23 August 2025 (sunny and hot) 89km

I was up and over to the toilets at 6am. Gaga, the nickname of the guy who owns the place, is a lovely bloke.

He and very few others will be the people we remember fondly, when we think of Bosnia and it's people.

Mostly, sad to say, they find it extremely hard to smile, even when a smile from us is always forthcoming, as a way to break the ice.

As with virtually everyone of any nationality we have ever met, it is those who have travelled to other places, who are the most accepting of others from elsewhere.

That of course is a generalisation, but we are connecting a lot more with the general population being on a bike and passing through villages, than a tour party, being guided to the places they want to show you.

Heard we were going to Croatia and wanted to come too. Just keep praying man....

Smiles have always been something that come naturally to us in a greeting, however here, it has become something I am less and less inclined to do. 

Took off around 10am and back to the Ciro trail, back the way we came in the other day. This isn't something we normally do, but it will keep us off the main roads, which has been a problem for us here.

As we rode, we had two young Swiss girls ride with us for about 5km. Their names were Zoe and Naomi.

Julia chatted with Zoe who is a trainee nurse, whilst Naomi is a paramedic and I talked to her as we cycled along together. I have to say, while we cycled with them, the pace sure picked up, as they are in their 20’s and lightly packed.

They are headed to Montenegro, then ferry to Brindisi, in Italy and train back to Switzerland.

Continued to Capljina, the dump of a town we were in the other day. Bought some lunch at the supermarket and went back to the park where the granny tried to pick me up the other day. Unfortunately, she wasn't there this time, so I missed out. 

Now we were in new territory, heading for our destination tonight, Ravno, another 68kms away.

A big second session coming up distance and climbing wise. Still on the Ciro trail for the majority of the time, except for a few instances on the main roads.

The road surface was generally good, in some parts great and we were enjoying the lack of traffic, so that we could ride side by side and chat.

Came upon a big lake, which we rode around. Looked more like a fishing lake than a swimming lake so we didn't bother trying to get down to it.

The quality of the road was fantastic and we were taking a lot of shots from different perspectives. 

However, all good things gotta come to an end and soon we were slogging up some steep climbs.

I was really feeling it, I think because my water intake wasn't high enough and I was hot as hell.

Julia was really good and just coaxed me along (funnily enough, like she usually does) and eventually we found ourselves on a plateau and looking for water in a church cemetery in the middle of nowhere. 

Not a drop to drink. Obviously, dead people don't require a tipple.

The piles of trash were unbelievable. Some were obviously unofficial dumps where people have made the effort to load up the trailer and come get rid of their junk in the middle of nowhere.

Took a turn here onto a hot mix main road for about 2kms. Would have been nice to stay on it, but it wasn't going our way and we needed water from somewhere in the next village. There appeared to be no shop according to Mapy so we were looking at begging for some water from one of the village inhabitants. That's if it had any inhabitants as a lot of places have been deserted. As we approached, we didn't hold out much hope.

Took the lower road through town and there was a cafe/bar, with a few guys sitting around chatting. Yesss!

Bought a big bottle of cold water, to fill our now empty bottles. A can of coke (to share, let's not go overboard) and two ice creams.

Plus, the bonus...Man City were 0-2 down to Spurs, who won the game by that score. 

Passed a manmade lake which did not look inviting, but the camera made it look pretty good.

 

Revived, we continued on mainly on good surface, passing by mountains still smouldering from wild fires a few days ago. 

This was very obviously now a rail trail and the scenery reminded us a lot of the Otago Rail Trail. We were both tired and there was a 200m climb to Ravno, or we could continue on the flat rail trail and do an extra 5 km. We chose the flat as the leg muscles were exhausted.

We finally arrived in Ravno at 6pm, 87kms from our starting point.

Nice little hotel with an area for camping out the back. Set up the inner and then scaled a massive hill 700 metres long to a shop at the top.

Julia was not impressed, especially because all we could buy there were old soft bananas and unsweetened yoghurt.

However, when we got back, we found there were showers and toilets. They even provided fluffy, white towels, so that perked us up.

Keren called us and we had a lovely chat. It's so nice to be able to see your friends and family, even though we're so far away. 

Into the hotel for dinner.

Julia had meat skewers and fries whilst I had spaghetti bolagnaise. We shared a plate of grilled vegetables, zucchini and capsicum.

Then apple cake and ice cream for me, whilst Julia just had vanilla ice cream. 

Blogged throughout and brought everything virtually up to date.

Tomorrow is our last day in Bosnia.

It has been an experience, but not one we will be repeating.

Nice to finish on an enjoyable evening. 

Good night Hairy Melon.