May 15, 2023
Day 89: Travnik to Jajce
Soggy Soggy Day
We look out the window and dress the same as yesterday, while the other days we expected to cycle in the rain, today we know we will. We start out with a light drizzle that increases to a soft rain, then back to drizzle. This continues throughout the day. We are lucky though that there isn’t a huge downpour.
The reviews for the motel breakfast aren’t great, so we did not buy it but do our own breakfast in the room and start out early. We need to leave this river valley over a pass and into the Vrbas River Valley.
The road isn’t too steep, just a slow slog, we have more truck traffic than expected. The truckers are pretty good at giving us space, it’s the buses that are in a hurry and sometimes try to squeeze by. We reach the summit at Komar, put on some more clothes and start a beautiful downhill. The hills are forested green.
We pass by Di Casa Restaurant, a welcome sight as we are a little cold. We stop for an omelet and coffee. Well, two cappuccinos each. The downhill is a bit chilly. As we ride through Donj Vakue, we get two separate local men on bikes, ding their bike bell and give us a thumbs up. We now are following the Vrbas River downstream. After Donj Vakue, Patrick takes the lead at a bat out of hell pace for about 10km until Babin Potok. Rachel gladly kept up wanting to just get to Jajce.
On the edge of Jajce, we stop to see the Pliva waterfalls that are 22 meters high. This is where the Pliva river meets the River Vrbas. We continue on the side road and over a foot bridge to the other side of the river. On the way to the hotel we stop at a Bingo Supermarket to pick up a few supplies. The hotel is another couple more km away from the city center. Patrick booked it somewhat by accident when he saw the price and good reviews. Somehow he missed the location, but with the bad weather we doubt we would have spent much time walking around town anyway. The hotel / restaurant is very nice and set along beautiful ponds in the Pliva River.
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11 months ago
We relax and watch tv all afternoon as the rain pours down outside. The restaurant downstairs is nice so we don’t have to go anywhere. After a nice dinner and two large pints of beer each we walk to the Mlincici watermills. “It is a collection of about 20 little huts that once served as watermills for local farmers. The little windowless huts sit on top of skinny stilts right over the gushing water. Since the flow here is spread out, by using a series of little mills instead of one big water wheel, the diffuse water power could be aggregated. Pretty ingenious. Most of the huts go back to the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire (about 1867 to 1918), and they give the impression of a little storybook village.”
The rain is pouring down again and we hoof it back a kilometer and a half to our warm hotel room. Glad not to be camping tonight. (again).
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 3,244 km (2,015 miles)
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