Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Hi - Mods please delete if you feel this is too commercial a post.

I am in the very Very early planning stages to do a road based tour of the main sites in the Bosnian conflict.
Planning a ride over 7 days starting in our base in Samokov - Bulgaria heading to Serbian border approx 2 hours away. i guess about 200 kilometers's riding a day max?

Below are some destinations suggested to us.
Do you have any others, or any epic routes between these destinations?
Figure doing a top 7 destinations and try and make a glorious route inbetween them.... National parks and other sites.

Gorazde
Sarajevo,
Mostar,
Jablanica,
Vitez,
Donji Vakuf,
Mrkonic Grad,
Sipovo,
Glamoc,
Livno,
Split.
Any others? any specific places we should also include? and we can look at adding them to the route.

Cheers

Dave

Possibly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plitvice_ ... ional_Park site of relevance to the war too which will put you further north but then you can head to the coast and the D8 road B) Inland from Zadar there are some easy gravel trails if required too. We will be exploring from Dubrovnik in June if you want us to check anything out.

Hi Herman
As i didn't serve over there, or anywhere for that matter i have no real ideal of the significance of some of the sites that would be most poignant for any ex military personal who did, as i figured this tour would be most interesting to ex service men who also ride bikes...

Exploring Dubrovbik in June sounds great !! I'm off Montenegro with the inlaws hmy:

Cheers
dave

The route from:

Split - Kamesnsko (border) - Tomoslavgrad - (Skirting around the eastern edge of lake Jezero) to Kupres - Sipovo - Mrkonic Grad would be a brilliant days riding, lakes mountain roads, tunnels the lot!! :cheer:

I was out there for a couple of Tours, and would love to go back and have another look.

You can't really go very far wrong in terms of looking for military history either - it was and is everywhere...


Be very respectful of the history - remember, the language is NOT Serbo-Croatian, its Serbian when in Serbia, and Croatian when in Croatia - little things piss people off! There's some colloquial differences too, but few that a tourist would notice. This might not apply in the beach resorts of the Adriatic - but up country - it still counts, according to a couple of Bosnia-Serb and Croatian colleagues!

Most of the mine fields are clear - but they reckon it won't be totally clear until after 2020 at the earliest - they are well behind, and over 600 people have been killed since the war ended even now - including kids looking for bloody Pokemon

They move in snow, and wash away in downpours, and float about in rivers some of them too :pinch:

Do your homework - main routes will be fine, but if you're attempting trail riding off the beaten track, make sure you know what the warning signs are for the Minsko Polje!

Also - unexploded ordnance (UXO) is a danger in some areas - know what the UXO and Mines look like. Locals will still pile them by the road, and wait for the UN teams to come along when they are in that area, to remove them. I still wouldn't walk in long grass out there - as it is an area where the locals clearly aren't going on a regular basis - and for several years - it was an obsession, utterly ingrained into me. As a Combat Medic routinely patrolling the routes in armoured ambulances - well - they aren't much fun.

Mine Signs look like this - in movies only!!:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... erzegovina

Look for bottles on up turned sticks - or cans on upturned sticks, coloured tape or ribbons flying from tress, hedges, sticks etc.

If it doesn't look like the locals are going there on a daily basis - you shouldn't either.

Am very jealous of you - its a beautiful place, I can't wait to go back - the locals are lovely, avoid the home made Slivovic - it'll make you blind - and unless you bought it out of a shop - its almost certainly potato whisky and not Plum Brandy! :silly:

(thumbs)

Thank you very much for the information.
If you want to come with us, feel free. Shipping the bikes mid September.

A couple of places that stick out are;
Omarska, the main concentration camp used by the Bosnian Serbs has reverted to being and iron ore mine. I'm not sure how a visit would be received as the people who ran it still live in the area.
Potocari-Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, the name Srebrenica is the one people most identify with the war.

In Croatia the land mine signs were similar to the ones shown in the picture links my missus decided to go and read it back in the tree line I persuaded her that it might be a bad idea and use the camera zoom. when speaking with local's they said they were legit

Mike G

If you pause in Sarajevo, the Historical museum of BiH is well worth a look, it's up near the old Bazaar and Muslim quarter... very moving.

Nice work fellas.
I posted the same question on the gsforum.... it's just not the same :whistle:

Thanks again.

nethen1 wrote:Thank you very much for the information.
If you want to come with us, feel free. Shipping the bikes mid September.

Shipping....?? No No No!!! Ride there! It's much more fun.

Well, I thought so on the two occasions I've visited Croatia. Sounds a brilliant route. Enjoy!!