Mined

 I had heard that there were still areas in Croatia and Bosnia where mines still had not been completely cleared from the Balkans wars in the 1990's but it certainly gave me pause to reflect what this adventure is all about. I saw many monuments along the way with names of young boys who went off to war, many of whom I am sure thought that what they were doing was also just a big adventure. Is war ever justified? 

On a lighter note all calls of nature after this have been made strategically right in the center of the trail!!

Predjama Castle Slovenia built 1274

It is funny but as I am riding mainly on forest roads I have absolutely no idea where I actually am at any time. Coming out onto a main road I saw a sign for a castle - this is what I ended up finding.

One of my first stops in Croatia was the Plitvička jezera National Park. This entire area is a karst region and has many limestone caves, lakes and waterfalls. At one time a huge underground cave system existed but over the eons has become a series of open-air lakes as the roofs of the underground caverns collapsed.

The town of Senj on the Adriatic Coast of Croatia

Communist era statues in the main square striking heroic poses

And now for the obligatory trail phots for my motorcycle buddies.

The trail was often narrow and took a lot of concentration to not veer off into the woods

An unintentional parking job after a wild ride down a section with a few badly placed large rocks - no damage done.

I kept a careful lookout for my spirit animal on the roads but they were staying out of harms way. There were however a lot of very large bear poeps on the forest roads thus answering the age old question of whether bears do it in the woods.

I crossed into Bosnia & Herzegovina near the Croatian town of Strmica. This was the first time I had all my paperwork thoroughly checked, passport, Covid card, title and insurance.  When my paperwork was handed back to me as I was sitting on the bike I dropped the whole lot and in trying to grab it the papers, my bike and me all ended up on the ground - looked like a yard sale!

This gives an idea of what the Bosnian countryside looks like in the region that I am now traveling in. It is going to take me more than a little while to work out how this federation of states works in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Who is who far from easy and in my reading I came across this:-

The difference may be insignificant to us but can cause quite a stir. Bosnian refers to the nationality and Bosniak (Muslim) is an ethnicity. Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs can be Bosnian. Only Bosniaks are Bosnian Muslims. After the 1990s conflict, make sure you never get these terms mixed up.