Rolling on Europe

Rolling about the continent looking for an exit. Lue lisää

Seuraa Yhteenveto Kalenteri Valokuvat Jaa

Rolling on Europe Matkaaja
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Climbing the Kotor Ladder
22. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We had hyped ourselves up for it, the road that snakes up the high mountain behind Kotor. With 16 switchbacks and sheer drop-off views on to Kotor, it is a marvel of road building. It would also be Kiran's first 1000 m climb.

It is hard to feel any hype after an early morning wake up. We set out by 8 am to ride in the cool shade of the trees and the mountains as we climbed up. Kiran pedaled and pumped up like a champ, though needing a few breaks. Luckily the views made us stop often enough anyway.

At noon, we were at the top! As we dismounted, Kiran said "Thank you for planning this trip papa". A cool achievement for our trip to climb this legendary road.Lue lisää
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Matkaaja Nice memories ! Well done!
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Matkaaja You made it!
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Scrub and Storm
22. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
After lunch atop the Kotor ladder, we came out to find a km long line of cars. A parade for us? Sadly not. Two cars had collided on this narrow ride and the traffic had piled up. We got on our bikes and rode past the line of cars to the bus driver and the campervan facing off. Funny scenes, but as we look, a bare chested cyclist whizzes past us.

Tony turned out to be a crazy guy on a bicycle too. He traveled really light and covered 150 or more kms each day. He zipped ahead and then went back to chat with us, then ahead again. He rode with us on to the plateau, recounting trips he had made: 3 months from South Korea to Oman, or across west Africa in 2 months. He had crossed 7 countries in the last 7 days, and was planning to be in Istanbul in 14 days! The speed of his tales were as dizzying as his trips. Nice guy, but a different flavor than my meandering wanderings.

We came to next big climb, and here Tony left us to zip ahead. The switchbacks took us up a rocky mountain. The road was desolate but perfect; it looked like the asphalt had been laid less than a month ago. Kiran and I had a grand time zipping down through these mini canyons.

This road led off into a set of hills that was just pure scrub. For miles and miles the single pass track cuts across the plateau through scrub forest. We saw so little traffic that we counted them up as "that's the fifth traffic". There were even no towns, no cafes or any sign of life beyond a sudden farm that would appear.

The sky was a mystery. Could that really be? A cloud? A dark, black cloud!? It was weird, because one huge black cloud was just sitting in the middle of a blue and sunny sky. Our scrub path was skirting around the edge of this cloud. Look this way to be blinded by the sun, and look that way to be blinded by the lightning storm that was now raging. Bizarre and beautiful storm in the scrub. We welcomed the fat raindrops with delight as we descended a fantastic 800 m down to Danilovgrad. Uphill means downhill, after all!Lue lisää
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Matkaaja It must take a considerable amount of money and resources to dig a canyon in through this no? Why not just build a road over it.
25.7.2024VastaaKääntää
MatkaajaSometimes it's nice to make things go boom. 😉 If you see the other roads built over the hills you'd be happy to have this one.
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Towards Ostrog
23. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
After that massive day yesterday, we slept in till about 9:30. Slowly and gently we left the room and lingered for breakfast till about noon.

The Zeta river runs through Danilovgrad, so we decided to ride a little before jumping into it. This river swim was great. No more salt water that felt boiled, but cool crisp fresh water to swim in!

The ride past the river to Ostrog turned out to be quite a challenge. When a path is marked a highway, it means that it has no lane markings, edge barrier or traffic, but it may be flat. If the map shows a secondary highway here... well, you're going to discover new levels of road craft. In some spots, we thought that the road had been laid at the same time and the same team that laid the overhead cables. The road would just shoot up into the hills at absurd slopes.

