Sunday, 15 June, 2025 – Saturday, 28 June, 2025
Sunday, day 12, was a relaxed one at the campground with Primož’s parents. We finally felt ready to buy the airplane tickets for our flight from Turkey since we had enough data to better estimate when we will get there. With the luxuries of cold drinks, good food, comfortable chairs, an air-conditioned van, and all the electricity one could desire, it was easy to fall back into our normal life. It seemed just like any other vacation, and it was weird to think just how hard it was only two days ago to cycle uphill with the headwind. Just like we’ve learned after the first part of the trip, our brains make it very easy to forget the struggles and fall back into the routine. Anyway, we knew that the next day, we would be back on the road.
Like we said in the previous post, we made an effort to get rid of as much weight from our bikes as possible, and we managed to send around 8 kilograms back home with Primož’s parents. At that moment, we still weren’t the lightest, since we had over 10 kilograms of food with us (parents restocked us), but we will slowly eat that weight away. Hopefully, in the next 10 or so days, we will be light enough to notice a difference when riding uphill.
On Monday morning, day 13, we started to prepare and pack everything back on the bikes. Like always, we still had plenty of work that would ideally already be done, but at least we planned more of our route ahead, and we bought plane tickets. We went for one last swim with family and dog Rozi (who, by the way, is an excellent swimmer), and we had lunch at noon. At 1 PM we were ready to go.
The day was hot, and we were both melting on our bikes. The highlight of that day was the Neretva River valley, which is famous for fruit and vegetables. At the peak of the season, there are a lot of stalls right by the road, filled with not only fruits and veggies, but also many different juices, liqueurs, schnapps, and honey. When we passed, there were 10 to 15 stalls, most with a car parked next to them and tourists buying things. One can usually get pretty good deals there, and the taste of fruit and vegetables is amazing.
We did around 50 kilometers, then we stopped by the road for a longer break, close to the area that we determined beforehand looked suitable from the satellite pictures on Google Maps. When the evening approached, we took a small gravel road for a few hundred meters (avoiding big spiders on the way) and found a small clear area where we could set up a tent. Because of the warm rocks and tall grass, we were mostly afraid of the snakes coming by our tent in the evening or through the night, but there was something completely different that we should have been cautious of.
We stayed up late to update our Instagram and to write a bit of the blog, and right as we were about to go to sleep, Iris heard movement outside our tent. First, it was just rustling of leaves, but then we heard something bigger, accompanied by pig noises. Apparently, there were wild boars in the area, and we didn’t know that.
It’s a bad idea to try and scare wild boars away, because they can get aggressive if they feel threatened. The smartest thing to do is to make enough human noises to let them know that you’re there, and usually they will try to avoid you.
We did just that—we talked (What should we do? How dangerous are they? …) and turned on our headlamps inside the tent. Thanks to ChatGPT, we got info on how to deal with wild boars on the spot. After a few minutes, we remembered that we had a lot of food (also fresh fruits) outside in our panniers and trash hanging off the handlebars, which could make them try to break into the bags. It was time for someone to go outside and shoo them away, if there were any left. The only weapons we had in the tent were our bike helmets, so Primož picked one and went outside to investigate. Luckily, there weren’t any boars to be seen, and we made sure to make enough loud noises (like whistling, clapping, and talking) for them to not come back. They’re mostly active right after dusk but can roam around all through the night. Since we didn’t want the visitors back, we put some music on a phone. According to ChatGPT, music with singing is better than classical music. The rest of the night was calm. Besides a few grasshoppers that bit a small hole in our tent, nothing interesting happened.
We packed up early in the morning of day 14 and enjoyed fresh morning temperatures. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a big country that has even less coast than Slovenia. Less than 10 kilometers, to be precise. It looks a bit funny on the map because it splits Croatia into two parts. Recently, Croatians built a bridge that one can use to avoid going through Bosnia, but it was made as a highway road, so we weren’t allowed to cross it with bikes. The only thing we did in Bosnia was buy a loaf of bread. We didn’t even have an opportunity to find a nice place for breakfast before we were already on the second border to go back into Croatia. From there, we had a long descent, and we did 65 kilometers that day. Initially, we didn’t plan to go to a campground, but we stopped close to Dubrovnik, which is a very touristy destination, and we couldn’t find a good place to hide. The risk of getting a fine didn’t seem worth it to us, so we paid 20€ and went into a campground in Orašac.
