Day 1: Windsor to Wiseman’s Ferry

Date: 2nd April 2010

We planned this Easter weekend ride with our friends Bel and Dan in 2010. From Sydney we caught the train to Windsor and left about midday towards the Sackville ferry. Not long after the ferry we turned left onto River Road which followed the Hawkesbury until Wiseman’s Ferry. It’s a nice ride (as most riverside routes are); undulating but no daunting climbs. There’s a lot of waterskiing in this part of the river, and the riverside is dotted with caravan parks if you want to camp anywhere along there.

The Sackville Ferry

A man who was chatting to us over his front fence recommended we go to Del Rio, which is a “riverside resort” with camping and a bar, not far over the river from the Webbs Creek ferry. It wasn’t the most peaceful location, but it did have hot showers and a bar. We were cooking our own, but the bar also did food. I wouldn’t really recommend it if you are looking for something peaceful.

Day 2: Wiseman’s Ferry to Mangrove Mountain

Date: 3rd April 2010

In the morning we went back over the river on the Webbs Creek ferry, then again on Wiseman’s ferry. Wiseman’s Ferry Road follows the river downstream for a while until Spencer where we had lunch. Then it leaves the river and heads up Mangrove Creek. This is an OK ride until the road leaves the creek and heads up towards Mangrove Mountain. There are a few kilometres of a constant hard climb before it settles into a bit of an easier climb. Check the elevation profile at the top of the post from about 95km – it’s steep.

Even though the distance covered was short for a day of riding it did take us most of the day, although we regularly stopping for coffee breaks and the like in the morning.

There’s a shop at Mangrove Mountain where we bought a drink and some water and asked about camping. There are no caravan parks or campsites around, but she recommended the football field which was a short ride up the road. This turned out to be ideal – nice grass to pitch on, quiet, and fairly secluded. After a good meal, some wine, and some very tasty scotch supplied by Dan we slept well.

Day 3: Mangrove Mountain to Brooklyn

Date: 4th April 2010

We had camped quite close to the top of the hill. It’s about 4km to Central Mangrove, then almost all downhill from there for the rest of the way. We stopped at Peats Ridge for delicious hot crossed buns and a bad chai latte, then enjoyed a quick downhill run (some of it quite fun) to the Pacific Highway and on down to Brooklyn. At Brooklyn we had a couple of celebratory beers and fish and chips for lunch, before catching the train home.

Dan, Bel and Wally on Wiseman's Ferry

The route we took for this ride came from http://www.cycleaustralia.info/cycling/hawkesbury.htm. It also marks a side trip to St Albans, which would probably be worth it. There’s an excellent pub there.

Even though there were shops along the route we took most of our food with us as it was Easter, but there wasn’t really a need as most shops seemed to be open even on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I would recommend carrying a fair bit of water. We had no problems refilling in cafes generally, but at Mangrove Mountain (at the top of a long climb) the only water to be found was bought at the shop.

For camping, there are a plethora of caravan parks along the Hawkesbury, but after that not much. There is the Mill Creek campsite in Dharug National Park which is nice, but I would recommend the football field we used at Mangrove Mountain, as Mill Creek is a few kilometres off the route. The football field is on a side road, but signposted from the main road. Other than that there are probably a heap of places you can free camp in Ourimbah State Forest and the like.

It was quite scenic for nearly the entire way. Where we weren’t following the river we were either too busy climbing to notice anything, or going through state forest or national parks. There were some great views from the Pacific Highway.

With an early start and a late finish you could easily do this as a two day trip.

The trains didn’t seem too bad although we didn’t feel particularly welcome. The rail network in Croatia doesn’t have a lot of coverage though. As with Slovenia, you might have a bit of trouble getting on the trains with a bike if it’s particularly crowded.

Buses will accept bikes, but only when they’re in the mood, and it’s up to the driver. You have to wait until the bus arrives, and if you’re rejected try the next one. If the bus is not very full you have a good chance, so try not to travel in peak times. The charge for taking a bike is considerably more than for the same size of luggage, as well.

Car ferries are great for bikes, but the passenger-only catamarans won’t take them. There’s no reason why not, so, as with most things, this might be negotiable. You may also be able to negotiate with tour operators and the like if they are travelling to an island you want to go to. To be sure ahead of time, check that the route you want to take is serviced by a car ferry. Also, in some cases the cost of a bike on a ferry is more than the cost of a person.

In Slovenia we never tried using buses, but we used trains fairly regularly and never had a problem. We weren’t travelling in a peak time though, and I understand you can be rejected by the train conductor if he thinks it is too full.

In general, travelling outside of peak season will give you a good chance of getting onto public transport with your bike.

We never had to box or bag the bike on any trains, buses or ferries. Just take the front wheel off for the buses.