At Ostrog train station was a water tap. How we abused that water to drench ourselves repeatedly and play! The two passengers sitting on the platform for the train looked at us bemused. I laughed silently at them for thinking any train would come here to this desolate scrub. (Hmm later it did)

We found a restaurant where this woman served up home food. Oh wow, it was so delicious! One of the best meals on my trip. We feasted! We only rode for half a day but picked up a full day's worth of fatigue and hunger - which found it's fair reward.Lue lisää
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Ostrog Monastery
24. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Kiran had heard that the sacred saint of this monastery performs miracles, and had wished for rain. And there it was: clouds in the sky and a forecast of scattered thunderstorms. We were grateful for the cloud cover as we rode up the many switchbacks up to Ostrog monastery.

The upper church is an incredible feat of construction, and no doubt, abject devotion. The church was not built against a massive vertical rock face as much as built into it. The inner rooms walls were the hollows in the big rock. I cannot understand how this was built. And then rebuilt in 1926 after the fire.

This is one of the most significant pilgrimage destinations for eastern Orthodox Christians. The crowd of people waiting in line was clearly more devotees than tourists. We single stepped in the line until we got to the inner sanctum that housed the remains of Saint Basel. In this dark inner cave just big enough for 3 persons, stood a priest in full robes of black and gold holding an ornate cross. We kissed the cross, mustered a devoted face at the sarcophagus, and admired the inlaid mosaic artwork. The devotion and ardor of the prayers was palpable, and "it was cool to experience history" as Kiran said. We got a souvenir of the saint for his collection of religious artifacts.Lue lisää
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Over Niksic to Krupac lake
24. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
We took the hill road from Ostrog towards Nikšić. I think all roads are hill roads in this land. A storm was brewing up cool wind gusts, so it was very pleasant weather for some hill riding. We chatted a little but mostly enjoyed the quiet ride through the stacks of rocks between the scrub forests. Then we came down to the bridge that was a gift from a Russian emperor and rode through to a campsite at Lake Krupac.Lue lisää
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MatkaajaWas für eine wilde Landschaft...................und Dein Kiran ist für mich ein Superheld .............all diese Herausforderungen ..............und er packt es sooo toll ...........Chapeau!!!!
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MatkaajaIst er auch 😎
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Camp Krupac
24.–27. heinäk. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
This was a charming campsite: tent next to placid water, a rock terrace to jump off from, a cool breeze, and plenty of chill travelers. Kiran made new friends each day.

We took a board and stand-up paddled all around each day. Kiran went off with his friends to cross the lake. We found a tent pitch at the edge of the lake. All in all, the place was so chill that we ended up staying for three nights.Lue lisää
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Matkaaja 👍
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Looping Lake Slano
25. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
For the afternoon we decided to go on a ride on the track that runs around lake Slano a few km away. This was a pretty tough gravel track, but we completed the 16 kms with only a couple of falls and scrapes. It's so nearby, but a much wilder lake with the sloping shore allowing no easy access to the water or human habitation. We saw a horned viper!

And then back to lake Krupac for more chilling.Lue lisää
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Ride To Plužine
27. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
After all the paddles, cannonballs and swims in the lake, we decided it was time to leave Krupac. We found a new crew: Stephan and Nesle from Belgium were on a bicycle tour and riding in the same direction.

We set out on the road to Plužine. The map showed gravel trails I did not trust. So we stuck to the main roads. The first few km were heavily trafficked, as it was also the road to Bosnia. Then it got quieter and started to gently rise and rise and rise into the hills.

We had a friendly time, stopping off in cafes, helping each other out and chatting about this and that. Kiran again impressed with his riding a straight line and an uncomplaining climb. After the climb, we got a view into the adjacent Komarnica canyon. Then there was the delightful long freewheel down to Plužine in the golden gloaming.Lue lisää
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Lake Piva
28.–30. heinäk. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
I woke up at sunrise and watched the lake light up. After getting over the initial disappointment of Lake Piva (piva means beer), I agreed to go kayaking on it. We paddled into the picture postcard, sending out ripples on its superb blue surface. With a light breeze to keep things cool, it was a fantastic day on the water. Wile could take our game of catch with the ball to new frontiers.

