Serbia to Slovenia thru Croatia…

Today’s ride was what I call a “nothing” ride…

There was little to see that interested me, and after Belgrade, I wanted to ride as far away as I could for as long as I could…!! Sightseeing was secondary… I felt the need to cover as much distance as possible… Nothing else mattered…

Getting out of Belgrade was not as difficult as getting into it was, and I made a bee-line for the A3 Motorway… As I turned onto it, the GPS advised that I should turn right in 373 km… That was exactly what I needed, a long ride without having to worry about where I needed to turn for at least another four hours…

We stooped to refuel just short of the Croatian border...

The 114 km ride to the border took less than an hour, as the speed limit on the A3 is 130 km/h, and for the most part, that is what we did…

It was probably the most boring ride I had made to date… The landscape was as flat as the proverbial pancake, and on either side of the highway, for every one of those 114 kilometres, all I saw was maize fields…

Had I been a Free Sate farmer, I would have been wetting myself in excitement, but I am not a Free State farmer, so I stayed dry…

I stopped to refuel about 15 kms short of the Croatian border, and had a few experiences there that brightened up my morning considerably…

The first was a large brown dog that took a shine to me, and followed me everywhere I went at the service station…

The dog who shared my pastries... He had such a trusting look about him...!!

It came to sit next to the bike while I filled up, walked behind me as I went into the shop to pay, and was there waiting when I came out… I scratched behind its ears and spoke quietly to it, wondering when last it had been fed… I was reminded of the dogs that I had reared, and wondered how Jessie was back in Uvongo…

I realised that I still had over a 1000.00 Serbian Dinars in my wallet, and wanted to get shot of them before I crossed the border… I had already paid for the fuel, and decided to buy some coffee and a few pastries. (One for me and one for the dog…!!)

I could have bought about 40 Snickers bars, but this would have been a bit too much to carry…!!

I saw a large scale map of the Balkans, and took this over to the counter with my coffee and pastries… It would be easier to use this map than the map of Europe I had been using for the last few months…

When the lady behind the counter rang the items up, it turned out I was about SRD 100.00 short (about R10.00…) I offered to put one of the pastries back, or pay her in US Dollars, but she would have none of it…!!

Earlier, while I was paying for the fuel, she had asked where I was going and where I had come from, and then went outside to take a photo of the Big Fella with her cell phone…

“Don’t worry sir, you have still to go a long way and need to eat, I will put in the balance for you…!!”

I stammered my thanks at her kind gesture, and went to sit where I could see the bike, drank my coffee, and ate one of the pastries, and then wrapped the other up in a serviette when she wasn’t looking, and took it outside to feed to the dog… I walked around to the side of the building followed by my canine friend, as I did not want the lady behind the counter to see me feed the pastry that she had paid for to the dog… I reckoned she might be a tad annoyed…!!

When I returned to the bike, two couples were standing around it, talking animatedly and pointing at the flags stuck onto the panniers… They were on their way back to Bulgaria, and one couple owned a bike that they had done some touring on, an African Twin… They took a number of photos of the Big Fella and I, and then went inside to have coffee… Just as I was about to mount up and get on my way, one of the women came dashing over from their car, and gave me a slab of chocolate…!!

“This is for you from us…!! We are so excited by what you are doing…!! You are our hero…!! Good luck for the rest of your journey, we will follow you on your website…!!”

I felt myself blushing at her obvious enthusiasm for what I was doing, and stood there slack-jawed, watching as they rode back out onto the highway and disappeared into the distance… It took small things such as the two acts of kindness I had just experienced to make me appreciate that what I was doing was a “big thing” in the eyes of many…

Bright welcome to Croatia...

Croatia to us and Hrvatska to the locals...

I have seldom thought about the effect my journey has on other people who probably dream about something like this but never get the opportunity to live the dream…

I hope that is some small way, they can live it through my eyes and experiences over the next few years…

Croatia was like being on another planet compared to Serbia…

Not only were there patches of forest along the highway, but there were also signboards advising of places to visit and areas of historical significance… I had not seen a single one of these signs anywhere in Serbia…

We rode hard to Zagreb, for the most part, close to the border with Bosnia, covering the next 295 kms in two and a half hours…

I had intended to overnight here, but as the city loomed up on the flat skyline, I decided against it, and kept going, headed for Ljubljana in Slovenia… I did not want to spend another night in a big city, and wanted to find someplace quieter… I refueled on the western edge of the city, and then sped on…

Zagreb was within easy reach when you're zooming along a motorway...

Been to Budapest, had no idea about Varazdin, and gave Zagreb a miss...!!

Bright goodbye from Croatia...

I exited Croatia, having ridden across the entire northern section of the country, from east to west, in just under four hours, including the fuel stop…!!

Blitzing the Balkans...!! After Serbia and Croatia, it was into Slovenia...

A few kilometres northwest of the Slovenian capital, and 160 km later, I found what I was looking for… The Vila Minka was set just off the main road in the town of Koseze, and had been recommended by the friendly receptionist at the Hotel Mons, a few kilometres away.

She called and made a reservation for me, and then gave me accurate directions of how to find it… The Mons was a massive conference and hotel centre, and ideally situated next to the main highway to Italy and Austria, but a little too expensive for me…

Just as I was leaving to ride to Vila Minka, a guy walked up to me and in an unmistakable South African accent, said,

“Don’t tell me that you have ridden all the way from South Africa…!!”

“I’m afraid I have…!” I replied… “I popped out to buy the Sunday Times and must have taken a wrong turn somewhere…!!”

He burst out laughing, and then told me that he had married a South African girl and had lived in Johannesburg for four years… They had since been divorced and he had moved back to Slovenia… We chatted for a while, and then he left to drive some of the hotel guests to another location…

At the Vila Minka there was yet another South African connection… The owners had family who lived in Cape Town, and had left the hotel only hours before I arrived…!! We were both sorry that I had missed them…!! I was shown to my apartment, which included a small kitchenette, and given the password to their wireless internet, given a key to the front door, and then left to my own devices…

Three capitals in one day... Belgrade, Zagreb and now Ljubljana...

If ever you find yourself in the vicinity of Ljubjlana, this is the place to stay...!!

I boiled some water and then dug out my supply of coffee and sugar, as well as my last packet of two minute noodles and cup-a-soup, (I had carried them all the way from South Africa…!!) and made myself some supper, adding to the mix a few sausages that I had bought at the grocery store down the road…

It had been a long time since I had “cooked” for myself, and I must say that I enjoyed pottering around in the little kitchen…!! Even though it took only a few minutes to prepare…!!

I had covered over 2000 km and ridden in five different countries, in the last five days, (Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia) but still wanted to push on… There wasn’t anything specific I wanted to see or do between here and the Dalmatian Coast in southern Croatia, and although I would have liked to rest up in Ljubljana, I decided to ride on the next day, and get another 500 kms or so under my belt…

Sometimes it’s about “The Ride”, and less about anything else, and this was one of those times…

Perhaps the boring landscape that I had been riding through today had something to do with it… Or maybe it was the thought of completing my ride through Europe and getting into Asia that had me wanting to chew through the last few thousand kilometres…

Whatever it was, I had an itch that needed scratching…

©GBWT 2010