The heat was often a bit too much to ride in, so opting to spend four or so hours in the middle of the day lazing about in the shade somewhere, and only riding morning and late afternoon was great. The time off can easily be wasted on delicious gelato, beer, and enjoying the seaside towns.

Krk as a town was a highlight – beautiful, but small and relatively quiet. For cycling the highlight was probably the twin islands of Cres and Losinj.

Although the big cities are great in themselves, as a cyclist it’s difficult to like them. Dubrovnik in particular is a very beautiful city, but is more suited to the normal tourist than cyclists. On another cycling trip I would gladly skip the big cities and spend the entire time on the islands, then visit Montenegro via Trebinje. The inland route via Bosnia seems it would be much more pleasant and easy than the coastal road.

Finding campgrounds in Croatia was easier than in Slovenia, but they were usually rocky and hard ground, and we came home with a few bent pegs. In some cases we used rocks more than pegs to anchor the tent.

We didn’t cycle as much distance as we intended. In Slovenia we were limited mostly by bad weather, and in Croatia it was our limited ferry options and our unwillingness to ride the main coastal highway, and the heat. What we did was very enjoyable though. We also improved quite a lot as cyclists over the three weeks, and were in pretty good shape by the end.

Apart from the unusually high rainfall we suffered, Slovenia was a better country for cycling. It’s less touristy and more bike friendly than Croatia, and there were areas that sound great for cycling that we didn’t visit, such as the Krka river.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I think our only mistake was to try to fit in too many places which were far apart, meaning we had to cover quite a lot of distance on other forms of transport in order to fit them in. Catching trains, buses and planes is so much less fun and rewarding than cycling, and considerably more expensive. It would be better to cover less distance and be cycling nearly all of the time, even if it means missing a lot of the big drawcards of a region. There are so many small things which will make up for it.

6th and 7th June 2008

Our last day in Dubrovnik before heading home was spent looking for bike boxes. As there are a total of zero specialist bike shops in the city and a similar number of helpful people in the sports shops that did sell bikes, this turned out to be not possible. Estonian Air’s policy is that all bikes must be in a box. When we called them they said they would accept them bagged, just not take responsibility for any damage. Eventually we found some huge sheets of plastic from a gardening shop to wrap them up in. This is far easier and more practical than a box anyway, as it made packing the bikes a simple task, and we could fold them away for reuse later. After this experience I would definitely recommend bagging rather than boxing. Just take off the wheels, turn the handlebars, and remove the pedals, just as you would if packing in a box. Bike are relatively sturdy and are likely to survive the trip, even with baggage handlers roughing them up a bit.

We had a mid morning flight back to Tallinn, and there our trip ended.

Date: 5th June 2008

We took a day off from our lazing about in Dubrovnik to make a side trip to nearby Trebinje in Bosnia. Since it was just a day trip we didn’t have much weight so it was to be a relatively easy ride. Leaving Dubrovnik wasn’t so easy because it was quite a long steep hill, and a very busy road. There was a shoulder which made it, although still a little frightening, at least managable.

About 4km out of Dubrovnik we turned off the main highway onto a small road which led to Trebinje. At first we thought we were lost because the road was completely empty, and we thought it was a major road into a different country and so should be busy. There were a couple of quarries around but little else. We were able to confirm we were on the right track though and continued on our merry way up the winding road. The views back to Croatia and the Adriatic were quite spectacular.

View from the pass over the mountains between Dubrovnik and Trebinje, near the Croatia/Bosnia border.

Because of the history of unfriendliness between Croatia and Bosnia I was expecting the border security to be quite tough, but it was the most relaxed I’ve ever seen. The Croatian border waved us out, then when we got to the Bosnian security I was taking too long to find Millerine’s passport, so they sent us through without checking. Obviously two non-slavs on bicycles don’t pose much of a threat.

The rest of the trip to Trebinje was uneventful. The road continued winding up to the top of the hill, then it was a gradually graded 15km ride down into Trebinje. In between there was very little other than abandoned and destroyed buildings, road kill, and only about four or five cars. It was very stark. It looked as though it had been hit hard by the war and never recovered. The view of Bosnia was nothing but mountains. If I were to ride to Montenegro I would go via Bosnia though. It’s a much more pleasant ride than along the busy coastal road.

Trebinje was a very normal city, not a beautiful town like we were getting used to. There was an old town, but not much of one. It had other things going for it though. We were the only tourists in town, it was very cheap, and everyone we met was helpful and friendly. I got out fifty konvertibilnih maraka (the very interestingly named currency) after judging its spending power by looking at cafe beer prices, but it went a very long way. We went to the markets and bought a whole heap of vegetables, then had what for us was a gourmet restaurant lunch (the best food for the trip), and still had enough to buy some food and alcohol supplies for a couple of days.

In general there wasn’t much to see, but after being in overtouristy, unfriendly Croatia for so long the friendliness of the people of Trebinje was very welcome.

