developed sense of its own fashion. I must say that I didn’t think that itwas all that hot but those wearing it seemed to think that they were the cat’s meow.
After that we headed out over the countriside, which obviously could have been the bread basket of a civilisation and no wonder that Alexander the great like the area. The generosity got more and more as we crossed the country with random strangers buying us dinner in Stip and trying to organise other riders to join us for a bit. We also started in the local news for the city of Delcevo and did an interview in front of the cameras and all. haha. I’m a bit of a whore for the spotlight but Nic really doesn’t like the public eye so much so it was funny watching her when the reporter kept putting the microphone for her comments.
I think that I’ve decided to side with the greeks on the naming of the county. The name of Macedonia belongs to a broader area and the slavs moved in much later and have now kinda stolen the name which belonged to the greek people. Its a shame because the people there have a new country that deserves a cool name and Macedonia is heaps cooler than FYROM (former yugoslav republik of Macedonia) but what can you do. Maybe they should have a cool country name competition or something. Eitherway I know that will propable offend many people from the area and they really don’t deserve that as they were awesome and really looked after us.
Well bye for now.
Tc
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07.24.09
Posted in Kosovo, The journey journal at 6:23 pm by Administrator
DO NOT CYCLE IN KOSOVO!!! Seriously those people can not drive. I don’t care how much war and attrocity you’ve seen that is no excuse for the driving that nearly killed us a hundred times in Kosovo. The roads are pretty crap, the cars are really crap and the driving nonskills are downright appauling. The edges of Kosovo are pretty nice but the middle isn’t much at all. The hills out of Montenegro were stunning and well worth the 5 new tourist resorts that are being built there. The north bit which the serbians refuse to believe is not part of serbia is pretty nice and a billion times calmer than the main part of the country. The traffic even became survivable as we approached the southern border but the cetral section was chaos. We had an awesome meal at a local restaurant and the staff at our “by the hour” motel were really nice but the place is so disorganised that its scary and there have been no improvements since I was there 5 years ago. I was really disappointed to see that they have done relatively nothing since then. The head winds didn’t help much either but there should be a blanket ban on exporting cars to Kosovo and in 3 years there will be none left so they might appreciate the lose then. The only slightly thoughtful driving move that I saw in the entire country came from a german car. You also have to worry when you feel reassured that the car behind you is a tank because at least you know that the driver is not from kosovo. The guys there also made Nic feel really uncomfortable with the way that they looked at her and I must admit that I nearly came to blows with a few of them for that. So far it really seems that Nic’s idea that every second country is cool is holding true. Kosovo didn’t really impress either of us.
Anyway we now have to get back to enjoying a few relaxing bulgarian beers so bye for now.
Tc
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07.21.09
Posted in Montenegro, The journey journal at 2:19 pm by Administrator
A quick note here from skopje in macedonia.
The country of montenegro is pretty aptly named. it means black mountain in italian and in its own language it is Crno Gora which means black mountain. Strange that. Well the three of the four full days that we rode across the country involved climbs of over 1000m and our highest point on the trip was at about 1850 above sea level. We first crossed into the touristy area of herceg novi and it was an iteresting place. Nic kept pointing out all these really tall slim pretty girls that I would have not otherwise noticed. Then we headed around the awesome area of Kotor bay. It is a pretty specky area and well worth a look. After kotor we found out why cycle touring is really awesome. The climb out of kotor involves about 39 switchbacks and goes up just over 1000m and horizontally about 8 km. We ran out of water in the 35 degree heat around 800m up and just as we took our last swig we came around a corner and there was a little stand selling drinks and homemade cheese and cured meats. It was like a magical oasis. We asked pleadingly for water with swollen tongues and the guy who ran the stall clicked into action. Out came the chairs and the umbrellas and the precious water. Then more water and then the home made wine and the snacks and the home made spirits and finally out came his little guitary kind of violin thing that he proceeded to play for us all of the local folk music. It took us hours to get away from Luka and wobble our way up the rest of the hill. We could feel the last few hundred metres as we were a little tipsy but it was such an awesome experience to spend those hours out of the sun with such a genuine giving bloke. We would have missed that if not on bikes and it is that kind of hospitality that is appearing more and more in the balkans that is making this trip the dream that I hoped that it would be. The remainder of montenegro was a blur of gorges and mountain passes and stunning scenery. We did a small ‘civilisation stop’ in Podgorica and went to the movies and saw transformers. It was so wierd to fit back into ‘normal life’ for a second again. The countryside that we went through got really rural and remote and it was great to get away from populated areas.
The map that we were using for this part of the journey was bought in Melbourne and aparently printed in 2006. Unfortunately it wasn’t so up to date. It showed a nice main road heading out of montenegro into kosovo. It was Highway 9 so it couldn’t be bad.. right? Well the bitumen ended 10km and 600 m from teh top of the pass and didn’t start again until well into kosovo. As there is a kind of diplomatic cold war between the 2 countries then the blocked and neglected the road. A car couldn’t get through but a bike could get around the landslides and gravel and roadblocks and rocks and areas that have been dug up. There isn’t a real border there, just a kind of 12 km wide no mans land that nobody lives in or goes to. The only sign that we were leaving montenegro was the white landrover parked beside the road with three montenegran police next to it. They invited us for coffee and drinks and kind of as an afterthought checked our passports. Very cool border crossing and a great insight into things in the two countries at the montent.
