56. Pljevlja (Montenegro) to Sarajevo (Bosnia i Herzegovina)

A whopper of a day! My longest ride ever! And a day containing the scariest moments on the ride so far!

We had decided to make a bee-line for Sarajevo…to allow us a rest day to explore!! So it was an early start….So we were on the road by 6.10 in the morning!

And it was cold! Unusually cold! Yesterday was the very first day of this trip where I started the ride WITHOUT an extra layer! No chance today…it was cold! And just got colder as we steadily climbed up to the border.

The border itself sits up at around 1,350 metres. This is the top!

And this is the actual border.

But the border posts themselves are about 8km apart…so a large area of no-mans’s land. I wonder which country this woman thinks she lives in!!

It was a pleasant…albeit cold…free-wheel down to breakfast in Bosnia i Herzegovina…interrupted only by a stop at their border post….and a bit of a wait while the night shift swapped to the day shuft!

Not a fast ride though…as the road was in a dire state!

But breakfast was fantastic…eggs…prosciutto…salamis…herbal cheese…salad…in a cosy wee restaurant where you could smoke inside!! Which was good…for we were both frozen to the bone…!!

Given today’s distance…we had decided to recharge the batteries here…so it was a full 90-minute break….which added 40% capacity.

A pleasant ride thereafter…..as the skies eventually cleared…

…on a riverside road….

….which then tightened into ANother gorge…!!

Short tunnels……which are just fine!

And then this! 

No indication of how long it was. And you certainly could not see the end. But this was one of many we had whizzed through this morning…so I gamely rode on in. 

The lights stopped. We could see nothing. So I shuffled towards what I thought was the edge of the tunnel…but a car coming through behind us confirmed I was not at the edge of the tunnel at all! He was rightly grumpy with us…and honked his horn etc etc! All a bit scary…!

As soon as we could we raced back out!!

What to do?

Firstly I pulled out my new bike lights! (Now there’s a thing…!). But as we watched trucks roar in and out of the tunnel….neither of us felt comfortable…even with good lights!…there was just not enough width! Even for walking with the bikes…

So…we decided go try and stop a friendly motorist….and ask them to follow us through with their hazard lights on!

Wave a car down? Or hitch-hike?

Anyway…a sort of combination of the two worked?..as a family stopped!!

No english at all…..but we managed to communicate what we were after…and off we went!

Even with this security blanket…it was a very disconcerting ride. Probably a kilometre long…dark…damp…and an s-bend shape! But our trusted back-up stayed the course…and we emerged into the sunshine with not a little delight…and lots of gratitude!

Lovely road!  (…sort of…!)

We nearly choked when a wee way further on we came upon a sign: TUNNEL 750 METRES. But thankfully….it was 750 metres OF tunnels….nice short ones in succession! No problem!

It was then a fairly painful tiring 900m climb back up to 1,250 metres to finish the day….

….and as the capital city of Sarajevo got closer…the road got busier…and faster…with increasingly idiotic drivers. Far too many close shaves…far far too close…with trucks…buses…panel vans (always the worst offenders) cars brushing by us.

Not at all pleasant.

But at least there was a good long down hill!

And as we neared the city itself…the road widened a tadge…and we set off down ANother gorgeous gorge.

Too many tunnels though…….

….but the longer ones were lit a bit!

Amazingly…this is less than 2km from the very centre of the old town of Sarajevo…

…which is here!!

The beers were well-deserved…!!

And we both truly over-indulged!!

….thankful of being in one piece probably!