On the way back the border security just waved us through. We enjoyed more of the view of the Adriatic, and were back in time to cook a delicious vegetable soup from the produce we had picked up at the markets in Trebinje.

Dates: 3rd and 4th June 2008

The ride back to the ferry at Stari Grad was fun because once you get through the tunnel at the top of the island it’s all downhill, and we knew the road well by now.

Again we shared the ferry with Pat and Ron, although they got off at Korčula and we had decided to go straight through to Dubrovnik. The view of Korčula old town from the ferry was almost enough to cause regret for not stopping off there. The rest of the island didn’t look all that exciting as we travelled down it’s coastline though, so I settled into reading Kafka’s The Castle and drinking beer on deck.

Dubrovnik is a fantastic city. The old town is as beautiful as any I’ve seen (or more so), is large, and the walls are very well preserved. It also has hundreds of stray cats. The rest of the city outside of the old town has some character and a good vibe as well. The only problem is the hills and the lack of bike shops. Also don’t go if you disapprove of tourists.

Dubrovnik's shiny street

One of the gates to the old town

A cat sleeping on the wall by the sea. One of many.

We stayed at Camping Solitudo, which is a campground near the suburb of Lapad, a few kilometres from the city centre. It’s a very comfortable place, particularly as there was a little market which sold our staple diet of the trip – bread, vegies, beer and wine. It was ideal for settling down for a few days, which is exactly what we intended to do, apart from our day trip to Bosnia the next day.

Dates: 1st and 2nd June 2008

We got up early to ride to Split in an effort to beat traffic, but we needn’t have worried as it was Sunday and even the multilane highway we entered Split on was pretty empty. It was an OK ride and our fastest average speed for any section of the trip. In Split we ran into a Dutch guy who was planning to reach Indonesia sometime before December, and had cycled 4400km in 6 weeks. He was wondering what the roads were like for cycling between Darwin and Sydney, so I told him a little about the difficulties with distances and water.

We met an English couple, Pat and Ron, on the ferry. They were a bit older and doing a similar thing to us. We went together for the ride to Milna where we camped, and they were much more our pace than Matt and Vanessa had been.

Hvar is a long thin island with a 77km road from Hvar at one end to Sucaraj at the other. Stari Grad is less than 20km from Hvar, on the other side of the island. The road to Hvar is good for cycling. You have to ride over a big hill (as with all Croatian islands), but there isn’t much traffic. There is a kilometre or so long tunnel at the top which is well lit and worth it for skipping the worst of the hill. It’s very steep getting out of Hvar, but only for a short distance.

The town of Hvar itself is very cool. It’s very touristy but nice and lively. There’s also an awesome castle with fantastic views of the surrounding islands and of Hvar.

View of Hvar from the castle

The Milna campground was about 5km from Hvar and wasn’t great quality, but was cheap at 100 kune/night. It was in a nice place next to the sea, but the ground was rock hard, resulting in lots of bent pegs and a partially erected tent. There was a very good campground nearer Hvar, but it was more than twice the price.

We still didn’t want to ride the mainland coast road, so we opted to ferry out of Stari Grad, leaving us a day to hire a scooter and travel to the other end of the island.

Millerine and I travelling by scooter

Hvar is probably the most scenic of the islands, with an excellent town and castle. Well worth the visit, but cycling the length of it would be fun.

Dates: 30th and 31st May 2008

We left the campground early as we were obliged to do, and spent a while riding around Zadar. It’s a nice town with a bustling lifestyle, and seems to have a life of its own apart from the tourism. We saw some roman columns and some markets before leaving. It seemed a nice enough town to stay in for a couple of days.

We caught a bus from Zadar to Trogir near Split as we wanted to avoid the busy mainland coastal road. It is up to the driver of each bus service to decide if they’ll take a bike, and they seem generally reluctant to do so. There is a train but it takes a long time with multiple changes and the services are apparently not particularly reliable. The bus drivers are difficult to communicate with, making the process of getting a bike on a bus a pain in the arse, and it’s also more expensive than trains. Avoid taking bikes on the bus in Croatia if you can, although I would also be reluctant to ride the coastal road. We would have fared better if we had been more prepared with better maps and details of all the possible ferry routes.

Trogir is a lovely small town that we stayed in for two nights. It has a small walled old town with a small fortress, and many, many scooters. We camped a few kilometres away from the old town on an island you could access by bridge. The ground was ridiculously hard and I bent the pegs trying to put them in. There were a few beaches which were recommended to us by the tourist info, but they were uninspiring gravel beaches.

The town of Trogir

The next day we caught the bus to Split for a day trip. It has a beautiful roman palace in the centre, but apart from that felt like quite a soulless city.