The next day we said bye to Stephan and Nesle as they set off further on their tour. Kiran had already found new friends Milo and Jules. Along with their parents Mathieu and Elise, we went climbing up the Zarisnik peak behind Plužine. We had a spectacular view of the plateaus that formed the Piva canyon. What a beautiful slice of the world!Lue lisää
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Splendid! [Sab]
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Climbing Sušičko canyon
30. heinäkuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
The canyon we had seen on yesterday's climb was beautiful, but also intimidating - because we would be climbing it on our bicycles to go to Durmitor National Park. Mathieu decided to ride his bicycle with Kiran and I, while Elise drives up with the van. The boys didn't find the courage to try so they went up in the van.

The road climbs up the canyon wall straight after the bridge over the Piva river. And the climb is, luckily, more stunning than it is sheer. The road just dives into the rock with tunnels even in the switchbacks. We get up to the top of the plateau and head to Trsa for lunch. Milo finds the courage to join us for the ride on the plateau till we reach the next canyon. From here we had a thrilling descent down the canyon wall to Sušičko lake.

Kiran pulls off another great climb with courage, this one even higher than the Kotor ladder.Lue lisää
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Sušičko lake camp
30. heinäk.–1. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The lake was at the bottom of the canyon, flanked by the vertical rock walls and forests. Insects and butterflies buzzed all around on the wildflowers. Judging from the level of grass on the lake bed, it seems that Sušičko lake has been dry for a while. There was a spring of water, and the van was stocked up, so it was a great place to set up camp.

The air was particularly clear and the night sky opened up with a crackle above the canyon. The sky was pierced with countless stars and the milky way swirled overhead. We watched the celestial display of shooting stars in silence before going to our tent.

The night was broken abruptly. Kiran woke up needing to vomit. The bout of food poisoning got us up a few times and kept him rather subdued the next day. Kiran slept all day. He had no energy, except to play with the water pistols with the boys. I cooked up a meal of dal and rice and raitha as we lounged about in the canyon.Lue lisää
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Climbing Tara canyon
1.–3. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
We left the lake to climb up the Tara canyon, another 1000 m back up. Kiran took the van, and Milo took his place as the rider with Elise and I. Strenuous but beautiful climb. At the plateau, Kiran joined the ride again as he was feeling fine. The ride took very long because of all the delicious wild raspberries!

We camped at a restaurant on top with a beautiful view down to Zabljak, the base town. We hiked around on the splendid slopes of the Dinaric Alps and went for a swim in the famed Black Lake. Which is very very blue.Lue lisää
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Mounting the saddle
4.–5. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
We rode up to Sedlo (horse saddle) pass at 1907 m. The road winds it's way up the grassy alpine meadows south west of Žabljak and climbs towards the rock mountains. At the top of the pass, we got a beautiful view of the road we had climbed and of the valley on the other side.

"Come Papa, let's go up there", Kiran said pointing at a big rock cliff behind us. I had thought we could just sit and watch the evening roll in.

"Climb up there? Now? What for?"
"I want to go there and see how it is"
"Sounds like you're getting mountain fever too", I said.

We clambered up the steep slope until we were at the base of the rock on top.
"Shall we go touch it?", I offered.
When we were sitting up on the top, he asked, "Papa, what does it feel like, this mountain fever?"

We kept walking on the trail which led us round to the other side of the mountain, completely by ourselves. We spent some time rolling massive rocks down the cliffs
We watched for a whole minute as they tumbled and shattered down the vertiginous slope.

"Look, there are three Chamois!", I pointed. Our eyes wandered to reveal that it was a group of 60-70 chamois sauntering up the rock cliff. It was his first time, what luck!

On the way back, he felt very unwell. He got a sudden attack of stomach cramps that made him cry and roll around. I had to carry him a good way down. Back at the pass, we were helped by a lovely Czech family to deliver the ultimate pain medication: watching Hotel Transylvania 2 in the van with their kids. Somehow the pain went as suddenly as it came. We called off evacuating him and we slept in the tent on the pass. I hoped he didn't think this was mountain fever.Lue lisää
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Matkaaja Ihr könnt wirklich stolz auf Eure Leistung sein 🤩
7.8.2024VastaaKääntää
Matkaaja Ihr Zwei seid großartig. 🥰
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Matkaaja ❤️
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Matkaaja 🤩
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Bobotov Kuk
5. elokuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
While the shadow of the mountain was still long, we started walking up towards the high mountains on the other side. Kiran was feeling fine, and so we were in good spirits.

