Day 21 & 22 Goodbye to the Balkans

After 21 days and 3800km of riding across Balkans we came back home. It was intensive 3 weeks where we learnt a lot about countries their citizens and culture. Definitely those countries are very interesting piece of Europe and for sure we would like to come back there again once more. Maybe explore even more south parts of Balkans, perhaps for trekking deep in Albanian mountains or explore Macedonia. Perhaps one day we will come back there.If you are planning to explore those parts of Europe we would be happy to share our experience with you, Just contact us.

Now it’s time to think about new challenges for next year… improve our off road riding skills and prepare motorcycles.

PS>Some of our very few followers got confused by my recent post. This due to fact that it took me only 12 months to write final word about our last year trip 🙂 

Day 20 Balaton here we come!

Yesterday’s drive ended very late in the evening near Gradacac (BiH). It was already dark, so we quit searching for an interesting place to stay. Instead we took a room in the first motel that was actually open. Wasn’t easy to find one, I can tell you.

Morning preparation are going fast, the last attraction on this trip is waiting for us 300 kilometers from here. Today we head to Balaton, so we need to speed through Bosnia, whole Croatia and Hungary. We take small roads, countryside scenery pass by… huge fields with sunflowers and corn. Many bright summer colors. I will miss that for sure.

The colorful landscape changes as we move closer to Balatonszemes. Thunderstorm is coming towards us rapidly. Oh, come on! Not again! We are 5 km from the target point when the game starts: Who will be faster us or the storm?

Taking into consideration our luck one shouldn’t bet for us ;). Even this time we are few minutes late. Just before reaching the town we run into huge rain. In two minutes we are soaking wet. I guess a swim in the lake is not needed any more. Short break on the bus stop didn’t help much, but at least we had time to look at the map again and pick camping for today. We are spending the night just next to a small harbor so an evening walk on quay is a must :).

 

Maybe it was because of the weather, or maybe we were on wrong side of the lake. Anyhow Balaton didn’t make a big impression on us. There was a good side of that place though – a nice restaurant with delicious food. We truly recommend it for all food lovers: http://www.kistucsok.hu/.

Day 19 Sarganska Osmica

Day 19th, not too many days of freedom left. The vacation mood is slowly fading. We think and talk more and more about home, work, planned  jobs …  Stop that! We are on vacations for gods sake 😉 Let’s focus on here and now.

So here and now we are in Serbia. Just next to Tara National Park there is an interesting railway in the mountains called Sargansa Osmica. One can recognize the place from Kustorica movie “Život je čudo”.  The rail is indeed build in ‘8’ shape. It connects cities located on different levels above the sea. It was easier to make few loops in the mountain than connecting point A and B with straight line. The difference of levels was too big. Today you can buy a ticket and travel the whole way in 2-3 hours, starting and finishing in Mokra Gora. Why don’t we try it then?! We just need to get to Mokra Gora as fast as possible since the train leaves at 10am. Good that we got the small map yesterday. Looks like a short ride thru the center of national park. We start our engines and it works like a charm. Immediately it starts to rain. As we move deeper and deeper in the forest it’s getting darker and colder. Finally we are in the middle of cloud. No visibility at all and the gps is not helping either since it doesn’t work here.  All this wouldn’t be a problem if we are not in a hurry. The road suddenly changes from tarmac to gravel. Great! I love off-road but I also would like to be there on time. Just for it to be more difficult we come to a crossing. Should we turn left or right? Hmm, all signs are in Cyrillic, so we need to rely on our best guess. Quick decision and we continue. Few crossings later we are totally lost but still hope to find the railway station. I guess we made more ‘eights’ in that forest than the railway has but against all odds we managed to get in time to Mokra Gora.