We met an English man doing an England to New Zealand trip who looked set for life. His Burley Nomad trailer was piled up with gear, and was quite colourful with flags from places he’d been to. He claimed to get quite a bit of attention when on the road. Not sure I’d want to pull that weight though. Also he used foot straps rather than cleats, which is unusual for a long distance cyclist.

Date: 29th May 2008

We left Osor quite early and the ride was very easy down the island of Lošinj to Mali Lošinj. The scenery along these islands was very rather sparse, with more rocks dotting the hilly landscape than trees. We stayed in Mali Lošinj for around six hours until the ferry left, then it was a further six hour trip to Zadar. It was dark once we started cycling from the ferry terminal to our campground, but it was well lit and not too hard to find our way.

The guy serving us at the campground offered us a 50 kuna deal instead of the normal 140 kuna if he could take our money under the table and we agreed to leave before the office opened in the morning.

In Mali Lošinj we dropped into an internet cafe and booked our plane tickets home. There was a new Estonian Air service from Dubrovnik to Tallinn, which we booked for the 7th of June. It cut our trip short a little both in time and distance, but it was the easiest way for us to get home.

Date: 28th May 2008

This day was quite a killer due to the heat. There was a short ride to the ferry terminal, then a ferry to the nearby island of Cres (the ‘c’ being pronounced like the ‘z’s in “pizza”). By the time we made it off the ferry it was getting towards the middle of the day. The first 8km or so off the ferry was a steady climb and the heat was really getting to us. We were a little disheartened by the time we got to Cres town. The Melbourne couple we met on the ferry Matt and Vanessa seemed to fare a lot better on their 8 speed commuters!

We spent the whole afternoon drinking beer, eating icecream, and trying to hide in the shade. We couldn’t catch a ferry out of there though, so our only option was to continue riding down the island. The first 12km was uphill, but then it was flat along the top of the island. There was a fantastic bit of new smooth road which was easy riding.

Osor was another well positioned campground near a town. Although the town of Osor wasn’t as nice as Krk, it had its charms. It’s a small town of about 80 people, with a centre square with stairs leading into it and a couple of small cobbled streets. The town guards a small bridge over the channel between the islands of Cres and Lošinj. We enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti with a couple of beers as we watched the sun sink below the waves.

The Campsite at Osor

The View from our campsite

Date: 27th May 2008

We left Rijeka and started out down the coast road of Croatia towards the island of Krk. There’s quite a lot of traffic and it was quite a change from our relaxed Slovenian experience. The cars didn’t give very much space, particularly the buses. I was driven off the road by a truck who was a bit impatient to overtake on Krk.

Against the warnings of some locals we rode through the middle of the day, and the heat was quite oppressive. Particularly as we were told of a “shortcut” that took us up and down some steep hills before taking us back to the main road we had started on. The bridge to Krk was also kind of strange as we were directed by a toll operator to take the footpath, but that led us into a large set of stairs, so we reversed up and took the main road instead. We’re learning quite quickly that the advice of locals here is not always of a high quality (apart from “don’t ride in the middle of the day”), although it seems they mean well.

We made it to the town of Krk and settled into the campground there. It’s quite fantastic as it’s only a short walk from the town centre. Krk is a very beautiful walled town and we spent the evening enjoying beers and the company of a friendly german shephard, who was very well mannered and seemed to want to act as our tour guide. This was one of our best stops of the trip because of the facilities of the campground and it’s proximity to a very lovely town.

Although it was very hot, we were relieved that there was finally no sign of rain clouds. For the entirety of the trip before we reached Croatia it was either raining, or there was the threat of rain. Now the skies were clear and we had a great excuse to take a break in the middle of the day for ice cream and beers.

• Good roads, with not much traffic.
• Well mannered car drivers.
• Beautiful mountains and rivers.
• Helpful friendly people.
• Lots of bike shops and bike paths.
• Campsites are generally reasonably priced and good quality.
• There’s a supermarket in most towns (which provide delicious fresh bread.)
• The train system is good for bikes (at least in May.)

Cons:

• Some big climbs.
• A lot of rain.
• Campsites aren’t everywhere.

Slovenia is an excellent country for cycling. A lot of locals cycle, even in the mountainous areas, so the infrastructure is there and the car drivers have a “share the road” attitude. It is a mountainous country, but when we weren’t going over a mountain range it was usually a nice steady incline or decline along a river. I would highly recommend everywhere we went. You may wish to skip the two big climbs (Vršič and the Kamnic Alps), but then you would miss out on the best views.

Food was easy to come by except occasionally on Sundays, when the Mercator supermarkets were closed.

The biggest negative was the unpleasant weather. It was raining most days and if not the threat was always there. I only ran into one other cycle tourist, and they were about to cut their trip short because of the rain. There were a few times we caught trains because cycling just wasn’t very pleasant. However locals told us that it was unusually wet for May, and when it wasn’t raining it was a great temperature for cycling.