Wednesday, day 15, was our last day in Croatia. After around 15 kilometers, we got to Dubrovnik, the last big Croatian city on our route. It is also probably one of the most beautiful ones. We stayed on the main road that goes above the city, so we got some nice views. The most famous part is the old town, surrounded by high stone walls. That was the main filming location for King’s Landing in the HBO series Game of Thrones. On the nearby island, there’s an original iron throne that was gifted to the city as a thank you, which one can visit. We didn’t descend into the city since it would be nice to have more time to explore it, especially because there’s a fee to pay just for entering the old town. As it’s not that far from our home country, we might come back one day and go inside.
After Dubrovnik, we had over 30 kilometers left, with a long climb at the end, toward the border between Croatia and Montenegro. Judging by the height profile, the border crossing lies on top of the mountain chain that separates the countries. We weren’t even stopped at the Croatian border, and the Montenegrin police officer at their border just scanned our passports and let us through. We stopped at the campground in Bijela, around 25 kilometers after the border, and went for a swim there.
Almost every evening, we have big plans for how early we will get up and start cycling to have at least an hour before the heat strikes. But, just like most mornings, we didn’t get up as early as we planned on day 16. Not to point fingers, but Primož is usually the one staying up late in the evenings. So, even though we had a very long day ahead of us, we didn’t leave the campground until 8 AM. Until then, the sun was already high in the sky. We were lucky enough that we didn’t have any headwind on that day, and it became the record holder for the most daily kilometers, time on the bike, and vertical meters. That wasn’t our initial plan; it was the result of not finding a good place to sleep before that. It was also the first time that we had lost something on the tour—after one break Primož forgot to strap the socks back on the panniers, and he lost one of them somewhere along the next 10 kilometers. We have no idea how, but one sock was still holding on when we had the next stop. Having an odd number of socks isn’t ideal, but we also feel bad throwing it away, so it will wait in the bag until we lose one more, then it will come in handy.
We don’t mind vertical meters with shorter or more gradual ascents and some descents in between, but that wasn’t the case on that day. We had four or five bigger climbs, each of them between 100 and 200 vertical meters, which really drained us. We wanted to stop at the campground after 65 kilometers, but it just wasn’t where it should have been according to Google Maps, nor anywhere around the spot. We assumed that it got closed. Anyway, we continued towards the second campground, around 10 kilometers further. It was located in the middle of nowhere, higher up the hill. The road up to it was so steep at some spots that we had to get off the bikes and push them. It was a waste of time and energy. When we reached the campground, it was completely empty, and the woman who worked there seemed very nice, but when we asked for the price, she said 30€ for a single night. Online reviews on Google Maps said that people paid 19€ for two with bikes, but apparently they have changed the prices in the last year because “everyone else did it too”. We got an idea why the campground was empty. There wasn’t any option for negotiations; the woman said that the owner would rather have the campground empty than lower the price and that she couldn’t do anything about it. We had to turn around, but at least we had a big descent for the next two kilometers. There was one more campground that we looked up when we planned this stretch (we didn’t have internet in Montenegro, only WiFi at camps), and it was another 12 kilometers further and 200 meters of ascent. When we got to it, we were completely exhausted; were they to ask for 30€ per night, we would pay and keep our mouths shut about the pumped-up price.
Campground Side of Peace in Pečurice was a positive surprise. First, we weren’t the only people there—in the span of the evening came three other cyclists, a couple in a big Land Rover car, and a couple with an RV. Second, the prices were perfectly normal—7€ per person. And third, and most important, the owner was extremely kind and helpful. We liked the place so much that we decided to take a break on day 17 and stay at the campground one more night. We did 275 kilometers in the last 4 days.
We mostly relaxed and enjoyed on day 17, moving with the shadows and reading a book. Like always when we have a day off, we tried to catch up with a blog, our personal diary, and Instagram. Sometimes we get tired of always being behind with everything, thinking how much easier it would be to just stop with all that, but we know that we will be grateful later for having all those memories, thoughts, and experiences written down. To treat ourselves, we got a pizza at the campground for, again, a very reasonable price of 7€. The campground could use a few more trees for shade, there isn’t much to do around, and sadly it isn’t by the sea, but we would recommend it as a place to stop for a night or have a peaceful rest day on the trip.
