Day 91
The next day I set off North from Sarajevo to Banja Luka which on arrival I found to be a very nondescript city, so deciding not to stop there, I then continued riding and headed West for the Croatian border.
Whilst the scenery in Bosnia was reasonably pleasant, like my time in Serbia, I found very little to hold my attention and like Serbia, it is not a country that I will return to. I crossed the border in to Croatia and I headed West to the coast. I stopped at the first reasonable sized town and I was able to get some Croatian money from an ATM. Luckily I had made better calculations than I had in Serbia so I had no Bosnian cash to try to get rid of, which was fortunate because yet again there were no money exchange facilities at the border crossing. A few weeks before setting off on the trip, I had encountered post in somewhere or other about a guy who ran a small operation hosting bikers in the spare rooms of his house, so having made contact with him I headed for his place. The guy used to run a motorbike shop in England and provided me with very comfortable accommodation for around 20 Euros a night. I stayed for 3 nights to get a bit of a break and to attend to an oil change and some minor tinkering here and there.
Whilst staying at his house I asked him about routes to ride whilst in Croatia and he recommended that I stay away from the coast road as although it was very scenic, during the summer is is swamped with tourist traffic. The city of Zadar was about 40 miles away and he said that it was a nice place to go for visit so after the oil change I set off to see it. Zadar sits on the coast and true enough, as I approached it the traffic got worse. Getting in and out was relatively painless however, the old town is mainly pedestrianised and had a one way system that was very busy. I eventually found a place to park the bike and I went for a wander around the old town before settling down for a coffee and a spot of people watching.
After leaving the city I took a route recommended by my host from Zadar and over the mountains back to his place. It was a small road that eventually turned in to a dirt road and then a stony goat track. On the unladen Himalayan it was perfect as the bike easily scooted past heavy duty 4x4 jeeps trying to climb the pass and near the top the views were truly spectacular.
Day 92
After a day of rest I got back on the bike and headed off North. The plan was to get to Zagreb but it was just one of those days. It started off when after I had ridden for about an hour I stopped for a coffee and on checking my phone, the guy who I had been staying with had sent me a message. I had forgotten my front panniers that were still sitting near to where my bike had been parked. Duh…what a twat. So, after another hour on the bike to retracing my earlier route, I got my panniers and again headed North. Whilst this part of Croatia was quite scenic is was nothing to write home (or here) about. I then made my way North on road number 50 to Zuta Lokva where it meets the 23 which runs from Senj on the coast to Zagreb to the East. I must have been thinking about my earlier memory lapse concerning the panniers because instead of taking the road to Zagreb I took the road to Senj. I only realised my error when cresting a hill I saw the sea. Duh… what a twat, again. However, I was on the coast road now so I decided to follow it in the direction of Rijecka with the intention of crossing in to Italy. Although very busy, the views along the coast road were indeed very scenic.
On reaching Rijecka I saw a wall of black clouds to the North and as I needed to refuel I pulled in to a petrol station for fuel and a coffee. As I sat I saw the lightning flashes in the clouds moving slowly South towards where I was. A heavy downpour started but only lasted for about 30 minutes. It was obviously the starter as the main course was still advancing South and the lightening was getting worse. A quick look at the map and after getting ready I was heading East towards Zagreb. As I road East the the bad weather seemed to be sitting on the North side of the mountains that ran West to East so I continued to ride East until I saw a break in the weather to the North. I made for the break and crossed the border in to Slovenia. After crossing I got caught in a small shower but after that, heading North the weather cleared and I had avoided the huge thunderstorms. As I said, one of those days. Once I entered Slovakia I found a very pleasant guest house for about 25 Euros.
Day 93
The following day I set off to meet up with a US biker at a rendezvous about 100 miles from Ljubljana. The scenery in Slovenia was very pleasant and the weather began to warm after the preceding day’s thunderstorms.
The US biker was riding a GS 1200 BMW, our paths had crossed on social media so we agreed to meet. He was a nice guy, so after a chat we rode together to Ljubljana but since I had been there before I pushed on in to Italy whilst he went in to the city. I stopped for the night in the city of Padua and I was glad to find out that the “Green Pass” requirements for staying in a hotel were no longer in force. The hotel was nice and reasonable value at 30 Euros.
Day 94
The next day I set off on the SR/SP 10 for Alessandria, then on to Asti, and then South to the Coll De Tende on the Italian/French border. I had gotten about 100 miles (160 km)or so when suddenly the front end got all squirrelly on me. I saw an opening to a factory and managed to get in off the road and sure enough a puncture on the front tyre. So after unloading the bike it was off with the front wheel and out with the spare tube, tyre levers etc.
After about an hour of sweating under a very hot sun, I had replaced the punctured tube with my spare and I was back on the road. This part of Italy is not very scenic but now and again a town with old fortifications appeared which helped.
By about four o’clock in the afternoon I had reached Cueno and headed for the pass but as I rode up the mountain I saw that the tunnel was closed, I had no option but to take the pass. When I eventually got to the top there was a notice in Italian which I could not read but there were a couple of guys in 4x4 jeeps standing at it. There was also a set of traffic lights which were at red. The guys explained to me that the road was closed for traffic going downhill until six o’clock so they turned their vehicles around a left but not wanting to hang around for 2 hours, I decided to ignore the red light and I set off down the hill. On the way up it was tarmac but on the way down it was a very broken and rock strewn track and it was now also one of the tightest and steepest roads that I have ever been on, countless first gear turns on loose surfaces with no barriers and nothing to stop the bike going over the edge if I made a mistake. I eventually hit tarmac but the steepness of the road and the severity of the hairpins did not change. I passed some bikers who were on the way up along and apart from one solitary car nothing else was on the ascent and as I finally reached the bottom where the tunnel exit was, the road widened and slightly further on was where the French border was.
As I road down in to the valley towards the town of Tende, massive black clouds appeared along with the odd lightening flash.
I needed to find a place to stay before the downpour started. It was also getting dark so I opted for a room in a hotel just south of Tende for 50 Euros for the night. It was expensive but I had limited options and very limited time to seek cover from the approaching storm and just as I reached the hotel the storm arrived.