Later in summer it would almost certainly be better weather, but there will also be more tourists. Except in Bled there weren’t all that many tourists at the time we were there.

The highlights were probably from Logarska Dolina down the upper Savinja Valley, and over the Vršič pass in the Julian Alps and down the Soča Valley. However everywhere was good and there were areas that come highly recommended that we didn’t go near (particularly the Krka river.)

On the plus side, every campground we stayed in was of a pretty good standard. For the two of us we were usually paying around €15, and the pitches were all grassed.

At Maribor tourist info we picked up a brochure Camping in Slovenia, which listed all the campsites and which we referred to quite often.

In general I think it would be OK to free camp, although I don’t know if there is any punishment if you are caught. We did it once in a populated area and weren’t bothered by anyone.

Cycled Fernetti to Divača
Train Divača to Rijeka

Date: 26th May 2008

We rode to Škocjan Caves in time for the first tour of the morning. The caves are nothing less than terrific. You walk through a series of large caverns to a section with a river running through it. It reminded me a little of the mines of Moria. The walkway goes along the sides of the cave with a river raging 100m below, and a high bridge crossing between the two sides of the gorge-like cavern. The river ends as a waterfall disappearing into the depths. It’s completely awesome. Sadly we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the caves.

The entrance to Škocjan Caves

Afterwards we caught the train to Rijeka in Croatia, ending our Slovenian experience. Rijeka was a very busy city, but there’s not much else to say about it. We stayed at a hostel and looked forward to moving on in the morning. If you ever end up in Rijeka it will probably be as a stepping stone to or from the Croatian islands.

Audio description of the Škocjan Caves

Date: 25th May 2008

In the morning we passed through a few more nice small towns before reaching Nova Gorica. Kanal in particular was memorable as it was Sunday and it seemed the whole town was walking the streets on their way home from church. Just before Nova Gorica was the largest stone arch train bridge in the world, which was very impressive. Nova Gorica is a young town with an interesting history. It was built after 1948, when a treaty left the traditionally Slovenian town of Gorizia on the Italian side of the border. A new town on the Yugoslavian side grew up to replace it.

We planned to finish up our trip in Slovenia quickly and move on to Croatia, so the plan was to take a train from Nova Gorica to Divača to see the Škocjan Caves. However there was only one train from Nova Gorica and it was in the evening. About 10 metres from the train station was the Italian border, and a couple of kilometres from there was Gorizia train station, so instead we caught the train from Gorizia to Trieste which is about 20km from Divača. This turned out to be a bit of mistake – it would likely have been quicker and easier to cycle the rest of the way (it often is).

Getting the train to Trieste was easy enough, but getting out of Trieste proved quite difficult. We had no maps and people we asked were of little help. When we did find the general direction it was a huge climb out on a narrow but very busy road with impatient drivers. I stacked it at one point after my front panniers got caught in a hedge on a narrow path. I received a few cuts and bruises, but nothing major. It was an unpleasant ride, but had I had the OSM Cycle Map I carry with me on my phone these days, we would have known there was a bike route out of the city and it would have been a much more enjoyable visit.

We ended up reaching the border a little out of our way but heading in the right direction. By then it was time to pack it in so we found a campground on the Italian side. The hard gravel pitch was a disappointment after all the nice Slovenian campsites.

Our side trip to Italy was shortlived and not so fun, but eventful.

Date: 24th May 2008

This was the big day – over the Julian Alps via the Vršič Pass. It was a sunny morning which was great for the views. It’s about a 13km ride to the top of the pass (1611m), with approximately 800m of climb. The road is quite steep, but would be much worse if it weren’t for the hairpin bends. Each of the bends is cobblestone and a bit bumpy, but has a numbered sign with the altitude which gives a wonderful sense of progression. There are 24 numbered hairpin bends to the top. Along the way there are huts, hikers, and some of the best views around.

Millerine close to the top, with a view back at where we had come from

Wally at the top of Vršič pass

The 26 hairpin bends on the way down were very fast and fun, and with even better views. At the foot of the mountains we met up with the Soča river which we followed most of the day. At its best the Soča is supposed to be a bright emerald green. It was quite cloudy for us because of all the rain, but still a beautiful green. In fact the whole day there was very little that couldn’t be described as beautiful, including the place where we had lunch by a footbridge over the river.

Lunch spot on the Soča River

We stayed the night in Camping Vili, which was a minor highlight in itself. It was right beside the river and Vili himself was a very talkative and energetic character. He also cooked a good dinner of trout and allowed us to dry our shoes in their house. Basically it was a very homely and welcoming camp ground.

I had been looking forward to this part of the trip and it exceeded my expectations. The climb was hard work, but wouldn’t be too much of a challenge for most seasoned cyclists, and it’s worth it.

