An ENORMOUS cooked breakfast! Beautiful day. Away by 8 a.m. A couple of hills to start the day.
We reach the Vjetrenica Caves at Zavala by 1/4 to 9 in time for (possibly) the first tour of the day at 9 a.m. Costs an ‘arm and a leg’ for entry. Nevertheless, a very good tour which lasted an hour: we walked 750 m in as far as a lake but at this point you can go no further as the water is over the pathway beyond here at this time of the year - it is 6 m deep. The cave complex goes for 22 kms (!!!) but only 7 kms has been explored. We had a good guide; a group of 7; and were left to explore on our own for the last 15 mins or so.
[I read yesterday that last Sunday they had a memorial bike ride along the Ćiro for Nikša Vuletić who was the Director of the cave complex and who had been trying to get it UNESCO listed - he died suddenly in 2022, shocking the small community.]
Underway again after packing away our jackets; the temperature in the cave is 11 deg C and windy (apparently at the hottest time of the year, generally August when it is 35-40 deg C, the wind in the cave can reach 60 kms/hour (!) as the outside and inside temperatures attempt to balance).
We are kept on our toes on snake-watch after MF pedals past one large one, blissfully unaware that it has risen up into striking pose and stayed there in that position when I braked hard just before reaching it …
The trail continues much the same as yesterday. We pass through the Popovo Polje, one of the largest valleys in Bosnia.
We enter the Republika Srpska, a quasi-autonomous strip of Bosnian-Serb land that was the result of a compromise that ended the Bosnian War at the Dayton Accords in 1995 and is where most of the Serbs in BiH live (you can tell: Serbian men are generally quite tall - Djokovic is 6’2” tall). The road signs change from Latin to Cyrillic.
Very similar - NOT!
Towards the end of the trail we reach the Hum Station which used to be the largest Ćiro station and held significant strategic importance. The word ‘MINE’ is written up on one of the dilapidated buildings.
BiH remains significantly affected by landmines following the conflict in the early 1990s. Since 1996, when the de-mining process started, a total of 55 Bosnian de-miners and 673 civilians have been killed and 1,769 injured by exploding ordnance (up to 2019). The deadline for completion keeps being moved as lack of funds hinder the project.
We move on and then hit a main road which we travel on for about 6 kms before turning off to continue cycling through local villages to the city of Trebinje, the southernmost city in BiH.
In the city, not far from our hotel, is the Ćiro steam locomotive which is still preserved and is our final photo stop before a coffee (finally!). It is by now a bit after 1:30 p.m.
A bit of a rest after checking in, then we head out to explore the city (pop. 31,000 in 2011 …) and to get some water from the supermarket (AND finally I found a sports store to buy a drink bottle with a lid …👏).
Our hotel was built in 1894, shortly after the arrival of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in this area, in the architectural style that dominated in the second half of the 19th century as in all major European capitals such as Vienna and Prague. The authentic appearance of the building was preserved during its restoration. The original purpose was of an administrative nature until World War I. Then, due to its size and position, it was used as a primary and secondary school, and then as a dormitory.
Our walk included the Perović (Arslanagić) bridge built by Mehmed-Pasha Sokolović in 1574 in honour to his son who was killed in the battle with Venice. What is amazing is that with the construction of hydropower system on the Trebišnjica in 1965, the bridge got submerged and then it was dismantled piece by piece and moved to its current position 10 kms downstream.
We continue walking through the old town then we had a lovely meal and wine (NOT Blatina!) and pivo (beer) for MF spending the last of our Bosnian marks (as tomorrow, we leave BiH).
It is a lovely evening as we sit outside the restaurant to finish our drinks (away from the smokers …).
Today we rode 51.5 kms, 200 m climbing; walked about 6 kms.
My travel envy is peaking. SC.
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