Let’s go cycling

3rd October. 85km, the first section of the Ciro Trail, cloudy, windy and cold 9 degrees, brrrr.

We set off from Mostar with a little trepidation after the previous few experiences on Bosnian Roads. Once through the first few km out of the city, we found ourselves on dead quiet roads, smooth surfaces and a tail wind! Win win…

Met another couple cycle touring a similar route- the first cycle tourists we’ve seen since leaving Budapest.

About 40km into the ride today the signposts offered options. We took the “non highway” route, thinking that anything with an “M” in it may be a tad busy. What it did mean was that we hiked our bikes up 2km of gravelly sloped track, to reach the old railway line track. Very slow going and by the time we stopped for lunch we were starting to doubt whether we’d reach our destination in daylight.

The track did improve a little, so we persevered! About 6 tunnels through the hills presented us with pitch blackness and rough gravelly surfaces that were a bit scary to ride through. Thankfully, no bats appeared to terrify us any further…

Steep dropoffs were also a feature for much of this section, along with rough riding surfaces…

A very long 11km later we finally rejoined the alternative “road” route, to find that it was also lovely and quiet, and with a flat easy surface to ride on. Ah well, I guess it was an adventure and the tunnels certainly provided some interest to our day!

So, instead of opting for landmine infested territory we stayed in a restored/repurposed railway station, quite civilised indeed!

4th October.  57km, Ravno to Mlini– back into Croatia!

A beautiful start to the day – sun shining, no wind and nice quiet road, then even quieter rail track.  Until we hit somewhere aroind the 8km mark and a very hefty German Shepherd came bounding down the embankment with its teeth bared and knocked me off my bike.  Ouch.

Wasn’t moving very fast by the time it hit me so just a few bruises and thankfully it didn’t continue the attack.  Off it scampered.  But more surprisingly,  so did the two people that were accompanying the dog.  No “are you ok” or “oh, sorry about the dog…” They just disappeared!

Very strange.  I confess to being somewhat shaken, and t’was a good thing the next several km were flat and quiet.

Border crossing back into Croatia was unfriendly but uneventful…then a big downhill to the coast! Gotta admit, I was a little pleased to be out of Bosnia.

Next step, to find the accommodation that we’d booked, a few km out of Dubrovnik in “Mlini”. A very steep uphill, and then a very steep downhill, and we find that this is not where the accommodation is. Damn!! Back up, and back down- next time we won’t rely on Komoot to get us exactly where we need to be.
Anyhow, once we did actually find the place we were warmly welcomed by the owners, and even treated to a drop of their home brewed aperitif.

5th October- Dubrovnik!
We purchased water taxi tickets from our accomm yesterday…but the weather was a bit ferocious so no boats were going anywhere today. Bus it was… for a few hours of exploring Dubrovnik’s old town.

Lovely to see all the old buildings and alleyways…but also good to get back out and away from the throngs of people, even now when the “real” tourist season is supposedly over.

The weather came in big time later in the afternoon, so it was a good excuse to sit and watch the world go by from the warmth of our apartment 🙂

6th October, Mlini to Molunat, 33 km
Horrible cross winds and a very busy road for the first 20 odd km. Enough to put me off cycle touring somewhat…but luckily we turned off after the Airport to a very quiet road which took us all the way to Molunat. A peaceful little village, right on the water. Our “apartment” (a very loose description…) even has its own private “beach”, which is really a concrete slab but still pretty cool, even though we were charged 6€ for the privilege…

And tomorrow, we swap countries again.  Better go check what the currency is!