Few minutes after 1pm we are all packed and ready to hit the road again. Since we don’t have any plans on where to go and what to see we decide about next target offhand. Quick look at the map and we set our navigation to Srebrenica (BiH). That’s our place for lunch today combined with sightseeing and history lesson. We succeed to find pretty good restaurant in the outskirts. While waiting for our meals we discuss the views already seen here – many building bombarded, some abandoned, still a lot of destruction seen not only in infrastructure but mainly in people. One more place in Bosnia which is really depressing, where the memory of recent war is still vivid. Our first impression is confirmed and gets even more devastating when we get to memorial of murdered Muslim. The number of victims is just crushing – over 6200 man and boys.There is literally a forest of gravestones.

This short visit made us melancholic, we continue our way north in silence and contemplation.

Day 18 Lost in Serbia

It’s starting to be baking hot and we need to make some kilometers today. Destination: Tara National Park – Serbia. Before we get there we have to pass few borders. We could go directly to Serbia from Kosovo but looking at the map it’s more interesting to get back to Montenegro and once again enjoy curvy mountain roads. BTW if you travel with passport and you will get stamp from Kosovo, at Serbian border you will have troubles to pass. Knowing that, we used our polish ID so no traces of us being in Kosovo.

Early afternoon we are in Serbia. Roads are good so we speed up a bit and soon we are entering Tara National Park. Problem is our navigation is not working perfectly in Serbia and all signs are in Cyrillic! We are screwed! Several loops in national park later we still have no luck in trying to find some accommodation. Tourist infrastructure almost doesn’t exist here and by the way why this place is a national park? There is nothing interesting here just some dark pine tree forest. Perhaps we are too focus on something else to seize the beauty of this place. We consider sleeping in the park wilderness but the plan for next day is to spend some time with other people so shower is more than recommended. Finally we receive brochure with small map and marks of camp grounds and hotels. Oh what a variety! We have two hotels and three camping spots to choose from. Still there is a chance for shower. Few minutes later we find out that some places marked on the map don’t really exist :(. Quick chat with local guy and we are invites to “private” camping ground. Very nice green field behind his house. Normally we wouldn’t hesitate for a second but not this time, we need SHOWER! There is one building we passed on the way but it looks more like an old hotel build in deep communism times. Normally we avoid such places but there is no other option today. Short talk with really helpful staff and we book wooden lodge with overlook on Drina river with dam creating artificial lake. Place is a bit old but kept in rather good shape. It’s clean and has all we need for today especially that it starts to rain.

goodbye Kosovo

Day 17 Ferry on the way to Kosovo

5AM – alarm in our cell phone. It’s damn hard to get up so early after yesterday adventure. If we manage to get to Koman untill 9:00 we will have relaxing 3 hours on ferry up the Komani lake so we motivate each other to get up. We gather all our belongings from Peters apartment while he is packing breakfast for us. Not time to eat now. Down to his Mercedes truck and short ride to get our motorcycles parked safely at somebody yard in the middle of Shkoder. I’m a bit worry about Transalp. I hope there is not big puddle of oil under. Uff all clear no issues at all. Motorcycles packed up with our luggage all set to continue our trip. It’s still early but city is already awake. Peter ordered coffee for us in his friend’s bar next to place where our motorcycles were parked. Peter took really good care of us, thanks a lot Peter and good luck. Traffic in Shkoder center is very chaotic but luckily it’s not big city so in few minutes we are out on small curvy road going to Koman. This time for change it’s tarmac. Normally we would complain as we came to Albania to ride on gravel roads but we are still tired and a bit in hurry. We arrive at Koman half hour before ferry leaves. Maybe ferry is too much to say as in reality it’s some kind of hybrid 🙂 not a car but something between boat and bus (or bus put on top of boat 🙂 ) Staff asks to unpack our motorcycles otherwise they will not fit on ferry. All looks a bit scary. But those guys have been putting motorcycles on that boat many times so it’s all smooth and without any issues. Ferry is turist attraction but also only way to access many small villages on the way. So together with us and other tourists we have on boards local people who bring with them lots of goods: life stock, grain, house equipment everything they basically need and what was purchased in city. Blue sky, sun is shining and nice cold breeze from water puts us in good vacation mood. Views around are wonderful as we go up the flooded by dam canyon. We stop from time to time in middle of nowhere to let locals in or out. In some cases there are family members waiting on bank of the river with donkeys to carry all goods up to their houses build up in the mountains without road access just small path from river.

