Man, what a day! Blue skies, climbs, mountain landscapes, wild boar hunts, amazing coastal roads, swimming in the turquoise water and an evening in Dubrovnik with the greatest group of cyclists ever. Life doesn’t get much better than this!
The cross at the Bosnian Herzegovinan – Croatian border
Yesterday was powered by Choco Lips. Today was powered by Bumm. We splashed out on this ice-cream treat spending our last Bosnian currency before returning back into Croatia.
Bumm
Our last day through Bosnia Herzegovina was on a Sunday (today), which is hunting day. We passed lots of cars that had pulled over, with people with guns and bright fluorescent jackets. Cycling along, we heard the distant barking of dogs (and remembered the canine blur that jumped out at us from the bushes yesterday), but discovered that these dogs were hunting dogs. They were tracking down wild boar.
Wild boars
Just over the border, and we were back on the coast. What an amazing coast! Blue sky, turquoise water, and jugged mountains rising out of the water off the coast. We found our own little beach, and just a few days after driving through the snow, we swam in the sea, and had lunch on the beach.
Dalmation coast
Sunning on the Dalmation coast
And, yes, I went swimming again
In Dubrovnik we met 3 really cool cyclists, two cycling down to Croatia and then back up in Italy, and one who is cycling from France to New Zealand (http://afleurdeselle.wordpress.com). Our evening whizzed by sharing stories and dreams. It is so cool spending time with other cyclists en route and enjoying life.
The 5 cyclists
Clèment told of dumster diving – eating from the masses of food that is thrown away each and every day. It was a real eye-opener. There is a lot of waste in our society!
arctic-cycler.com 
I’m glad that you left Bosnia with smile on your face. I guess you will be now going to Montenegro, seaside cities aren’t the greatest place for a cyclist (at least in season) but inland is very beautiful – actually the most beautiful place that I have ever been to is Žabljak in Durmitor and Durmitor’s Sedlo pass. Also, Piva lake. I guess it’s a bit off route to you now, but I’ll leave you a few pictures so you can get the idea 😛
Sedlo pass: http://www.panacomp.net/uploaded/SOA%20Zabljak/durmitor_sedlo.jpg (road is passing between those hills)
Piva lake: http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/94164/aks_7897.jpg (yes, it’s perfectly fine for swimming)
Tara canyon: http://www.img.montenegro.travel/sites/montenegro.travel/files/multimedia/www_montenegro_bild_studio_me/objekti/foto/2012/02/Bridge%20on%20river%20Tara_Durmitor.jpg -> Largest canyon in Europe and 2nd in the world after Grand Canyon
Good luck!
Hi Aron. Thanks for the tips. I will check them out. I’m always looking for beautiful places!
More amazing scenery – just stunning! And who could go past an ice-cream called Bumm??
Yes. That bumm was amazing. 🙂
Hi Matthew, I’ve been following your blog everyday… Absolutely fascinating! And beautiful photos! I have never been along the Dalmation Coast, but it’s definitely on my bucket list! You look well and very happy!!! I’ve been ultra-busy at work and traveling alot. So following your trip reminds me there is life beyond the laptop! 🙂 Elva
Great to hear from you Elva. Greetings from Montenegro. Wild camping tonight with James and Willem. 🙂
I think some of the scenes in Game of Thrones were shot in Dubrovnik. Awesome photos. And yeah, it’s kind of nice to meet fellow cyclist along the road.
Indeed! I’m cycling with 2 of them now in Montenegro. 🙂
The snack bag lives! I’ve fond memories of the snack bag from the day and a half we cycled together in Estonia last year. 🙂
Yes. It’s alive and kicking full of choco lips, kiddies and limousines. 🙂
Hi Matthew! Great to see how you are proceeding. With respect to the maps and navigation software, are you aware of http://www.openstreetmap.org and http://osmand.net/ ?
The maps on OSM are usually much better and more reliable than Google’s and you have the option to improve them yourself by adding roads on the map that are missing.
Marc.
Hey thanks! I will look at that when I have an Internet day. Today cycling up the mountain behind Kotor. Yay!
[…] thrown out at supermarkets, fruit markets and bakers. I first heard about it in Dubrovnik when Clement told about cycling 3000km through France without money. Florian has done it on his trip from Germany to Australia. In Adelaide I added the dumpster diving […]