Date: 23rd May 2008

Yet another rainy day, but an easy ride. There was a rise leaving Bled, but from then on it was an easy day. Around Mojstrana a proper bike track off the main road began. It started off as a rough gravel road, but eventually became a fantastic sealed road that went all the way to Kranjska Gora and beyond. At one point the clouds retreated a little revealing the view of the Julian Alps, which were quite impressive. The road goes alongside Triglav National Park and is fairly flat. Fantastic views and an easy ride.

Although we made it Kranjska Gora fairly early, we were soaked and it seemed a good idea to leave the crossing of the alps until the next day. We checked into a guest house and went for a side trip to near the Italian border. It really is a fantastic place for cycling. There are a bunch of very good bike tracks around the foot of the alps and on through Italy.

Kranjska Gora looks to be a ski resort village, but is also a base for outdoor adventures in the Julian Alps in summer. Climbing Slovenia’s highest mountain, Triglav, is quite a popular pastime. It’s not an easy trek, but I understand there are routes you can just walk up. Come prepared for a few days of walking and it should be doable. There are other tracks of varying distance and difficulty around the Alps.

Dates: 21st and 22nd May 2008

It didn’t look like there was anything interesting between Ljubljana and Bled and the weather was still bad, so we took the train. There was a short ride from the station to the town, which we rode to before going to the campground. Bled is incredibly touristy, but with good reason. Bled lake is quite small and very photogenic, with its island and castle. There are also a lot of adventure activities like canyoning and white water rafting.

Lake Bled, with the island and castle in the background

On the first day we had a few drinks and chilled at the campground. In the evening I went for a bike ride up a nearby very steep dirt road that went for about 5km before opening out to a very peaceful meadow with a few buildings. It was a rough track and more suited to a properly equipped mountain bike than the 1.75″ slicks I was using. The ride back down was still very fun though.

On the second day we visited Vintgar Gorge a short distance away from Bled. It’s a lovely narrow gorge with a walkway following along the rapids, ending at a waterfall. Our photos don’t do it justice, and I highly recommend this place.

Vintgar Gorge

In the afternoon we went white water rafting on the Sava river. It was far from extreme, but fun nonetheless. We finished up at the farm of the people who run the place. They had a heap of animals running around, and they gave us a shot of their homemade spirits which was impressively strong, but reasonably drinkable.

Bled was perfect for a relaxing escape from riding in the rain. The lake was beautiful and the campground was one of the best we visited on the trip.

Date: 20th May 2008

Our original plan for this days ride was to ride the 45km or so to a campground at Kamnik and perhaps beyond to Ljubljana, but it was such a dreary wet day that we changed our plans and headed towards the safety of the nearer train lines around Šempeter.

We only made it a short distance before we gave up and caught the train from I think Polzela. Being cold and wet isn’t always fun when there’s the possibility of being dry and warm somewhere. Catching the trains at this time of year was pretty easy because there weren’t too many people. I understand it can be difficult with bicycles sometimes though, as it’s entirely up to the conductors whether or not you can take them on. The first train was memorable because of the duck noises it’s horn made as it went past the villages.

In Ljubljana we again opted for a guest house near the station. It’s a very nice old town with a great castle, but nevertheless I would have been happy to skip it if we hadn’t taken the train.

Date: 19th May 2008

After a great night’s sleep at Majdač we rode through Solčava uphill along the Savinja river to Logarska Dolina – a beautiful short, flat valley with tall mountains around it. It’s worth it to go just to ride along the valley, but there are accommodation options there if you want to stay overnight.

The entrance to Logarska Dolina

View along the valley in Logarska Dolina

The Savinja river begins in Logarska Dolina as a small creek, and we followed it for the rest of the day along it’s long descent through the upper Savinja Valley. It didn’t take long for the Savinja to grow from a fast flowing creek to a fast flowing river. It had been lovely weather all day, but around Ljubno it started to rain again. We hid from the cold rain in a petrol station (of which all in Slovenia are named “Petrol”) and bought some food and, most importantly, a good road map. The only map we could find in Australia was a 1:500 000 that covered most of the region, so a local map with the camping grounds marked was a vast improvement.

After the rain eased we continued down the valley to the nearest campsite, which was in a small village near Rečica. The guy there offered us a place in the campsite’s hostel for an extra euro each above the camping cost, so we took that. It felt a little like we were guinea pigs for the hostel, because it was a bit dodgy (it didn’t seem quite finished) and we were the only ones there, but it was comfortable and warm. There we ate, drank cheap wine, and were generally quite merry.

Date: 18th May 2008

We woke early and did the final 20 or 30km to Dravograd by morning tea. We followed the main road along the river for the most part, but towards the end a sign sent bikes on a detour along some quieter roads. There were a couple of climbs along this route but they were short and no problem. The route along the river Drava between Maribor and Dravograd is quite beautiful and doesn’t have too much traffic.