We were on the path to climb up Bobotov Kuk, the highest mountain in Montenegro. The track was as crazy as it was beautiful. We climbed over three cliffs and mounts to finally stand looking up at the rock giant ahead. There the path became a scramble up the rocks, with ropes attached to the rock face in particularly steep sections. I can't remember a mountain path this steep and sensational!

Up at the very top of the rock pinnacle, we had spectacular views of mountains all around. There we played our highest game of catch at 2523 m altitude. As we lay there, Kiran said that he now understood mountain fever.

The climb down was in the same path, so it was a whole new challenge having to look down as we lowered ourselves down the cliffs. We took breaks to throw rocks down the cliffs.

"I like the smell of broken rock", exclaimed Kiran.

We made it back to our camp on Sedlo pass, which now felt 'down there', bathed in the golden glow of an alpine sunset.Lue lisää
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Matkaaja ❤️😘
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Matkaaja The ridges on those rocks look stunning 🤩
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To Žabljak
6.–7. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
After two trying days in the high mountains, we freewheeled down from Sedlo pass back to Žabljak. We spent a chill day, getting Schopper a scrub down of the pedal axle. Then we got ourselves a similar scrub down to clean off the mountain grit and sat down for a civilized evening of apéro and watching the Olympics.Lue lisää
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Zipping across Tara
7.–8. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
The packet I had been waiting for had finally arrived at Žabljak, a new sleeping mattress. Now I wouldn't have to re-inflate in the middle of each night.

We rode out of town in the afternoon and headed towards the Tara bridge. The route was a superb downhill. Over a fizzy drink at the bridge, Kiran and I discussed the pros and cons of the decision. The only negative we came up with was death, so we decided to do it. We went on a thrilling ride down a zipline strung up across the Tara canyon!

The road towards Mojkovac was closed for traffic. This makes it a bicycle path in my mind. So we rode along the Tara deeper into the canyons. I found a nice spot at an old suspension bridge, and we set up camp for the night. After a swim in the frigid water, we had a picnic and a book reading up on the bridge. After dropping enough boulders into the water, we went to sleep in the tent listening to the gurgling of the Tara.

And today, Schopper and I have now faced 5000 km on the road together!Lue lisää
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Matkaaja The joy on Kiran’s face is priceless. 🥰
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MatkaajaIhr Zwei seid Helden !!!!............diese Seilbahnfahrt werdet Ihr nie vergessen🥰
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Matkaaja❤️
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Thunderous Tara
8. elokuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
The morning comes, but only slowly, into the canyon. The sun climbs in over the gorge eventually, as the birds tweet but rather distantly. We had a rare sleep-in and then went for a swim in the still frigid Tara. Kiran was taking a shine to skinny dipping.

Eventually we climb out from the riverside and get back on the road. After more towering gorges, we come to the reason why this road is closed. A landslide seems to have wiped out a section of the hill, and the heavy machinery was drilling away trying to widen the rock for the new path.

As we cycled past, the rain started to get heavy and we were blinded by the sky turning white. And then BOOM! The thunderstorm was just above us. We rode in the lightning display for a while, completely awestruck by the power of a storm so nearby. We stopped for shelter at a hotel, and then it really started to come down in a heavy downpour punctuated with blinding flashes. It was good timing to find shelter to watch this elemental spectacle.Lue lisää
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Biogradska Lake
9.–10. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
The morning was all clear and bright. Our clothes and bags had dried. A good day to complete our mountain ride, after a few rounds of table tennis and swings first.

Kiran pulled his bike out and said, "Oh look papa, it is flat". Overnight the front tire of Rocker had gone flat. Weird. We sat to repair it. I found the hole and patched it, and he found the cause of it: a tiny thorn about 1.5 mm long.

