Early breakfast then a visit to the medieval village of Počitelj (which is in the opposite direction of our travel today). A steep climb up (= Wirlinga hill on steroids). Being so early, we had the place to ourselves. Amazing views.
It certainly was a good call to do it this morning without panniers (!) and in the cool of the day; and no crowds (EXCEPT of course it added 10 kms to our total ride today).
A very whizzy ride back down. Checkout, load panniers on bikes and gone by 9:30 a.m.
Quick stop on the way out of town at Mogorjelo, a Roman villa rustica which dates back to the early 4th century AD.
Some nice riding on quieter roads as we continue to leave Capljina behind; but plenty of speed humps (called ‘sleeping policemen’ here) - they don’t seem to have any effect on the drivers that we notice.
The Ćiro trail suddenly came up on the right. Without the Garmin, we’d never have seen the turn-off. There are no bike routes on Google Maps here! Some interesting rusty iron-lattice bridges (with large gaps between the planks!).
A little further on when we stop to talk to some young chaps from Moldova who are cycling the trail in the opposite direction, I notice the screw that holds the bike rack for the panniers has popped and is gone. Between MF and the helpful Moldovians we remove a screw on the frame that would be used to attach a second drink bottle holder as a replacement and further secure it (hopefully) with a cable tie (we never travel without these!). We’ll have to keep an eye on this!
Now the hills start! We climb 127 m over 2.5 kms and rest at a view point over the Hutovo Blato, a nature reserve primarily composed of marshlands that were created by the underground aquifer system of the Krupa River.
Another 7.9 kms to go to the top. The midday church bells ring from the valley below. The Aussie jelly beans are a life-saver today (the yellow ribbon bottom right is to remind me not to go off-piste as there are landmines here …).
At one stage we meet a convoy of Porsches going down. Well at least that’s what MF said they were; he said they had the name emblazoned on every car. Gasping for breath I said ‘I wasn’t reading the fine print’. By now it was very hot (overcast but hot). We are doing 13% gradient at this point.
We reach the top, finally - it is windy! And feeling pretty leg-less I can tell you! We fluffed around with the Garmin here, then descended and ascended and then a very long descent through quite dramatic rocky landscape, passing the tiny village of Cerovica.
We pressed on to the tiny village of Hutovo for coffee and found a nice tranquil picnic spot for lunch - much better than yesterday.
Still 25 kms to go. Up and down, up and down. The hilltop villages reminded me a bit of Italy with the lines of tall pencil pines; drystone walls criss-cross the rocky slopes. But I don’t take many photos as the roads are so steep, it is too hard to get back on the bike!
Another big wiggly snake (MF saw it this time but couldn’t get his camera out fast enough).
Arduous! The descents were thrilling but the ascents were murder. 1076 m climbing today (including our morning excursion to Počitelj) and a total of 69 kms.
We arrive into the town of Neum about 4:30 p.m. after replenishing our water supply at the first supermarket we see. We are both PARCHED!
It is the only town on the Bosnia and Herzegovina coastline, making it the country's only access to the Adriatic Sea.
We have a sea view and balcony at our hotel. I don’t think we’ll need to go out and explore - we can see it all from here!
I go downstairs to get a G&T and a beer to bring up to our room and return to find MF asleep at the table on the balcony …
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