June 7, 2025 to June 13, 2025
Day 250-254: Sarajevo – Croatian Border (Bosnia)
There’s not a whole lot that happened the last few days. We did pass into a new area, the Republic of Srpska. Which we’d previously passed though without noticing. Before we got here, I was ignorant that Bosnia is actually two places: not Bosnia (1) and Herzegovina (2), but the Republic of Srpska (1) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2). Well, its three (another corner called Brčko District, but I have enough trouble producing Srpska and won't attempt Brčko). We probably didn’t need to ride all this way to learn that – but at least we have learnt it.
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The north of Bosnia isn’t as geographically interesting as the south. We also thought we needed to change our planned route to avoid a scenically interesting road because everyone else seemed to want to take that road as well (too many cars / busses / trucks). We did get some nice scenery of hills and once we took a smaller road it was quite pleasant.
It’s a shame that the huge 2-lane highway we followed for some time is underused, but the small road next to it is full of traffic. We guess the toll is too high.
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Despite the drivers not improving, the people we meet face to face are still great. We had a lovely experience camping beside the road. For part of the way, the expressway went almost exactly where we wanted to go, but the expressway had consumed whatever road was there before. We ended up on small farm tracks weaving our way along the valley. We’d just about had enough, and then a dirt track ended in a creek crossing. After fording this, we popped out right next to a large green playground. After dithering for a few minutes, we asked at the attached café / bar and the owner had no problem with us camping the night. We had a short chat (he spoke some English!) and ended up with a ripper campsite that ticked nearly all the boxes: shade, table and benches, water supply, toilet, beer and coffee available. WiFi in the tent (not normally on the list of necessities). No shower, but that’s ok.
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We’re sneaking up on the Schengen zone. We can see Croatia across the river from here. When we hit the Schengen zone, the meandering will change: For Stephen it will end (will be a straight line basically north for a while), for Cath it will get more complex. The Schengen zone is huge (and recently got even bigger), and we only get 90 cumulative days to try and do everything we want before we must leave, wait a while, before coming back. We’ll have to split up to tackle this.
Today's ride: 307 km (191 miles)
Total: 12,494 km (7,759 miles)
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