Finally we set off in the curious gaze of a bus load of tourists who had been deposited to this nook of the canyons for lunch. We went along for the rest of the glorious canyon ride. Finally the road descended to the river, but unfortunately, also the highway. We stopped at a roadside beach and enjoyed a splash and a skit.

Then we got back on the annoying ride on the highway, till we reached the edge of the Biogradska National Park. Here we rode up hill through lush and tranquil forests to the eponymous lake. A gorgeous young woman was the ranger, and she said we could camp "anywhere up there". Kiran's swim in the lake ended abruptly when a snake swam past his legs. We put up the tent in the forest and settled in to sleep.Lue lisää
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Warehouse river camp
10.–11. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Sleeping between the trees of a thick forest meant our tent was in the shade all morning. That meant we didn't emerge till quite late. After a slow breakfast, we set out on the road into the mountains pointed out by the ranger. This was no road, but a tough rocky uphill path. An oncoming 4x4 jeep driver confirmed, "yeah it's like this all the way up there. You're very brave."

We decided we weren't, and turned back to go back down the hill and continue on the asphalt roads of the highway. The scenery was still very pretty, esp after we got on to a back road. This soon turned into deep puddles we had to skirt around and then an abandoned track in the hills. We back tracked and found another way to a nearby river as the shadows were getting long.

At this river was a big warehouse with huge earth moving machinery, which fascinated Kiran. An old man came out from between them, looked at us and immediately told us that we should camp there in their flat meadow. Later, his son came by and spoke (more English) to us about their operations, offered us hot water and some burak to add to our dinner. We went to bed next to heavy metallic machinery, but feeling the warmth and smiles of this Montenegrin hospitality.Lue lisää
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Meteor shower at Komovi
11.–12. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
After a small section along the river, we had to climb and climb and climb. We stopped for lunch at a weird restaurant in Tresnjevik, which had decorated it's entrance with a poorly prepared wolf skin with wayward eyes. They spoke and understood zero words of English, and were annoyed when I tried to ask for an extra menu item. Now, I knew I was getting off the tourist grid.

We entered the Komovi Regional Park and climbed on up till we reached the hamlet of Katun Vulica. Up here at 1800 m, there were a handful of houses, built very porously of wooden planks, surrounded by vegetable gardens, free running chickens and wooden sties exactly big enough for one large pig.

I asked a woman in her yard about the camping option I had been told about.
"Gora, gora", she said, pointing towards the mountains and gesturing with horns on her head that we should not set up tent in the village. Then she came out of the kitchen and poured me a shot of rajika liquor. Then she pressed a big loaf of bread and a box with a kilogram of home made cheese into my hands, and said "Gora, gora" pointing upwards.

So we climbed up to the grassy ridge above and set up our tent looking out on to a wonderful vista of forested hills and distant mountains. There was a hand-painted wooden plank advertising a restaurant in the next hamlet. We took the rock path down wondering how the cars were navigating these crazy paths.

The restaurant refused to serve us food because they had run out of water. Oh right. We befriended a young German couple from Regensburg and sat with them watching the sunset. We were soon joined by a couple from Podgorica, and had a good chat. Kiran wanted to hang out with them, so we went back to the tent, brought our own food and returned to the terrace.

The sunset was very beautiful, with a few tall rocky peaks breaking through the crimson and orange scarf of light that blanketed the horizon below. As night fell, all eyes kept looking up to the skies and we kept a silly tally of the Perseid meteor showers. I woke Kiran up and we returned to our tent. I had left the tent without the rain flap, so we had a view of the sky as we lay inside. Though he repeatedly asked me to wake him up for the meteors, I heard the gentle snoring of Kiran inside the tent, as the radiant milky way swirled over the mountain silhouette.Lue lisää
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Matkaaja 😅😂🤣
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Komovi non hike
12. elokuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
We were up in the mountains. We were at the start of a walk that would take us to the summit. The walk would surely be tractable, given what we had managed at Bobotov Kuk. But we were not feeling it today. We didn't want to do a tough long climb.

