My motorcycle trip to the Balkan countries
BALKAN 2019
In 2019, I took another solo motorcycle trip. This time, I explored the Balkan countries in the south for three weeks. It was a completely different journey than the year before. I upgraded my motorcycle to handle off-road terrain. Therefore, I put on some fork protection, offroad tires, and a falling protection on it. My last contact with the offroad terrain was a bit shaky, and I was inexperienced in this area. For my journey to the Balkan countries, I decided to do some offroad training before. I visited a course near Freiburg and learned the basic skills in handling my motorcycle in the offroad terrain. This course helped me a lot. With my upgraded motorcycle and some new skills learned, I started my journey in August 2019 only with the essentials packed.
My rough plan was to drive to Albania through the countries Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro. As I did in my previous journey around the Baltic sea, I wanted to combine riding motorcycle and hiking to the top of the mountains. So, I searched for some nice hiking spots, which were on the way to the south. My first stop was the cinque torri in Italy, where I did some hiking round trip. Then I moved on to the triglav national park in Slovenia, where I hiked to the top of the highest mountain triglav. This was a tuff hike for just one day, but the view at the top was astonishing. I’ve never been in Slovenia and I was positively surprised how beautiful this country is. Especially the ride through the national park was a blast. I also visited the Bleder sea and had a cooling bath there. The temperatures were up to 30 degrees at this time.
As wild camping is not allowed in Europe, I had to always find some abandoned places to put on my tent. It was not always possible to find a good place, so I decided to sometimes use accommodation at a camping space. It was really a luxury to have a shower and a calm place to stay, but surprisingly I enjoyed this kind of camping as well. I met some motorcycle rider and some other fellow travelers at the camp sides and it was nice to get in touch with people.
From Slovenia, I moved on to Croatia. I didn’t spend much time in Croatia because there were not many possibilities to hike. I crossed it in a couple of days. In the south of Croatia, I found some nice place at a little sea. There I saw a few campers, and it was a lovely place to spend the night. I met some funny family from the east of Germany. They converted an old truck into a living space, and they were on vacation every year here. They knew the locals well and were friends with them. I was warmly welcomed, and we had some nice conversations. Later, they invited me for a little party in the evening, where the locals would join. As the evening started, I saw an old rusty Volkswagen Golf 2 driving to our side, and I thought it would be a little party. The doors opened, and 7 people got out of the car. I just laughed. In the trunk, they had a 30 L barrel of apple wine, beer, and everything prepared for a good grill session. Later, a Mercedes Sprinter arrived with more people. We had a good evening, and I met some crazy guys from Croatia. I wanted to give them money for the exchange for food and the drinks, but they didn’t accept that. They invited me as a guest, and it’s “normal” that you usually don’t give anything back. I was touched, that these people were so friendly. They don’t have that much, but they share everything with others. It made me thoughtful.
I moved the next day on to visit Bosnia, where I planned some hiking tours. Bosnia was as Slovenia a beautiful country, which I wouldn’t expect. Especially, the Blidinje nature park was really beautiful, and I enjoyed there some nice hikes and lovely sunsets. I spent a couple of days there, then I moved further into the south.
My next destination was Montenegro. Many people told me, that there were many spots to hike and the landscape counts to one of the most beautiful in the Balkan countries. I was really excited about that country, and I started with visiting Kotor. It was a nice place to visit and the view from the top was awesome. Then I moved on to some hiking spots in the east. The roads, especially in the east were not in good shape. Some parts were on gravel roads and it was not always easy to drive. My first stop was the Grlo viewpoint. It’s located in the middle of nowhere and the view was astonishing. From Grlo, I moved on to my next hiking spot, which was Kom Kucki a “few” kilometers away. I put on Google Maps to navigate me to this point, and it sent me through the remotest places in Montenegro. There was no normal road anymore. The path was small and full of gravel and a lot of serpentines on the way. That was not what I expected, but I loved the challenge and I wanted to try. Luckily, my tank was nearly full and this time I had some equipment with me, to fix things in emergency situations. I went down the hill, and at some point, there was no return anymore (fuel). So, I had to go through it. Good that I took some lessons in offroad terrain. It was a really exhausting ride, with my heavy motorcycle and the equipment on it, but the trip was fun. On the top of a mountain, I met guys with a 4×4 vehicle and they were surprised to see a motorcycle in this area. I just told them that Google Maps showed me the way to this point. They laughed and wished me some good luck. These “few” kilometers turned out to be many hours. So, I put out my tent in the early evening in the middle of nowhere, to be recovered the next morning. The next day, I woke up early because I heard loud noises from an engine in front of my tent. I just thought: “What the … I’m in the middle of nowhere and now they catch me for sleeping wild?” But it was not what I thought. I went out of my tent, and there was an old man with his rusty Lada. He drove down this bumpy and freckled road (which I couldn’t believe). He could speak a little English, but in the end, we communicated with hands and gestures. In his trunk, he had transported three sheep and some cheese. Funny. He offered me a bit of the cheese, and we talked a few sentences. Then he moved on. It was an unexpected experience. I thought the worst, and it ended up with a friendly talk and some cheese. Then I headed to the starting point of the Kom Kucki hiking trip. The landscapes were so beautiful in this area. It reminded me a bit of the landscapes in Norway, but in a slightly different way. After the hike, I took the road down the hill, to be in a warmer and not so windy area.
