18 September 2011
As always on this Turkey Motorcycle Tour, the plan was simple. Skirt around the eastern edge of the Bay of Kotor and then reconnect with the coastal highway, cross the border into Croatia and stay a night or two in Dubrovnik.
After following the bay coastline for some distance the road started to climb. I was still headed north west so no problems I thought. The further I went the better the road got. This was almost brand new this road. Not on the GPS or the paper map.
But the best road of my trip so far. I can’t even reference it so others can enjoy the experience (that was then but see below – a great ride if you’re in the area). It was superb. Climbing at first to 1000m. And I had it all to myself. The Family Truckster was back in its element and gave me everything I asked of it – with plenty left in reserve. This road was every bit as good as the B500 in Germany’s Black Forest.
All up from Kotor it took about an hour to travel the 35 miles to just shy of the border with Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH), including a couple of stops for photos while I could still see the Bay.
At around 1730 I came to an intersection and pulled over to consult my paper map. There were some other bikers from Slovenia who had pulled over for a break. We chatted briefly. Left into BiH, right would keep me in Montenegro.
I went left and soon crossed the border into BiH.
On crossing the border my GPS became a total passenger although it did tell me the straight line distance to Dubrovnik was under 30 miles. But very little of this country is mapped. I was on my own. Fingers crossed there are plenty of signs from here to Croatia.
The ride to Trebinje down from the ridge where I crossed the border was easy enough. Now if I just keep heading west or north west I’ll be in business.
How wrong I was!
