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//Day 67 /17-05-22 /Banja Luka-Dubica

I left beautiful Banja Luka after breakfast. I did it sleep that good due to late fire work….The sun was shining but rain was expected later in the day. Today would be mainly flat cycling except climbing one hill to 750 meters in the National Park Kozara. After 3 streets I had to climb a short steep hill, I guess over 15%…the street ending on the top in some stairs going down…The only solution was to cycle back down again and take another route, a good warming up exercise…..

Once I left the city I cycled again most of the time on small roads, paved and unpaved. I also had some small hills in the beginning. On Komoot these seemed negligible but on of these hills, unpaved, was so steep that I was not able to cycle and had to push Black Horse some 50 meters to the top, not so much if Black Horse and package would not be around 50 Kilograms. Again a good warming  up….

After this climb the rest of the day the road would less or more flat untill Park Kozara. The scenery was nice again but uneventful…
















Around noon I arrived at a village before the entrance of the National park. I had a light lunch of Burek filled with leat which I shared with a stray dog. Some rain was falling but not enough to put on my rain gear. After lunch I started with the ascent, 1 kilometer outside the small village I paid 2 Bosnian mark entrance fee to a sleepy guard. The incline was not to hard and it would take around 10 K to cover the 600 meters of height. The road was most of the time through a forest so there was not so much to see, every 2 kilometer there was a stopping area often with water. My aim was to get on top in eco mode and  I’m happy to say I succeeded. Quite sudden I was at the top, at the same time I started raining somewhat harder. On the top there was a bar and modern info point, but also the momument to the revolution, a WWII memorial sculpture by Dzamonja dedicated to 2500 Yugoslav partisan fighters and re 68500 civilians (mostly Serbs) killed or deported to Ustase concentration camps.The memorial is in brutalist style of which I’m a fan. Almost no other people around. I noted that the concrete stairs to memorial where broken on the lower level. A young couple explained that during the Balkan war they had tried to get a tank to the top……





From the top I had  25 K to cycle to Dubica where I will cross into Croatia tomorrow. I followed an unpaved cycle path from the top all the way down. Some 10 K though a forest on a sometimes good but also sometimes difficult path with a a lot of pebbles. I passed some grazing cows but also some trucks with cut trees going to the top.






I was happy when I was able to cycle on asphalt again. Another 10 K on a straight road to the river Una which is the natural frontier  between Bosnia and Croatia. Along the road a lot of derelict houses. The frontier is in the center of the small village and when I took a wrong turn I was standing a day to early at the frontier. I turned around and went in search for the hotel I had seen on Booking overlooking the river and the frontier. I checked in and had a great shower (the last couple of days shower quality has been great !). Again, I fell asleep when reading…..I also spend some time to find a bike shop in Zagreb for new tires, they have now a almost 7500 K and I notice they get more slippy….until now I did not find a shop with the set of tires I’m looking for…

The village did not provide a lot of restaurant options so I dined in the hotel on a copious portion of mixed grilled meat. Enough meat for the rest of the trip..Tomorrow I will cycle 120 K to Zagreb where I will stay 2 nights. I’m not sure where I will head to after Zagreb. To Ljubljana ? To the Croatian coast ? To Maribor….?  I have 2 days to decide….Tomorrow I will leave Bosnia after 1 week cycling though the country, If you like to cycle, nature, history …I can only recommend to come to visit yourself Bosnia and Herzegovina, and of course the Republika Srpska….but not Banja Luka…except if you like cardboard flavour soft ice cream…..

Lessons learned :
  • A newly build, modern style hotel is not necessarily managed in newly, modern way….
  • No sense to order a salad on the side with a mixed meat platter, there is just not enough room.
  • Compeed can be used on other places then feet….
Song of the day : The Partisan - Leonard Cohen








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