In Dravograd we found a cafe that did terrific cakes, then continued along the river Meža (more of a creek) through Ravne na Koroskem, Prevalje, Mežica, and Črna. In Črna we had some pizza (the cheapest eating out of the trip at €3.50), then asked the locals about the road we had chosen to Solčava, and they said if we were in good condition we could make it. We thought they were implying it was reasonably easy, but it turned out to be the hardest part of the entire trip.

For the first few kilometres we followed a creek up a gentle climb, then we hit a very steep dirt road and a lot of rain. It was wet, cold, and very hard going up the slippery gravel. We even pushed the bikes for about half a kilometre. It took about 2 hours to go about 13km to the top of the pass. I think the climb was from around 500m to around 1400m. It was very beautiful, but, exhausted and cold in the rain, we didn’t have an opportunity to appreciate it (or take any photos). This was followed by a very steep downhill, which was just as hard because our exertion had been keeping us warm and now we froze. We finally made it Podolševa and hid from the rain under the eaves of a farmhouse.

When the rain settled we were given directions to a guest house, Majdač, a few kilometres away in Solčava. The woman there was incredibly helpful and for €40 we were given a bed, fed a wonderful dinner and breakfast, and all our clothes and shoes were dried. There was also a terrific view of the Kamnic alps which we had just crossed.

The view from the guest house

Date: 16th and 17th May 2008

We had a bit of trouble packing the bikes for the plane because the bike boxes we’d managed to acquire weren’t big enough, but the flight was otherwise OK to Vienna. There we met a Canadian dude who, for a month long trip, had two small panniers and a handlebar bag. We felt a bit ashamed at the amount of gear we had. He had no wet weather gear (apparently the best way to assure good weather) and wasn’t intending on camping, though.

Vienna was an easy city for cycling about, and we did a bit of tourist work before going to bed in our rather comfortable hostel. The next day we caught the train to Maribor in Slovenia before starting to ride towards Dravograd. Getting the bike on the train in Vienna was easy – prepay, and the bike goes on.

We started cycling at around 2pm after grabbing some fruit from the fruit stand. It was an easy fairly flat ride up along the river Drava. Although it was uphill the incline wasn’t noticeable, and it’s a lovely river to ride along. The road had very little of a shoulder but the cars gave a wide berth and it was an easy ride. The only mishap was when Millerine braked suddenly to avoid running into a couple of chooks (yes, there were domestic chooks running across the road) and I ran up the back of her. I bent my front pannier rack but it was easy enough to bend back into shape.

There are no campsites in the area and with the steep river bank any useful campsite is hard to find. We ended up freecamping in the only comfortable spot we could find, which was in the town of Brezno beside the river.

Balkans day 2 audio update

As I awoke the next morning from uneasy dreams I found it had turned into monstrous weather. It had rained 25mm overnight and my somewhat beautiful campsite had become waterlogged. I had gone to bed planning to do one more day of riding, aiming for Wauchope (pronounced “war-hope”) where I would catch the train and be in Coffs in time for Nats. However it was raining heavily and the forecast was for more rain, thunderstorms and flash floods up the coast.

Taree campsite

Since it was around 75km to the nearest useful station and I didn’t fancy a day of riding along the highway in heavy rain I piked and caught the train from Taree.

Still, it was a good introductory trip for me of two and a half days riding. The second day was the highlight, and I highly recommend a ride through Myall Lakes, although many might prefer to take the proper road rather than the shortcut along the closed road.

Things I learnt:
- Don’t skimp on panniers. My vaude bags are OK and not at all cheap shit, but the rain covers are a bit annoying. I would be happier to have paid the money for the fully waterproof ortlieb bags.
- Staying dry can be hard work. It’s easier if you just wear clothing that you can get wet but will keep you warm.

I awoke after around twelve hours sleep to find a beautiful sunny morning. Since my plan was to visit relatives in Forster I let Tom go on his merry way and took it fairly easy in getting going. I spent a bit of time at the beach and gave my things a chance to dry. If you’re ever around Booti Booti I can recommend camping at The Ruins campground. It’s a nice NP campground with a beach and good facilities.

Forster was only about 15km away, but within Forster itself there are a number of hills. The people I was visiting lived right at the top of these, so I felt I deserved the tea and hot crossed buns that awaited me there. Their verandah had a lovely view of the beach and I would have been happy to stay, but the view became that of a dark imposing storm making it’s way towards me. In a bid to defeat it I jumped on the bike and headed towards Taree, but it wasn’t long before I was riding in steady rain. It was still a nice ride along the river though. I stopped in near a place called Darawank for lunch out of the rain.

Lunch stop out of the rain at a rest stop near Darawank

I had a bit of trouble with the rain covers on my panniers, so riding along the highway was slow going. My vaude panniers keep everything dry, but raincovers can just be a pain in the arse in heavy rain. They fill up with water, fall off, and generally don’t always behave as they should. However Pacific Highway has a wide shoulder and it’s not a bad place for a cyclist. It’s little boring and had heavy traffic though.

