Bosnia and Hertzigovina

Bosnia & Herzigovnia 28 – 31 May

Date: 28 May 2025

We popped over to Bosnia with a personal record-breaking climb over the Dinaric Alps. The 850 m unbroken ascent to the border wasn’t too bad, especially knowing it would be rewarded with a dramatic, alpine-style downhill run – twisting, snaking and fun all the way. Have a look at the map and altitude graph below – we’re taking giant steps into the mountains, about 300 m at a time.

The road was dotted with memorials to various massacres from WWII and the 1990s war, and apparently there are still uncleared minefields in the north, so we’re taking a southern route.

Livno, our first stop in Bosnia, feels a bit more downmarket than Sinj – which wasn’t exactly posh. The roads are rough, the cars older, and there’s a slightly Westie feel to the place.
Credit cards are not much use in this mostly-cash country, but the convertible mark (KM) is conveniently worth about 1 NZD, which makes things simpler. Our very comfortable apartment was only €33 – about $60 – and my phone now sports a Bosnian number as we’ve left the EU.

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Livno to Tomislavgrad

29 May 2025

An unremarkable ride except for the tagging over every improbable surface. ChatGPT tells me that the “1950” scrawled all over the place isn’t a tribute to my birth year but a sign that a supporter of a Croatian football club has been there.It’s much colder up here, and our bags are lighter while we wear nearly everything we have.

B&H has 12% unemployment, 3.4 million people and a government that is effectively appointed and run by an international committee. If I lived here, I’d probably be starting the day with a coffee and a glass of whatever-you-fancy at one of the innumerable café bars too like the locals do. The 1992–95 war still casts a long shadow.

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30 May
To Mostar
The map further down this page gives no hint of one of the “most memorable days of the entire TransDinarica route” – according to the route’s developers – and it’s earned a high place on our list too. A gentle climb up to 1200 m brought us to Blidinje Lake, the largest in B&H, then more climbing onto a very isolated 20 km stretch of what they call gravel – but we call rubble. We pushed the bikes often to avoid slashing the tyres on razor-sharp rocks.

At the top of the ridge, surrounded by occasionally cleared stony meadows, we encountered just one seriously off-road RV and two intrepid motorcycle tourists before bouncing and slithering down to meet a tar-sealed road. We coasted all the way into Mostar – just as well, because our batteries were nearly flat.

Poor Mostar. It endured an 18-month siege and bombardment during the 1992–95 war, and the evidence is still obvious. One wall of the courtyard at our apartment has hundreds of bullet marks, as do most of the surrounding buildings. Once you notice it, you see the scars of war everywhere. Mostar was bombed to the ground – but not to oblivion – and it has rebuilt itself into a thriving tourist destination, with the famous Old Bridge (destroyed in the war and rebuilt in 2004) at its tour-bus-filled heart. My usual knee-jerk objection to this kind of crass commercialisation is on hold. I can’t/ won’t visit the Museum of War and Genocide Victims, but the memorial is everywhere.

We are deviating from the TransDinarica route as the mountain areas are too cold, and the climbs too long – the next two stages each start with a 1000 m ascent – so we’re going to coddiwomple in our usual way. It’s a fine old word that perfectly describes how we travel: purposefully towards a vague destination.

Download file: 280525.gpx

Battery use: 84%. My biking legs aren’t fully up to speed yet – it usually takes a week or so to bed them in, so here’s hoping.

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Download file: 290525.gpx

Battery: 55%
Altitude: 874 m

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Download file: 300525.gpx

Battery use: 83%

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