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Back in Montenegro briefly then the Rozaje road over to Kosovo, Peja first then onto Prizren. Lovely town! (Pic 6)
Again over the hills to North Macedonia, wee bit of rain here, my heart wasn’t really in it and I think it reflected in my feelings towards this section, I wasn’t enamoured with Macedonia. (Pic 7)
Back into Albania and then onto Ioannina in Greece. It was here I had decided I was going to Patras for the ferry to Bari, Italy. But first, Delphi and then Meteora which is really cool. (Pic 8)
Ferry overnight to Bari and its now I want to straightline home, straight up the flat east coast in frightening temperatures. The hottest I saw was 44 degrees. Cleared Italy in around 8 cycling days and over the Simplon Pass.
I stopped in my old stomping ground of Morzine for a few days (Pic 9) and ended up riding mountain bikes rather than resting which was cool and seeing old pals.
Now it was time to get straight across France which I did in a week, putting in some big days that ultimately slowed me up in the long run. Roscoff to Plymouth ferry. Visited my grandparents in St Austell, took some rest days and ate my body weight before heading home to Dunfermline in 6 days and to the end of a 4 month adventure. (Pic 10)
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It's just on Strava really. Would take some time to plot the whole thing.
Thrasher-
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About
Stoo's Balkan Euro Tour
Posted by
@Stoo61
Had some interest in this having finished it on Saturday (Aug 13th) so will do a wee write up, might be able to help with other doing similar in the area.
With 2 years on Google building a bike and a vague route through Europe I set off on April 19th from Dunfermline, Fife heading for the ferry to Newcastle to Ijmuiden, Netherlands. Hadn't spun a pedal in anger for 4 weeks due to fear of hamstring catastrophe but set off eager. (Pic 1)
Third day in my knee blew up, but I rode on it for another 3 days before admitting defeat. Sure that everything was fucked. 2 weeks sat on my arse in Germany, train to Passau and the Euro Velo 6 which worked and skelped along to Budapest. (Pic 2) Beers, pals, Tool.
The next major stop was Banja Luka in Republika Srpska, Bosnia. Where I was signed up for the B Hard Ultra Race...what with the knee issues I opted to go for the 600km Brevet category which I "won" with a time of 28.5 hours. Banja Luka was hard to leave, I definitely felt some blues with the team disbanding. Bosnia is an amazing country, I adore it. (Pic 3)
Heading south to Travnik, round Sarajevo to the border at Hum with Montenegro
WOW! Right away jaw on the floor that was even before Durmitor (Pic 4). Made the mistake of going from Zabljak to Kotor, coast road carnage, not for me.
Very hard day into Albania and the awesome new road to Tamare. Including the serpentine (pic 5), thankfully down the way.
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