Anyway I made it to just past Taree to a place called Cundletown and checked in to a Caravan Park on the Dawson River. It was one of the more scenic camping spots I’ve stayed at, even though it was in a Caravan Park.

My first full day of riding started early because I wasn’t particularly comfortably sleeping and felt a need for some water. I arose at around 4am and rode the rest of the way into Nelson Bay, stopping at a servo to refill my water bottles which I had foolishly neglected the day prior. In Nelson Bay I grabbed a big subway breakfast and chatted to a crazy old man about the floundering mullet in the water. There was also some time for more sleep before the ferry to Tea Gardens departed.

The ferry ride was not uneventful, with a stop to watch some dolphins partway. I also met a guy, Tom, who was riding to Byron Bay and had the same route planned for the day as myself through Myall Lakes and Booti Booti National Park. We got off at Tea Gardens and headed along Mungo Brush road. We stopped at Dark Point which was an aboriginal site, but looked like a whole heap of sand dunes on a beach.

Dark Point

At Mungo Brush we lunched and I had a kip, then left Mungo Brush road for some adventure. We had both planned to head down a road between Mungo Brush and Seal Rocks road which was marked as a walking track on some maps and a road on some others. It turned out to be an unsealed road which had been closed since 2005 and was in not a great condition. It was very rocky for the most part, and about 30cm deep in water for the rest, and we had to go about 10km at close to walking pace. I never fell in the drink, but Tom got a little wet. The rest of the way to Seal Rocks road it was good graded dirt road. My pannier rack broke at one stage, but I fixed it up with zip ties. Always keep some handy. Tom had some gear trouble, but otherwise it was a mishap free adventure.

Tom getting wet on Hawksnest to Seal Rocks Road

After that it was Seal Rocks Road then onto Lakes Way and a bottlo. I was getting fairly tired towards the end of the day and Tom, who was a stronger rider, wanted to push on to the campsite at Booti Booti. He left me as it started to rain and made it to the campsite ahead of the coming storm, but I managed to get caught in a huge deluge. I was very glad when I finally pulled into The Ruins campground at Booti Booti and got out of the cold rain.

I had just finished my job at Qantas after 5 years, and had no plans to work again for a few months in order to get a reasonably long holiday, including a planned month long bike trip in Europe. To celebrate my unemployment and to get a bit of riding practice in I thought it might be a good idea to ride from Newcastle to Coffs Harbour, arriving in time for the Australian Ultimate Championships. I had a time limit of a few days, so the plan was to get to somewhere between Taree and Wauchope (apparently pronounced “war-hope”) and catch a train.

On Saturday afternoon, still with somewhat of a hangover, I caught a train to Newcastle, the ferry to Stockton, and started pedalling towards Nelson Bay.  I made it most of the way but was pedalling in the dark for a while so camped next to some grape vines.  I was too lazy to set up the tent, and just covered myself with my hoochie thinking the weather to be fine, but it rained a little so wasn’t completely comfortable.

The train is part of the Sydney CityRail system so is not particularly expensive and you can take your bike on it easily. The ferry is pretty much just a river crossing and it’s a very regular service.

Anyway, same value as a passport? My arse! I’m not sure if it will be accepted anywhere we try to use it. $50 for a card with my details (handwritten), laminated to look pretty. Dodgy!

Edit: It was a little troublesome, but sometimes necessary. You’re better to just get one at the first place you need to use it.

The biggest expense is of course getting between Europe and Vancouver. Air Berlin had a fantastic deal of €650 from Berlin to Vancouver, so we’ve locked that in.

The next issue is getting to South Eastern Europe. We’ve decided we want to see Budapest, Croatia, perhaps Montenegro, and everything else is a bonus. We’re picking up our bikes from Tallinn, Estonia, from where there are no direct cheap flights to any of these places. Doing two flights with bikes is both difficult and expensive. Easyjet charge €22 or so per bike per flight. Estonian Air had fairly cheap flights to Vienna which end up about AUD200 each including the bikes. This is reasonable, so now the plan is to take the train to Slovenia, then travel down through Croatia to Montenegro, then train back up to Budapest. That will probably take up three of the four available weeks (even covering large boring distances by train or ferry), so we’ll be train travelling tourists on the way back to Tallinn.

Currently I’m excited about the thought of Slovenia and a little apprehensive about Croatia and Montenegro. The former seems a lot more cyclist friendly, although the latter are supposedly more visually stunning.

As the greater part of the trip will be in the Balkans, I’ve found Balkanology particularly useful.

The route maps may not be entirely accurate due to time that has passed since the trips, but I do as much as I can to get them right.

Once all the old posts are added I’ll unsticky this post, and new posts will come a lot less frequently – probably whenever I go on a trip, which is about once or twice a year.