After 3 hours we reached ferry final destination Fierze. Again boat staff unpacked our motorcycles smoothly and in short time we are ready to go. Destination Republic of Kosovo. Newly build asphalt road takes us straight to Kosovo border. There is no  que on the border but it doesn’t mean all is smooth. We find out that we need insurance for our motorcycles. Ok fine but we don’t have cash only credit cards. So we are stacked. Boarder police wants us to go back to Albania to find ATM and come back with money, luckily Mariola saw that they have Visa and Master card stickers on the doors of their small insurance office so she asks why they could not accept our cards. Answer is simple they don’t know how to use card terminal. Finally after reading manual and making few calls they managed to make transaction and we are free to continue. We read in our guide that there is interesting monastery on the way. That monastery is run by Serbian monks, who are not so welcome on Kosovo’s ground so those monks are heavy guarded by NATO forces. We have never seen so heavily armed soldiers in our lives. Despite of seriousness of situation soldiers are very helpful and nice. Entrance to monastery is free and there is even guide who shows us everything for free, but first you have to give your passport to soldiers and they are reporting your entrance. Indeed place is impressive with long and reach history and amazing frescos inside main building. One particular fresco is very special according to our guide that’s only one in the world where Jezus is carrying sword. We are curious about Kosovo and there is city not so far from monastery called Peja. Let’s go there and find some hotel. There are two hotels there one fancy that looks like good hotels in big european capitals and one small but cheap. We choose cheap one. Only concern where to park motorcycles as hotel is small in the middle of the city. No problem for hotel staff they opened main doors wide and we drive into hotel lobby :). Now lets find some place to eat and watch World Cup finals. Lonely Planet guide says there is not good choice of place to eat in Peja except fancy hotel we saw. As it turns out prices was not too bad so we had nice dinner followed with Argentina-Germany match showed on main city square.

 

Day 16 Thethi loop

Morning. Super Tenere ready to roll, Transalp bit scared but open for challenges ;). This is going to be the last off-road driving on this trip. From here we will turn back and take mostly tarmac roads to get back home. Let’s enjoy those last bits of off-road!

We leave Thethi in gray and rainy weather. Luckily there is a bridge in the end of the village so we don’t need to cross cold river and get wet again. First few meters are not that bad, even though there are some tricky places and quite a lot of big rocks on the way. Transalp going slowly looking for the best path just like snake. Super Tenere going straight down. After around one kilometer we pass by a cross put there for memory of a Czech motorcyclist. That poor guy died two months ago. Really sad story, he lost control of his bike and fell couple of meters down.

The road here in not  that curvy, doesn’t seam to be too steep either. But all this is just to trick you, as loose rocks can be really dangerous if you go too fast. Anyway that doesn’t apply to up as high speed on off-road + Transalp’s suspension is not a good combination. We are slow as snails and cautious as hell, yet Transalp bounced off some rocks few times. Four kilometers from Thethi we stop to check motorcycles. At the first glance all look file. But wait! what’s that colorful sign in the puddle beneath Transalp? SHIT… Can’t be! It wasn’t that bad :/… Even though we are all fine and hungry for more off-road Transalp decided that he has enough. It turned out that oil pan got some small crack and is leaking oil, can’t continue like that.

So what to do next? We are in the middle of nowhere, no gear to repair it on the spot, no villages in the close distance. And just for it to be more difficult we have young horny bull running around us looking for a cow. Yes, not joking! A bull running mad looking for a cow calling him from the distance. Should we run, throw stones at the bull or just forget about it and focus on the motorcycle? Hmmm, I don’t look like a cow (now even close, I hope ;)), Bartek doesn’t look like one either, so let’s just forget about the animal and focus on our problem.

