May 16, 2023
Day 90: Jajce to Banja Luka
Soggy Soggy Soggy Day
We hear cracks of thunder as we are riding through the city of Banja Luka and only a few kilometers from our place to stay tonight. It’s been a soggy soggy soggy day, more difficult than we anticipated looking at the profile.
By eight o’clock in the morning, we have carried our gear down and loaded the bikes. Then we head into the restaurant for breakfast. It has poured rain pretty much all night. As we drink our cappuccino’s waiting for the rest of the hotel breakfast it is first drizzling and then the sun peeks out and the rain stops. We know this will not last but it is easier to set off when it is not raining.
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RWGPS has us backtrack through the town, then cross the river and head back to the main road. Problem is that the road it wants us to take is really more like a stair: very steep and paved with river rock set in concrete, slicker than snot when they are wet. We carefully walk the bikes down, then think better of it. The main road on the opposite side of the valley is pretty high up; even if we find a bridge way down these stairs it will only mean climbing something equally steep on the other side. So we hedge our bets and backtrack once again.
Across the footbridge we entered town on yesterday, past the falls and back to the main junction with the main road. Traffic is not too bad at first. We continue to follow the Vrbas River downstream. The rain holds off for a while. We don’t see a good coffee place until we are almost 30km into today’s ride, at the bottom of the only big hill we have today. The other spikes on the elevation graph are not hills but tunnels. AI must not know what to do with those (yet). We figured this out a while ago, but there is no avoiding the one big hill today.
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The tunnels return, a total of 9 today. The longest is well lit, most were short enough we could see without the headlights and used only the blinkie lights on the back of the bikes.
As easy as the climbing went yesterday, is as hard it is today. We struggle, even with the extra caffeine, but eventually we crest the top and start a downhill back to the river. We pass a castle and have a nice view of the mountain gorge ahead. There are also very dark clouds gathering. We get poured on a couple of times.
Entering the area of Republic of Srpska
Just before Banja Luke we stop at a restaurant for a hot plate of soup. As we sit at the window we congratulate ourselves for stopping just in time: a huge downpour passes over. We leave as it stops, only eight kilometers to go. Then it really starts pouring, the road turns into a river. Catch basins cannot keep up. Traffic is pretty good to us, but there are always some impatient assholes. Not as many of those as we expect in the US though. Coming into town on an S curve and hill, a truck keeps honking. Rachel pulls off to the side at the first opportunity, and only halfway up the hill. She decides to walk to the top to get a better start riding again. As she swung her leg over the bike, her rain pants hooked on the seat and the momentum took the bike and her down. She landed on her butt in the gushing water in the gutter. Luckily, there was no traffic passing at the time, and she is wearing rain gear so the gushing water didn't matter. Patrick helped her back on her feet quickly and no injuries noted.
Our guesthouse is on the other side of town, with a convoluted street lay-out a challenge to find. Especially in the pouring rain when the touchscreen on the tablet does not work well. Before checking the GPS we have to find some kind of shelter and keep the water from dripping off our head onto the screen. The shopping mall we know to be near our guesthouse provides a covered shelter.
We find our guesthouse, it take a few minutes to get the attention of the landlord because we cannot locate the doorbell. When Patrick asks a passerby to call the telephone number we have he instead walks around the back and rings the bell. Duh?
This is one of the cheaper places we have stayed in at less than 25 euros, but it offsets the more expensive ones. It is not bad though, clean and comfortable single beds. The shower is hot but the heater does not work. Not that we are really cold, just would be nice to help dry things out.
Later we walk back to the shopping center nearby, but the cafeteria dinner is very disappointing.
Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 3,322 km (2,063 miles)
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11 months ago