After 18 kilometers on day 18, we entered Albania. For almost 70 kilometers, we had mostly flat terrain, and we progressed fast. It was still early afternoon when we arrived in Lezhë. We found cold spring water, one of many that we will find in Albania. Hills and mountains started to show in the distance, and spring water was one of the benefits that they brought. We found a fast food restaurant, where we pointed at the pictures of what we wanted to order, since we didn’t know the names of the food. After we ate, we were ready to find a place to sleep, but we couldn’t find the “free camping” spot that we planned in advance based on Google Maps, so we had to go further. It took us another 20 kilometers before we got out of the urban area, away from people and houses, and we settled for a small meadow by the road, hidden by bushes. It was around 7 PM, and the mosquitoes started to come out, so we just set up a tent even though it was still bright, and we hid inside. There was only one problem—a lot of big grasshoppers found our tent interesting, and they crawled everywhere they could. We tried to flick them off the tent, but after a while it became pointless; they were just coming back on, as if they enjoyed being sent flying off the tent.
When we woke up on Sunday morning, day 19, there was a bit less of a tent for us to pack. During the night, at least one of the grasshoppers started to chew on it, directly on one of the outer stitches that keeps the water out of the tent. There wasn’t really much we could do against the grasshoppers, and we probably paid a small price for what could be a much worse result. We don’t even want to imagine a full flock of them feeling the need for a midnight snack. In that case, our tent would for sure have an improved ventilation system.
Komoot navigation led us through a small town named Milot, but it probably didn’t take into account that those streets would be completely filled with people. Since it was Sunday, there was a huge market happening right on the streets. The traffic on the main road was moving at a snail’s pace, but as soon as we turned onto a smaller road, we had to dismount and push our bikes through the crowd. Anyway, it was an experience on its own. It seemed that you could buy anything there: from live animals, fruit, and vegetables to clothes, shoes, tools, and plenty of rubbish that probably came from questionable sources. If our bikes got stolen, something like this might be the first place worth taking a look.
We were leaving a flat part of Albania, and the more we started to climb into the hills, the more we enjoyed nature and people. We prefer country people and small towns and villages over bigger cities and people living there. We get more smiling faces, everyone says hello, and kids wave at us and get excited when we wave back. Maybe it’s just us, but that’s the feeling that we got.
On that day, we had the most beautiful views as we climbed uphill. There was a road on the cliff, with a big river underneath in the canyon. We stopped several times (not only to catch our breath), and we simply admired nature. Just for those views, Albania got much more beautiful in our eyes. We also lifted our drone in the air to get some nice pictures. We slept at the top of a hill, on a yellow meadow with a beautiful view over the surrounding fields. The only downside of that spot was that both of us started to sneeze, and we got runny noses after maybe an hour of sitting outside in that spot. It was probably some sort of allergy to who knows what.
Ever since we left the Alps last year in France, we were dreaming of cold spring water, remembering how good it tasted and the amazing feeling of putting our hot faces underneath. Well, in Albania we found just that again. We couldn’t believe it when we saw pipes of endlessly flowing water by the road every few kilometers. We often stopped, emptied our water bottles, and refilled them with cold water. It was so cold that our hands started to hurt when we had them under water for more than fifteen seconds. I’m sure that we will miss this feeling again soon.
On day 20 we seized an opportunity, and we got into that beautiful river, next to which we were cycling yesterday, to cool down and wash ourselves. Well, it wasn’t the big river, only a smaller stream, but it was still nice. Along the way, we saw a lot of people working on the fields, and we were shocked when we saw that most of the work was done manually; we didn’t see any tractors. We have no idea why—it seemed that almost everyone had a car (even if it was an older one), so maybe tractors were more expensive, or the reason could be high petrol prices (around 1.70€ per liter).
On this day, we also had one of the big climbs—12 kilometers of uphill with almost 600 vertical meters. We couldn’t say that we enjoyed moving uphill at a snail-like pace, but at least the road was mostly empty, and we had nice views over the valley below. There were again a lot of water pipes by the road, and we had more breaks on the way up than we would like to admit. After around 2 hours, we climbed on top, and ahead of us was a bit over 20 kilometers of gradual descent. Just for that, the climb might have been worth it. For the next 10-or-so kilometers, we mostly just sat and looked around, with gravity doing most of the work. We were getting close to the border with North Macedonia, and we didn’t want to sleep too close to it, so we stopped when we found an appropriate place. The abandoned quarry wasn’t an ideal spot, but it was the best we found, and once we parked our bikes, neither of us had a strong desire to move somewhere else.