The next day I moved to the national park Prokletije. There I planned another hiking tour. On the way up to the Mountain, I met some Serbian guys. We walked a few kilometers together, then I decided to go on. The landscapes were, as everywhere in this country, absolutely amazing. I extended my planned hike, to see more of the area, but it was a race against the time. As it was getting darker, I fastened my speed and at the last couple of kilometers, I met these Serbian guys again. We had a bit of a talk, and they asked me where I planned to sleep. I hadn’t any plans at that moment, so I was open to everything. Fortunately, they asked me if I wanted to stay at their vacation house of their friend. We could sleep in front of the building with the tents. I agreed, and we headed to the house a few kilometers away. I prepared for a cold night. The last couple of days were really cold, and I didn’t expect that. As I thought in my early planning that the temperatures in the south wouldn’t drop below 5 degrees, I was completely wrong. So, I carried only my summer sleeping bag with me. I knew I would survive in my sleeping bag, but it was uncomfortable to freeze the whole night. So, I took all of my stuff out of my bags and covered me with different layers. In the end, I had 3 layers of trousers, pullovers, and socks on me. The rest of my clothes and jackets I put on top of my sleeping bag. It was fine, and I prepared me to sleep. A few minutes later, surprisingly the owners of the house arrived and opened the house and invited me to some meal and a warm sleeping place. I couldn’t say no to this offer. We had a great evening, had a couple of drinks and some local food. As the other people in the Balkan countries, they didn’t accept my money for the meal and the sleeping opportunity. It’s another mentality over there, which is I truly appreciate.
The next day I said goodbye to these lovely people (unfortunately I can’t remember the names anymore). My plan was to cross the border, to see a bit of the Albania country. So, I put on Google Maps again. Maybe you can guess what happened. Google Maps sent me to the most abandoned streets it could find in Montenegro. These streets were tougher than the streets I’ve passed before. It all started very smoothly with a normal road, then went over to some gravel road (which I could live with) and in the end, it was a muddy and bumpy road, which had a dry stream path in the middle of the road. And as it could not be worse, I fell in this muddy stream path in the middle of nowhere. I tried to move it out, but the tires were already full of mud and hadn’t any grip anymore. So, I had to unpack my gear and started digging the back tire out of the mud with some wood. Then I moved the motorcycle backwards out of the muddy stream path. That moment was the sign, to not continue this way. This time I could help myself out, but if something happened later in a more dangerous way, nobody would notice it. So, I went back to Montenegro and slowly planned my way back to Germany.
In the next couple of days, I took on some nice motorcycle roads and went on two other hiking trips, which were on the back way. From Montenegro I moved back to Croatia, where I visited a friend at a camping side. That felt great to see a trusty face again, and we had some great days at the beach. From Croatia, I took my way back home. I realized that this motorcycle tour was slightly different from my previous trip to Norway. Now, it started feeling a bit boring, and it wasn’t that fun anymore as it was before. And that was just 3 weeks at this time. Maybe it was the exhausting trips in the offroad or at least the huge number of days, which I spent alone. I couldn’t figure it out at this time. Later on, I thought about it and I figured it out. The remarkable stories and times I had on my journey all involved people. This time I learned: “The people are it.”
