Travelling on two wheels in the Western Balkans!

I caught up recently with Veteran Cyclists from the west of Ireland

Stephen Dowd and Ger Reynolds  to find out about their  cycling trip in the Western Balkans.

A lot of climbing......

Cycling through the Durmitor National Park in Montegnegro - highest point of trip at 1,908 metres.  The area is called Sedlo Pars.

 They covered almost 1300 kilometres in just over two weeks.  Referring to the distance covered on the trip the cyclists said: “One of the factors was how many kilometres you went, the other was how much climbing was involved because it was unbelievably mountainous especially Montenegro – in some places particularly Albania the distance covered depended on the road surface.  There were incredibly few paved roads in Albania.”

The route.....

Village of Vergo - Southern Albania

They flew into Corfu in Greece and out of Dubrovnik in Croatia.  From Corfu their journey took them by ferry to Sarande in southern Albania (Shquiperia to the locals) and on to Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia & Hercegovina and finally Croatia.  Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro were the friendliest places but Ger pointed out this was probably because they “had more time” in these countries and cycled more on minor roads through villages.  Ger said one of the highlights for him was the local children coming out to greet you “giving you high fives and shouting and roaring at you.”

Stephen and Ger said southern Albania and western Macedonia were “the most off the beaten track” of the countries they visited.  Macedonia was more developed than Albania “the roads were a little bit better.” 

Lessons in trusting maps & taking shortcuts....

Back roads in Southern Albanis - close to Vergo Village in Maliigjere mountains

It was in Albania that they learnt a lesson in trusting maps and taking shortcuts.  Their first destination in Albania after landing in Sarande was Tepelina.  Instead of going the long way around by the main road they decided to cut across the hills as this would take 15 miles off their journey.  However while the road to a village called Senice started off very good it “quickly became very poor, became a dirt track and by the time the road got to Senice it was a barely passible dirt track” – it was now late afternoon.  After pushing their bikes for a while, running out of food and water and getting some very welcome local advice Stephen and Ger made the decision to go back down.  They stayed in a small town called Delvine – where some friendly locals found them accommodation for the night for €10. 

Ger said this experience at the start of the trip in Albania taught them to question their assumptions - “we believed the map over everything else in the first few days – we would be going along assuming there was road because the map marked it and then suddenly no road.”

Steep descents .......

In Macedonia Stephen almost came off his bike on one of the steep descents.  They were heading north from Debar through the Mavrovo National Park.  From Debar they were “slowly going up for the first 20 kilometres or so and then steadily climbing for the next 20 kilometres” to a ski centre.  Then they faced a descent of about 20 kilometres out of the mountains to Gostivar.  At the bottom of the hill when Stephen started to peddle again he said: “I almost fell off the bike because I had my bike in the lowest gear - I had not touched the pedals in so long.” 

Facing the hill of their lives ........

Cyclists on the summit of road from Kosovo into Montenegro

Another memorable experience for Stephen and Ger was coming face to face with the “hill of their lives” cycling from Kosovo to Montenegro (Crna Gora).  This was on route from Peje in Western Kosovo to Rosaje in the South of Montengro - “so from Peje we climbed approximately 1200 metres to a height of almost 1800 metres – that took us 4.5 hours of climbing.”  Stephen said he now understands why the Turks had difficulty conquering this part of the world. 

Primeval forest........

One of the highlights of the cycle in Montenegro included the Biogradska Gora National Park, an area of “primeval forest”, lakes and mountains- located in the central part of Montenegro.   It was here Stephen and Ger spotted the most bizarre sight of their trip - a man on a horse emerging out of the “primeval forest” carrying an umbrella. 

Cycling to the centre of the earth.......

Entering the Tara Canyon in Montenegro.  The nearest town is Mojkovac. 

Other highlights included the Tara Canyon to the north of the Biogradska Gora National Park –the deepest canyon in Europe and the Durmitor National Park in north-western Montenegro with its “spectacular” mountains.  The cyclists made one of their most impressive descents of over 30 kilometres in this park- “you think you cannot go down anymore because you will be at the centre of the earth and then you come to edge of the Pive Canyon.”

Hair-raising experiences cycling into Dubrovnik...

The last leg of their journey cycling into Dubrovnik was a hair-raising experience “the last few kilometres was hell on earth – an exceedingly busy road and nowhere for bicycles.”

Preparation for the trup.......

Rural scene in area of Permet Southern Albania

Stephen and Ger chose their route based on being able to fly direct into and out of Corfu and Dubrovnik and also because “they are small places to get out of on a bike and they were distances apart that gave us a route of lovely countryside.”  They got maps of each of the areas they were travelling to from www.freytagberndt.de.  

They used “regular mountain bikes” for the trip that could carry 25 kilos in addition to their own weight.  Both cyclists had a good knowledge of basic bike maintenance which gave them confidence about overcoming mechanical problems along the way. 

Challenges ........

When asked about the challenges of doing a trip like this Stephen and Ger agreed the main challenge is “you are living with someone for two weeks – you would want to know before you go that you could get on.” 

Stephen said if you are going to take on a trip like this “you need to take things as they come and get a laugh out of things when they go wrong.”

Further information on the area

One interesting site I came across that might be worth checking out for more information on the Western Balkans is the Western Balkans Geotourism Mapguide