Back to Belgrade (subterranean cycling)

Stage 21: Sarajevo to Belgrade (370km)
Day 1: 90.3km Meded
Day 2: 52.6km Pass beyond Mokra Gora
Day 3: 153.9km Near Pepelijevac
Day 4: 73.1km Belgrade

Having to make a phone call back to Dublin delayed my departure from Sarajevo until nearly midday; well, a phone call and a bit of eating. The sky was looking a little omnious, but at least it wasn't any of the +30 degree days I'd been experiencing up 'til then. It was a bit of a climb up out of the city and I soon turned off the main road towards a town called Pale, where a minor road was set to take me out towards the Serbian border. The political layout of Bosnia i Herzegonvina transpires to be even more complicated that I had previously been aware with autonomous regions without borders contained withing the larger country. So, soon after leaving the city limits, I was back to reading Cyrillic like a local dyslexic within the republic of Srbska within Bosnia (and Herzegovina).

The road rose slightly but steadily out of Pale until I reached my first major tunnel. It was only after entering it did I realise that not only was it 1km long, but it was a 1km long tunnel containing only one lane. Additionaly, it was a 1km tunnel with one unlit one lane. Around the first corner, I decided that a torch would be a good idea with there being nothing but darkness ahead. I had just about retrieved my torch when I heard the jet-engine roar of approaching traffic coming towards me in this 1km long, one lane wide, unlit tunnel. I cowered in the inky darkness, pressed up against the sloping side of the tunnel as the traffic slammed on its breaks upon seeing my feeble flashing LED headtorch. The cars and truck just managed to squeeze past and I was left alone in the darkness, able to see a dim section of asphalt about 1m in front of my tyre as I cycled slowly onwards.

The tunnel marked the highest part of the road, and I followed a river for the remaining part of the day, allowing me to cover more distance than I had originally thought I could in the half-day. The asphalt soon faded from the road and I was left cycling along a reasonable dirt surface, devoid of almost all other traffic through a steep sided, narrow limestone gorge. The only issue was the subterranean cycling!

Not even using the sophisticated back of an envelope, I estimate that I cycled a further 4 km underground as the road passed through steep limestone spurs. Many of these were only 100-200m long, short enough to see the other side as one enters, but at least 4 or 5 them were over 400m; pitch black cycling with only a small headtorch through small tunnels on a dirt road. It was a fun day.

The area approaching Vishegrad in Eastern Bosnia lacks an abundance of camping sites given the steep hillsides, so I found myself camping above one of the many tunnels just before the village of Meded.



I was held up again the following morning with a broken gear cable before I had even left the town of Meded. I replaced it and was back on the road within an hour. In the town of Vishegrad, the thought of replacing my fairly worn, ripped and faded cycling t-shirt with an updated model was thwarted by the female owner of the clothes shop. Through the medium of international sign language, she indicated that I was not allowed to handle the textiled items within the shop on account of my incredibly grubby hands. I obliged.

There was a little concern that I may have difficulty entering Serbia due to the Kosovo stamp in my passport. Someone had made me aware on this blog about entering Serbia through Kosovo, which had been my initial plan (so thanks for the heads up), but my host (Clare) in Kosovo had said I wouldn't have any issue if I left Kosovo, and re-entered Serbia from elsewhere. This indeed was the case, and I breezed through yet another checkpoint.

I ate my lunch, shading from the sun under a large tree. An hour later I was again sheltering under a tree, this time in full waterproofs as the thunder and lightening was striking less that 2km away. It was about a 10km ascent from the village of Mokra Gora to the pass. Halfway up, I reached into the back pocket of my waterproof jacket to retrieve my camera, only to reach into a pool of water! At the pass, with the rain still hammering down, I sheltered at some picnic tables beneath A-frame roofs and made the executive decision that I wasn't going to continue. I sat out the rain listening to BBC world service on my little radio.

That night I spurned the attic of a nearby abandoned stable for a small little wooden hut, built on stilts, with one small window and accessed through a trap door. I slept, unsure whether anyone would come a knock, knock, knocking on the trapdoor. But my sleep was generally uninterrupted. I'd like to show you a picture of the accommodation, but my camera had decided to be uncooperative following it's soaking.

I covered a long distance the following day. Aided by a slight tailwind and some cycle-friendly gradients I finally managed to break the 150km mark. I thought about going for the 160km, but figured I couldn't possibly deny myself a further challenge to aim for over the remaining distance. An approaching storm also pushed me on my way. It gained on me on an uphill section before the town of Valjevo, with the rain coming to within a few kilometers, before I embarrassed and humiliated it's slow progress on the downhill section.

The final approach to Belgrade was along flat rolling plains, and I found myself in the city soon after lunch. I made my way to the house of my aunt. The following days have seen me eating well, sleeping well and enjoying the company of my Yugoslav relatives. I've had my bike tuned up for free from an excellent bike-repair man (Slobodan: 064 231 3645; www.bajs.co.yu) and even found myself the subject of a TV interview for Serbian TV! Also, having removed some Serbian hard currency for the purchase of a new camera, my old one decided to do a Lazareth and jump back to life!

With the weather appearing to be hotting up these last few days, I'm soon to be back on the bike heading towards Zagreb and then the mountains of Slovenia, but taking a route through northern Bosnia into the lake district of Croatia. I've been informed it's a much more beautiful route, albeit a little longer.

A relieved me coming out of the 1km unlit tunnel. Little did I know that there was much more in store!










Think of this the next time you throw your plastic bottle in the bin. All the white stuff is plastic bottles.








Wet me: sheltering under the A-frames. The last picture before my camera decided that enough was enough









Sicandar with the TV crew in Belgrade