Anyway bye for now.
Tc
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07.20.09
Posted in The journey journal, croatia at 12:25 pm by Administrator
Bosnia and croatia are interlinked in a some fun and confusing ways and I’m just happy that you don’t need a visa to get over each of the border crossings. So we did a quick stint of riding along the croatia adriatic coast before stopping for teh night in the only city in bosnia that is on the coast. We stayed in an old lady’s field that shes kinda tried to convert into a camp ground. pretty funny but after the heat on the coast we really needed a shower.
Then we cruised along the coast to the town of trsteno, 17 klm short of dubrovnik. The campgrouund there was run by a old brother and sister that had roots in the aristocracy of south america. We decided to stay there for a few days to give our bums a very deserving break and to explore dubrovnik. It was great to stay just outside of the range of teh tourists that swamp dubrovnik. It is an awesome city and there are ways to explore it without being elbowed a million times an hour by the cruiseships full of picturebook tourists and we loved it. The bars that sit just outside the city wall are reason enough to go and for some reason they aren’t crowded and so are ace. swimming in the shadow of teh huge fortificationsis spectacular.
The coast of croatia is so different from the interior that we saw. Almost all of the evidence of war has been erased and the area is prosperous. That may be because every second car was a tourist from some other part of europe. It is some seriously stunning coastline though.
After three days off the bikes we were raring to go again and set off on the day’s ride to the montenegran border but thast will be a new story.
Tc
One little tale of fun in dubrovnik was that on the morning that we were going to leave I couldn’t find my wallet to pay. We looked and looked but it was no where to be found in any of our stuff. The last time that we had seen it was the day before getting on teh bus back to camp. It was in the shopping bag. So after a bit of searching and figuring options we thought that we’d check with the driver of one of the buses that pass by. It was only 10 minutes to the nex tbus so we ran up to the stop and nic went to the post office in town to get some money out with her cards to pay for the camping. The post office wouldn’t give out the money and so the bus driver was the last hope. As he pulled up I sheepishly asked if there was a lost property number to call as I’d lost my wallet on the bus the day before. Like magic he produced my wallet from his little draw and handed it over. What are the chances!!!! We were pretty stoked and there were high fives all round with the kiwi couple that were camped next to us. All the money and stuff was still in it and it was a great lifter to send us on our way.
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07.16.09
Posted in Bosnia, The journey journal at 11:19 am by Administrator
Well after the war depression that we saw across the centre of croatia we were so amazed to see so much life and reconstruction across bosnia.
We stopped and had ourselves a nice hotel stay in a city not far from the border but I can’t remember the name now. We needed a good clean up and the stop was little celebration treat as I finally sucked it up and poped the question that had been building for a while. I asked if nic would buy the beers this time. Well I’ll hopefully send a proper email about that soon but I’m a tad rushed at the mo.
Anyway we cruised through to Banja Luka and were invited to an awesome 18th birthday party in a tiny camp ground and got a little tipsy and were kept up to all hours as the kids these days really know how to party late. (I suck at being old). Then we travelled done some of the most beautiful gorges and rivers and things and had a great time. We met heaps and heaps of other cyclists on the road which was a great change. We loved mostar and Sarajevo (that was a quick side trip on the train) and we then passed out to the coast and the other bit of croatia.
Jajce was awesome as we were the only travellers in town and the guy even came and unlocked teh fortress for us to go and have a look. Its beautiful and not as touristy as anywhere else. We really think that everyone should come and see bosnia on a bike before all of the tourists come and flood it and steal the culture. Hmm I see a small flaw in that plan. Oh well its our little secret.
Hugs
Tc
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07.12.09
Posted in The journey journal at 10:46 am by Administrator
After we left slovenia we took a rather unconventional route through croatia. Based on directions given to us by the many slovenians that stopped to talk to us we crossed into croatia at metalika and headed to the city of Karlovac (where one of the most popular croatian beers comes from and they have a beer festival but it was at the wrong time of year for us). The tourist information place in karlovac gave us an awesomely inaccurate map and we planned to cross to sisak and then into bosnia. We got a tad lost and ended up doing an extra 50km or so but it turned out to be a pretty interesting detour. We were seriously off the beaten track and it gave us the chance to see how things are in rural croatia away from anything that even closely resembles a tourist. Even people from the next villages don’t tour here. Then after Glina we got into an area that seemed to have really been hit very hard by the war and it doesn’t look as though it will ever recover. There are villages that where humanity is completely dying out and where nature is taking back the land. The hills were really pretty and it was a strange feeling to see the way that the people are dying out and the bush is closing in. For 70 km we saw so many villages where no people were under the age of 50 and those were the young people there. Most of teh houses were empty and falling down and many had had the bush swallow them up. Such a different experience to that in Slovenia but definitely an experience worth having. We met a nice couple in a bar in Karlovac that told us a fair bit about their country and they were very positive about much of it. I’m intriuged to see the coast now to see how different it is from the areas that man has done his best to irradicate himself and give the land back to nature.
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