Day 1 Ćiro Trail: Mostar to Capljina

The Ćiro Trail runs between the old town of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast, following the old Austro-Hungarian railway line built in 1901. 

The Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which ruled the territory of BiH at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, built a network of narrow-gauge railways (track width 0.76 m). The railways were built primarily as strategic military facilities and they connected the southern Adriatic ports with cities in the hinterland and with Central Europe.

The line was reopened in 2017 as a cycling trail.

We get our bags to reception before breakfast; Toni will collect them later and we’ll see them in Dubrovnik in 5 days (well, that’s the plan).

Breakfast! Then the task of attaching our panniers to the bikes - always an interesting exercise first time round with panniers that are different from our own. It takes about half an hour and then we are off on our (hopefully) trusty steeds by 10 past 8.

It was quite a blast down the busy Bulevar through the city; we manage to exit Mostar without being killed.

First stop: Blagaj just after 9 a.m. and we go straight to the dervish house, or Tekke/Tekija. This is located at the source of the Buna River and the water emerges here out of a cave and is a lovely blue colour, then some metres later it cascades over rocks.

The monastery itself was built in 1520 by the Dervish, a mystic branch of Sufi Islam known for rituals that involve various forms of whirling. After WWII, the activities of the dervishes were banned. 

After our visit, we go back up into the town and enjoy a Bosnian coffee (and passively smoke at the same time with the locals) before setting off again. The tourist buses are arriving in droves by now.

A bit more travelling on roads then off onto the Ćiro Trail via the Bunski Kanali (where I lose the top of my drink bottle into the waters below …😥).

The canal is quite a stunning natural phenomenon: a place where the river Buna joins the Neretva and creates a series of small waterfalls.

It is lovely riding on what is officially the trail now - it is sealed and we do share it with cars but fortunately there are not too many of these; there ARE snakes however: plenty of little ones that are dead but I saw one quite large one wiggling off down the side of the trail to the river alongside (MF didn’t see it; probably had his head in the Garmin device…).

We pass under a massively tall overpass still being constructed. My research indicates not all the locals are happy about the project for environmental reasons and lack of consultation regarding the route, etc. It seems to be at least partly funded by the EU and to be part of the Pan-European Corridor motorway set to run from Budapest to the Adriatic port of Ploče in Croatia - with 330 kms of the route passing through Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). And it seems to have been delayed due to engineering mis-alignments … 

We are travelling through the Nature Park Hutovo Blato. The river is emerald green and the trail is lined with red poppies and pink, white, yellow and purple meadow flowers; and the dandelions are HUGE (eat your heart out grand-daughter Evelyn!); we look for a picnic spot for lunch but although the view was pretty, the spot we found will probably be remembered for how filthy with rubbish it was:  a poor choice.

We don’t stay long here and by a bit after 1 p.m. we have reached today’s destination: Capljina. It has a rich archaeological history being founded by the Romans in 5 B.C. It also has a sad war history like elsewhere on this trip, notably the Prebilovci massacre in which 4000 people were killed (mainly Serbs) in 1941, perpetrated by the Croatian Ustaše.

We enjoy a very good flat white at the cafe we pull up at. It’s quite hot - 25 deg C; despite the forecast being for overcast, the sun has been out blazing.

Over the river to our hotel (busy road, traffic not happy that we exist); hotel is good and the staff very kind.

There was a site recommended by Toni to visit on today’s itinerary but it is a bit too hot so we’ll try it in the morning.

We walk into town back across the long bridge over the Neretva; indeed there are 4 rivers here: Neretva, Trebižat, Bregava, and Krupa. We walk by the town's landmark: a statue of King Tomislav; also the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi. Generally, though, the town is quite run-down. 

We walk back for dinner at the hotel (5 kms walk).

We sit outside for an (early) meal; they seem to eat early here generally… The food at the hotel restaurant is good - and of gargantuan proportions! 

To date, we have been drinking the only red wine on the menus. Sometimes it’s not on the menu at all. You just ask for a glass of red. In most (all?) cases it is Blatina which I think is a grape variety (grown in BiH) and what you get varies in quality according to the brand. 

Today we rode 46.9 kms, 150 m climbing (basically flat apart from a few small, steep bits).