We can’t drive down and going back to Thethi is not an option either, so the only thing left  is to pack it on some jeep or van and take it to the nearest city. Good thing we have some people passing by and soon we meet a local guy very interested in what happened and willing to help. We call the owner of the place where we spent last night. He is quite good with English and for sure will know what to do. Bingo! Few calls and we have a transport, now we just need to be patient and wait for a van to come and take both motorcycles and us down to Shkoder. All this time we are accompanied by our new friend who is trying to comfort us.

 

Few hours later we are all packed and take the same road that led us here back. I have to admit that going with motorcycle on that road is peanuts compared with going there with van heavily loaded with two motorcycles inside. Tiring and enormously long way to Shkoder.  Late in the evening we reach the city. Our driver seems to know everyone here, so we easily find a motorcycle service to buy oil and then a welder who can help with oil pan. Even though all guys working there are youngsters, they seem to know what to do and act really professional. It is not easy to weld this piece as it can’t be detached from motorcycle and the crack is in a tricky place. First attempt failed… Trampek is still leaking oil and I’m getting more and more worried. No back-up plan to take Transalp back to Poland :(… But let the guys do what they are good at.

After some more minutes we have a good news! They managed to patch all crack with no side effects. My heroes! So happy to be able to continue our trip on both motorcycles 🙂

Ok, but it’s getting dark and we need to find a place to sleep. Our driver is helping here as well, offering us to stay at his place – a small flat near city center. He is also making sure that our motorcycles are parked safely locked at someones small yard in the middle of Shkoder. Once again we could see and feel how life really looks in Albania.  Precious memories, interesting late night conversations combined with few shots of home made rakija :). Thank you Peter!

Day 15 Thethi

Still raining. We don’t feel like getting wet today as well, so we wait until the rain goes away. At the same time getting to know the owner of the place. Nice young Albanian guy living and working in Manchester who happens to be the owner of the apartments as well. So nice to be able to talk to someone who really knows English.  Time flies and we know more and more of the family details. Sister in US, brother in UK… I wonder how those poor people could afford to send their kids  to school abroad. So many sacrifices. Hope it pays of today.

Finally the rain stops. We already know that we can’t do the whole Thethi loop (around 140 km of off-road), but we decide to go and stay this night in Thethi village. Again, most of the road is being prepared for tarmac. It is only the way down to the Thethi village and  further down to Shkoder that is not touched yet. Many people say this road is really challenging, but it’s not that bad so far. Of course it is difficult for Transalp, as the suspension is not perfect and it is a bit too low. But with proper caution and going slowly both me and Trampek managed to get to Thehi with not even one scratch. Of course for Super Tenere this was just starters and she is looking forward for the main course. But this is to happen tomorrow.  Today we relax and hike a bit. There is a nice waterfall near the village, not easy to find but the place is really fascinating.

Day 14 SH20 in the rain

We leave  our accommodation place in Lepushe  as early as possible. Something  doesn’t feel right here. As if we got lost on the way and came to other place. We want to meet true Albanian people, see how they live, want to feel the local flavor. The weather is again not in favor so we start in the rain. Few kilometers later we stop at the bar in the village center. This is the place to see how the real life looks here. People come and go, some construction work nearby. We see how carelessly they drive their vehicles. Diving down with the car on steep slope is nothing uncommon here. And why do  you need roads to drive? Really unnecessary. It’s funny to see a German couple observing local driving skills, it’s simply abstraction for them. But what should you expect? Those people were  riding horses not so long ago. Horse is the best off-road vehicle and can go almost everywhere, so why not using car the same way? 😉 The whole picture is accomplished by couple of piglets scratching against our bikes. They loved the knobby tires. We were lucky it was not grown-up pigs, as the whole motorcycle is shaking. Amazing how much power those small animals have.