Day 21 was our last day in Albania. When we entered the country, we exchanged 20€ for their local currency, Albanian Lek (ALL), with 1€ = 97 ALL. In bigger shops we paid by credit card, but we still wanted to have some cash just in case. Well, we were 20 kilometers away from the border, and we still had around 10€ of their money, and since it wasn’t enough to exchange back into euros, we stopped at a supermarket before the border. We bought necessities like pasta and beans, but for the rest of the cash, we decided to treat ourselves, and we bought as many snacks as we could. Ahead of us was the biggest climb we ever did with loaded bikes, and all snacks were about to come in handy.
We entered Macedonia and stopped in the first town that we went through, Debar. We again exchanged 20€, this time into Macedonian Denar (MKD), with 1€ = 61 MKD. The first thing we did was buy burek before we continued into the country. It wasn’t long before the road started to become steeper, and, as we already mentioned before, we were about to start a big climb. It was on the road between Debar and Kičevo. For the next 16 kilometers, we ascended almost 900 vertical meters. It didn’t help that most of the road was under construction, which meant rough gravel and plenty of holes on the way up. To be fair, besides plenty of smaller breaks, we took a big one around halfway to the top—we found a nice spot for a tent, and we stayed the night there.
On day 22, Wednesday, we continued with the climb, well rested and early enough that the air in the shadows was still cold. After almost 2 hours of going uphill, we finally arrived on top. Descent was at atleast as steep as the ascent was, and the road wasn’t in any better condition. Our average speed uphill was around 5-6 km/h, and on the way down it wasn’t much more than 8 km/h. We had to go slowly, avoiding holes and bigger rocks, and we stopped multiple times to let our brakes cool down a bit.
In the evening we found a decent spot for camping, but there were several Muslim mosques with minaret towers around us, and at sunset, a prayer started to play on the loudspeakers. It went on for at least an hour. Trying to fall asleep was terrible (luckily we had earplugs). As if that wasn’t enough, another prayer started at sunrise, but we were exhausted enough to simply fall back asleep.
We skipped breakfast on the morning of day 23, and we stopped at the burek place in the first bigger town on our way. The lady working there was very kind, and Macedonian language is similar enough to Slovenian so we could easily communicate. We bought 3 bureks, paying a total of 3.50€ in local currency. After that, we had one bigger hill to climb (350m), and after the first break at 28 kilometers, we kept on going without a break because the air was so hot that being still in the shadow was worse than cycling under the sun. We got to Prilep, a bigger town on our way, and we finally took a break there. We went into the supermarket to buy cold drinks and some food and snacks, and then we spent the hottest hours under the shade in the park. In the meantime, we got a company of two stray dogs in the park, and they started to follow us when we continued out of town at 5 PM. It took us almost 1 kilometer before the last dog finally gave up.
If day 23 was hot, day 24 was even hotter. Luckily, we had only a few kilometers of uphill before we got over 25 kilometers of descent over 800 vertical meters. In some parts we exceeded the speed of 50 km/h. It was amazing how fast kilometers passed on the way down. And when we say that it was hot, it’s hard to imagine what this means. Instead of air cooling us down at high speeds, it was burning our skin and eyes behind the sunglasses, and when we tried to drink from our water bottles, the water inside was as hot as tea. It was bliss when we found a small stream of water between two tunnels, and we dipped our shirts in there. We got cold when we put them back on, but it didn’t last long—less than 5 minutes, and our shirts were completely dry again.
After all that heat, we could expect some summer storm. The wind picked up, clouds started to gather, and as we checked the radar image, we saw the storm brewing around us. Luckily, it missed us, and we only got a few raindrops and a heavy wind.
Since our sleeping spot wasn’t ideal, we got up early on Saturday, day 25. It was 5 AM, and we were already packing. Riding in cold temperatures was amazing, and we almost wanted to get up this early every morning. Almost. We had 32 kilometers to the campground “Moto Camp Jugo” in Gevgelija, and we were there at 8 AM. The reason we went into the campground was because we wanted to have a shower and a day off. It was also our last day in Macedonia. With four small kittens playing around the camp, it was hard not to smile all the time. There was also a swimming pool and a homemade zipline. To sum it up, it was a very fun day off. We showered two times, and we washed most of our clothes, which dried very fast because of the wind. For the same reason, we had to strap down our tent in the evening, and we made a wind shelter in front of it with our bikes.
Some more pictures:
