Distance: 56.1 miles
Difficulty: HARD
Sights: Barac's Caves, Croatian Countryside, Bosnia
Miles in Croatia: 366
Miles in Bosnia: 10
Total Miles for Bikespedition-2009: 1276
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| From Another Cave |
It seemed so simple. Just go to the cave, then follow the road from the cave to Bosnia. Then I figured I’d spend the rest of the day in Bosnia. Oh, the plans of mice and men.
I left Barac’s Cave, (Splendid cave, by the way, another MUST see for that list I keep giving you.) and headed down the road that my cycling map told me took me to Bosnia (one town only 21 km away). Well, I rode down it; then it turned to gravel; and then it turned dirt. As I went, I noticed that the tufts of grass in the middle of the road were getting wider and wider – I sure sign of lack of use. Well, this road did almost make it. I came to the dry Korana river and there was no bridge to Bosnia. There obviously had been one before, but not any more. I don’t know if it was destroyed in the war or after since it wasn’t the same country anymore and they wanted to limit the crossing points.
Well, that’s okay there are two other routes to Bosnia on my cycling map. So I started on the next one. Sure enough the same thing started happening. The tufts got wider and wider. Well, I knew something was up and was about to turn around when a huge gate over the road stopped me. Apparently there was no passing on this road because . . . wait for it . . . THE ROAD WAS MINED!
Now, sure the road is a minefield. I’ll accept that. And of course they don’t want people riding/driving on it – there being landmines and all. What I don’t get is why my cycling map from 2006 would have this road with an arrow “BiH 23km.” I mean if I was making a cycling map of Boston and there were landmines on the Minuteman I wouldn’t put “BEDFORD 11 miles.” I’d probably put big red X’s through saying “DON’T USE – MINEFIELDS!”
Well, on my third attempt I made it to Bosnia. You can chalk up a fourth country for Bikespedition-2009 and a sixth country I’ve visited that hasn’t given me an entry stamp [the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg can be forgiven, since they weren’t supposed to – but Switzerland, Germany and Bosnia: I’m pissed].
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| From Another Cave |
(I remember the guy in Hamburg who was shocked that I had no stamps. I had to go through a long story why I didn’t get stamps in Germany or Switzerland. He accepted it begrudgingly. Then Gabe walks up and he says, “You don’t have any stamps either.” Gabe answers: “I was with HIM!” pointing to me as I walked toward the plane.)
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| From Another Cave |
Once I finally got to Bosnia, it was late. So I rode 5 miles in and stopped for a Bosnian beer (surprisingly good – I won’t go looking for it at the LQ or anything). I then turned around; reentered Croatia and returned to AutoCamp Korana.
Oh yeah, I saw another decaying castle. Castles/fortresses are almost ho hum now. I mean every little speck of ground has been defended by somebody at some point, some where on this continent – and we wonder why the EU has integration issues.
Tino Pai!
Jesse…
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