 

The rain stops so we move  on.  We take SH20 road down to Koplik. This is a recommended road by bikers and indeed it is a good off-road with nice views. Too bad the weather is still gray and rainy cause this would look even better in the sun. For those who want to go there – you need to hurry as they already started to prepare ground for tarmac. Some kilometers before Koplik we need to stop again. It’s raining heavily and you can’t see a damn thing thru goggles. Coffee break again.

Same story happens just after Koplik. This time we stop for lunch in a strangely looking restaurant. You can’t really tell if it’s a fancy pizza place or a night club serving pizza during the day. Question not solved as we didn’t dare to come back there during the night ;-).

 

After filling up our stomach and the tanks we are ready to head to Thethi. Unfortunately we are a bit late due to the weather so we need to find a place to sleep somewhere on the way. Eventually we end up in an apartment in Boge – last village before going up in the mountains. All clothes are soaking wet, so we appreciate the apartment more then ever. Thehi tomorrow!

Day 13 Vermoshi valley – Albania

Leaving such a nice place as Eko Katun Stevna is not easy so after breakfast we decided to walk on beautiful mountain ridge. We take same road as yesterday on bikes, this time till the very end where the climb to rocky mountain starts. Would be so nice to have our hiking boots and just continue up… Maybe next time. Quick coffee and cake and back on motorcycles – Albania is calling us. Few hours later we arrived at sleepy border crossing, probably only few cars per day cross it. Albanian border officers are not in rush at all. This was the slowest border crossing we made so far. Just few meters after border asphalt ends and famous for adventure bikers road SH20 starts. 100km of rocky gravel road in river canyon. But before let’s make small detour and visit Vermoshi valley. This is very remote valley where not many tourists go. Road is dead ended so we had to go back and cross some streams on the way which was more challenging than it looked. Village of Vermoshi looks like time stopped after second war but it’s very charming. Let’s stop for some food. One place looked interesting with nicely kept garden and small wooden house on the tree. We were warmly welcomed  by old couple who run that place. Owner looked and behave just like Louis de Funes twin brother trying his best to entertain us with big success. As we order lunch he rushed his wife to prepare something for us. We couldn’t understand each other but we hoped what will come out of kitchen will be food. And it was delicious lamb, home-made French fries and some  salad made of cabbage and unrecognized by us sort of pickles. The place was so nice but it’s too early for us to stay for the night. Next village on SH20 where we could find a place to sleep is Lepushe. We got hint from border officer that there is nice camping place in that village. So we followed his recommendation. Instead sleeping in tent we got invited to local family house where they rent rooms for tourists. Initially that place looked very nice with green garden and couch in front of the house with overlook at impressive mountines. We got local beer and we felt very good. We hoped to have nice chat with owners of that place but unfortunately guest in that place were hosted by two youngsters. They were not so much interested in visitors and despite we spent whole evening with them in kitchen they rather stared all time at their laptop and Facebook then talked too us. At least we had nice walk in the village where all sorts of livestock were very curious of us 😉 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 12 On the way to Albania

After one  day without driving motorcycles we are already bored and need to hit the road again. Tara rafting was a nice experience but Albania is waiting for us. After  some maintenance work on ST both us and motorcycles are ready for new challenges.  Montenegro welcomes us back. This time we catch some short off-road as we already did most of it. Running thru Durmitor once more enjoying the views. We need to hurry though as the weather is not pleasant, it is rainy ever since we started. We try to get as close to Albania as possible, the plan is Adrijevica. Hunger and poor conditions of the road makes it really hard to achieve the goal. Around 30 km before Andrijevica we decide that we are done. Again we pick a place to stay just by accident, looking at a small ad on the crossing, and what a nice surprise! We arrive to Eco Katun Stavna a charming place surrounded by quite high mountains (~2400 masl), with no civilization around. Horses running free and beautiful views. We stay here :).