We spent the whole day in the car, travelling from Poland via Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1200 kilometres over often narrow mountain roads. The four bikes on the roof didn't make us any faster. It was already pitch dark when we decided to pitch our tents somewhere in the Bosnian mountains. It was only when the moon appeared behind a mountain ridge that we could make out the outline of our new surroundings: damn steep rock faces with window sill-like ledges. A few shaggy pines bend between them. Looks exciting. "Yes, it looks like a top spot for ... Climbing!" Michal throws his objection into the darkness like a stink bomb. He's annoyed because this time we're heading off into the blue. Normally, I always prepare meticulously for our bike trips, but this time I simply didn't have time to look at maps, locals and rideable routes beforehand. All I know about Bosnia and Herzegovina up to this point is that the country is located in the Dinaric Mountains in southern Europe and was involved in the Balkan War almost 20 years ago.
Before the others have even peeled themselves out of their sleeping bags the next morning, I catch up on what I've missed and first of all, I flick a map onto my mobile phone. There we are, close to the Blidinje National Park. The mountains here are almost 2000 metres high, there are old Roman roads, tombs from the Middle Ages and black granite rocks. I can't find anything about bike routes, but there are mountain paths marked on the map. We'll manage to find a few nice routes.
We follow a mountain road up to a pass and on the other side of the mountain we look out over a wide plain with a lake - Lake Blidinje. The landscape is magnificent, but also strange. The rocks look gloomy and there is not a soul to be seen apart from us. We park the car at a small church and drag the bikes off the roof. According to the smartphone map, the highest mountain in the region, the Plocno (2225 m), awaits us here.
You can find the entire BIKE article about the MTB trip to the Bosnian mountains as a free PDF download below.