So we took the frisbee in hand and ambled uphill along the track. We rolled rocks down the cliff side, discussed cloud shapes and life stories. At a green ledge, we sat down and declared it our summit. What a breathtaking view!Lue lisää
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Star struck in Andrijevica
12.–13. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
We left the Komovi mountains and headed down. The route was a superb descent over forests and meadows for a good 16 km. Thrilling! And satisfying.

We rolled into Andrijevica and wondered what to do next. We sat for a snack, which turned into an early dinner. Except it was very weird food. The 'pizza' was rectangular, some 8 cm tall, and was covered in cream and decorated with ketchup. Our fault for going off the local menu.

We decided that was enough and to take a room to clean off the mountain dust and fatigue. When we checked into the Hotel Komovi, we were told that there would be a concert "for a few hours" at the adjacent plaza. This turned out to be a lively folk fest, like the Freimarkt in Bremen, only more convivial.

There were stalls selling the absolute best of the local treasures: white beans, red beans, honey of all varieties, brandy and liquors, and assorted clothing. We snapped up a bottle that I later realize is more than a kg of honey.

The concert was a big deal. Two svelte women dressed in tight blue dresses sang and strummed a guitar to lilting tunes. They were celebrities. Many of the revelers were singing along. The children clambered on stage giving them hugs mid-song, and trying to get into photos with them. The women kept the songs going through this all, frequently ushering the children off stage, only to do it again in a few minutes.

We rocked out in Andrijevica. And then we slept.Lue lisää
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Ederlezi, Goran Bregović? [Sabine]
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Matkaaja🤷🏾
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Plav lake
13.–15. elok. 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
We arrived in Plav and headed straight to the refreshing view of the lake. The water was cool, full of long kelp-like algae and flanked by green mountains. The jetty was our mainstay, and the jumping board on it extended our stay to three days.Lue lisää
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Dolina Ropojana
15. elokuuta 2024, Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Once every jump from the jumping board had been jumped, we finally (at 3 pm!) got on the road on our bicycles. We took the quieter road around Plav lake towards the Accursed Mountains (Prokletije).

These tall and steep mountains have been ground down by glaciers into long valleys (dolina) tightly fenced in by rock. We headed into the Ropojana valley.

"Oh it's a single person road again papa!", Kiran shouted back to me. This is what he called the single lane roads. Except it very soon turned into a rocky track. A very hard rock track, as we entered Prokletije National Park.

Our slipping and grunting up the steep tracks made what we saw in there even more surprising: a VW Golf parked nonchalantly next to a huge cliff. The Golf really is the all terrain vehicle of the Balkans.

We found an open place to camp in front of a giant cliff. We enjoyed the sunset with a Greek salad.Lue lisää
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Accursed Mountain Snakes
16. elokuuta 2024, Albania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Buni i Jezerce is a mountain basin that contains, in the right conditions, four small glacial lakes. We had heard that at least one should have water now. We set out on foot to check if this was true.

After a steep path up through the forest shade, up on the plateau, we came to the stone. This marked the border with Albania. Kiran was excited at his first border crossing on foot, after the last one on bike. After some gestures of cross-border diplomacy, we walked on to the basin lakes.

The water was wonderful and refreshing! Out of the bright green moss on the lake bed emerged a little snake. It looked harmless but sent Kiran scurrying. After lounging for lunch, we headed back down the same path we came up on. Great views!

At the water spout we wanted to drink, sat a Horned Viper curled up in a slender staircase of deadly diamonds. Marveling at this very venomous snake guarding the water of the accursed mountains, we traced our way back down to the valley. We saw a long grass snake on the way down. Great snake day!

Despite having hiked all day, Kiran was keen to pack up camp and move on to the next valley. "For more exploration papa!". I think it's because he wants to try to a night ride. So in the fading sunlight, we rattled and rolled down the crazy rock path out of this beautiful valley.Lue lisää
Katso käännös
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