Another Balkan Bike Ride

Always going to be a challenging day but little did I know... Quick breakie mitigated the relative late start. Liked the pancakes. Pretty much from the kick off it was uphill. A mammoth 12 mile drag with 1350m of climbing to a 1800m pass. Needed to be split into chunks and got through the first half ok, though that was the easier half, something which a similarly sadistic Swiss couple confirmed when chatting to them. They were intrigued by Skopje but they weren't keen on cities so probably not a great option for them. Said good lucks and pushed onwards & upwards. All of a sudden it was if the road designers had got bored & thought sod these hairpins - let's just go up. It was at this point the clouds of flies began to congregate & it became clear that my top speed was fly speed. The best that could be done was get your head down & try to ignore. I have newfound sympathy for cows. That said I managed to take out 5 of them. I was reliably informed that the downhill was a belter & so it proved. 30 done by 12.30 - not to shabby & the worst was over. Called for a choc ice break. The little girl filling in for her mum tried to charge 52€. She understood my quizzical look & I understood firstly her panicky cry for help, then the embarrassed look. Even so I was aware that there were other climbs but how bad could they be? It was getting hot & clearly I looked it. On the summit of the next climb I was having a quick photo break - a car stopped & the passenger poked his head out & insisted I have the offered can of Coke. Tried to decline but they insisted - nice touch. Clearly looked like shit. The next climb was a main road so should be more gentle & in some senses it was. The summit loomed but all that could be seen was a tunnel. Ah well just do long as it's short. Sign at the entrance said 1200m - just shy of a mile underground. No option but god it was scary. Thankfully only 1 car passed on my side but even the stuff coming in the opposite direction, was both horrendously noisy & made it really hard to see. On the way down yet more tunnels though nowhere near as long. That's got to be as bad as it gets. Pushed on & ended up on quiet country lanes which were nice until they sort of dried up. Bit of gravel lane turned into much longer ended up in a huge expense of hardcore. Had to guess a route based on the Satnav. The gravel tracks just kept on coming. A minor miracle if there isn't a puncture. And so it proved - just 50m from a proper surfaced road - could've cried. Forced break. Repaired puncture & scouted the route - needed to get across the river to the main road. Never has a mundane concrete bridge been so beautiful. Eventually made it to the hotel - what a relief. Room didn't have Aircon or a fan & 9 hours in 30° heat needs cooling facilities. Was assured that it gets cold at night. The problem is that I was overheating now. Decided to upgrade to the only Aircon room. Lucky it was available.Okumaya devam et