Steppe FM, July 2021, 1200 km through the Balkans :
After these last days in Croatia, at the Korana river, we rode towards Bosnia Herzegovina. The border is not a problem and we reach the big city of Bihac in the afternoon.
The cultural landscape has changed a lot, the churches are replaced by mosques, some women wear the veil, we are in a Muslim region. There are many Syrian refugees in town and on the road where we drive. After about fifteen kilometers we stop, a small old man proposes to us, with gestures because we do not have any more common language, to pitch the tent at the edge of the river in his garden. He also suggests that we watch a soccer match of the european championship. During the game we learn that he was a professional soccer player from Yugoslavia. He played for Sarajevo and even met the PSG!
For a dozen days, we ride in Bosnia. The heat, around 40°C, is almost unbearable. We try to ride very early in the morning or late in the afternoon. At noon, we make long breaks, generally in the shade of a tree or in a café. It is a fantastic country, the culture (Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic) evolves every 50 km, the landscapes follow one another, we pass from mountainous regions strewn with perfectly circular "holes" formed by the erosion of limestone. Then we ride on flat desert plateaus for tens of kilometers where water is scarce and grass is stunted. Every day we climb at least 600 meters of difference in altitude that we go down almost immediately. We met semi-wild horses, slept near lakes or dry rivers, visited Mostar by negotiating a tiny bedroom for us and the bikes and met a lot of people on the way.
One evening, we pretended to be Belgian looking to see a football match of the european championship. We ended up in a farm, nothing for 10 km around, in a room with old wallpaper we watched the defeat of Belgium while the old man who welcomed us snored on the sofa and his wife stirred fresh cheese in a huge pan. We slipped away, finishing the inevitable glass of schnapps, and set up the teepee in front of the lake under the moon: we are tired of losing, whether we are Belgian or French.
After a long day, half of which consisted in pushing the bikes on impraticable roads, some locals invited us to a café table (they must not see many travelers around here...) and then to dinner at their place in the town of Seroki Brijeg. We are welcomed by the whole family and some of their friends, one of them speaks French, for an aperitif and a huge meal. Thanks to Dragar and his family, we slept in a bed, washed our stuff and learned the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The next day, even though it was Sunday, Dragar opens his hairdressing salon. They "refurbished" us in 24 hours, and we had haircuts to make Beckham jealous
A last big climb at the end of the afternoon and we were in Montenegro. We chose to go by the coast to avoid steeps as much as possible. While everything had started well, the descent towards the sea was splendid and we rode about fifteen kilometers without any effort. We found ourselves in the middle of a seaside town. The evening falls, there is a lot of traffic, hotels and restaurants everywhere. We zigzagged between tourists in bathing suits, private beaches and casinos to finally find a vacant lot in the middle of the city where we could set up the teepee.
The next day, after having been kicked out of a coffee because we did not consume enough, we continued on the coast. The interior of the country looks very beautiful, which is not the case of the coast over-developed for tourism. Finally it is not as flat as we had expected, even at the edge of the sea. In spite of the heat, we had long days and enjoyed the sea during the hottest hours. In two and a half days we were at the Albanian border. This time we passed by the land.
We spent the first two nights in the second city of the country: Shkoder. We are hosted by an American couple in their sixties. They live here half of the year... between two cycling trips!
The reputation of the country we know is not well-founded, the Albanians are very welcoming : several times we are offered to eat and drink. Once, while we were sleeping, the teepee at the side of the road, we were woken up by a whole family bringing us goat cheese, half a watermelon and, inevitably, a small bottle of schnapps (which is now called raki).
In the east of Albania, approaching North Macedonia, the sky is grey, for the first time in more than a month. We are quickly disappointed by the freshness brought by the clouds when it starts to rain. Not a little shower. It rains, it hails, in a few minutes we are soaked to the bone. The road turns into a muddy torrent and it is impossible to see at 10 meters. We take shelter in a tiny café where they are obliged to scoop because the water seeps from everywhere. Finally, the rain calms down a little, we leave our watery clothes. We ask for hospitality to a family. They welcome us with pleasure in spite of the difficult communication (only the grandfather speaks some words of Italian). In their house in construction we have a room for us, we can dry our clothes. The night arrives, they invite us to drink coffee, Rico, acute illness in the stomach and in the head, declines. I find myself in the living room with the whole family. Cultural difference. Only the dean and I sit in front of a table and drink coffee. The other members of the family watch us discuss, they offer me coffee as soon as I finish my cup and cigarettes as soon as I put one out.
The next day, we have breakfast with all the family, we decline their proposals to lodge us one more night and arrive the same evening in North Macedonia.
We then spent three nights in Macedonia, just the time to go around the huge lake of Ohrid and to go down to Greece. Three nights and three strange bivouacs: the first one next to the tourist lake, we camp in an open air quarry, the second one at about ten meters from the "A3 highway" where we drive, caught up by the night. For the third bivouac, in the second city of the country Bitola, we set up the camp behind a restored amphitheater from where the guitar solos of the biggest Macedonian rock band (Leb i Sol) escaped. They let us attend the concert for free, our first concert since the pandemic!
That's it, we are in Greece. Apart from an hour spent filling in the entry form, we had no problems at the border. There is almost no relief, it would have been easy to drive if the heat was not so strong. We cook between 9 am and 5 pm. The first evening, we settle down near a lake of altitude. The place is magical, we decide to stay there for two nights. The fire blazes high and strong when the full moon rises on the horizon, at first orange it is tinged with silver during the night illuminating the camp under the stars, the tipi proudly erected towards the sky. A moonlit swim in the warm water of the lake.
The next day we share our fabulous place with a Hungarian cyclotourist we met while shopping. As a souvenir, he offers us a magnificent axe... just enough to complicate the next border!
Fortunately the road is flat because it is always very hot, during the other bivouacs we are invaded by mosquitoes, so much so that sleeping becomes a dream... One morning we find 7 of our 8 wheels punctured by thorny shells hidden in the grass. We lost a day to repair the tubes in the middle of the heat. We have no more patches, no more glue... After 7 hours, after a visit to the bike store we can leave, but the sun is already setting.
Arriving in Thessaloniki in the early evening, we spent the night walking on the huge promenade along the Aegean Sea before falling asleep in a park in the heart of the city. We spent the next day visiting the city, overwhelmed by the heat. The center is nice and the markets are great.
We continue to the South-East, in direction of the three fingers of Central Macedonia. We are about twenty kilometers away from a new chapter.
The Hellenic country marks the end of the first part of the trip. Indeed, we will stop south of Thessaloniki for at least a month. Two weeks in a project into a family farm then two other weeks for Rico to return to France by train to attend the marriage of his sister and to join me again. Iand Jehol, on the other hand, will spend these two weeks visiting the region with my family who will join me by car.
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