Sep 11, 2022

Today was a super relaxing rest day in Pula, Croatia. It started with some excitement at about 5am with a thunderstorm, some wind and a fair amount of rain. When I finally got up around 6:30 the clouds had cleared and the full moon was out. I went to the ATM to get some kuna – Croatia seems to accept euro everywhere but I figured it’s nice to have some real money. Then I bought some supplies for breakfast and lunch.

I did some bike love, then laundry, then rode a couple of km into town to a larger market to buy some clothes pins. I realized while riding I didn’t really need the rest day which was great. I spent some time reading, some time coding on my nstrava app to make it work with Slovenia and Croatia locations better. After lunch I laid down in my tent for a minute and woke up an hour later, sure that it was morning and time to go riding!

In the late afternoon, several of us headed over to the bar for more rounds of IPA and some food – really fun.

Here’s to a nice sleep and a relatively easy ride tomorrow, at least on paper.

Sept 10, 2022

Stage 6 of 36, day 6 of 43: 122.8 km, 1192m climb, 6:02 Moving, 7:10 Total, 54.2 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	352.2	5149
Italy	29.3	346
Croatia	163.8	1464
Total	545.3	6959

It was nice to finally not really worry about the weather. I woke up at 6am and put on bike shorts and a short-sleeved jersey and wore that until I went for a shower at the destination campground. Breakfast was the usual plus French toast with blueberries (I think because it was driver Henk’s 60th birthday). We left just before 8am, and each rider had to decide: gravel or road. We had two tracks to pick from and the gravel one was 6-8 km longer but the promise of gravel plus less traffic sold me.

Conditions were great as we headed out, relatively soon splitting apart and cranking up a gravel climb. We went on and on, hundreds of individual turns, each orchestrated by our Garmins. It’s so nice to just not worry about navigation. No leader required – each rider picks his/her route and follows the turns. We rode through holiday parks with “large” tourists on e-bikes, we rode through little villages, along scenic dirt trails. At one point I heard a big yell and 15 of our guys were sitting at a little seaside coffee shop. Rien and I pulled in and I had a yummy berry gelato while watching the sea.

We continued, more of the same awesomeness, and around 57 km came across a Bike Dreams truck marking the turnoff to lunch. We had a great lunch, everyone in a good mood. When you’re working hard it’s great to eat hard too!

After lunch we started with a funny climb, 2 km long. It was littered with car side mirror parts from top to bottom. The side was steep and the cars must sometimes smash their mirrors? Weird. Soon we got to turn off on more tiny dirt roads and continued on and on and on and on. The gravel option was pretty cool in that we cruised in such obscure places. I was riding with just Rien at this point and when we hit the craziest rockiest parts it was amazing to watch him navigate the rocks at speed with 28mm tires. I was very thankful for my gravel bike, shock and 42mm tires, that’s for sure. Sorry no photos.

Eventually we arrived in Pula, stopped at their Coliseum for some photos, then continued the last 5 km to camp. The camp is basically a peninsula fenced off. We set up tents, ate massive amounts of soup and other foods, then I took a glorious hot shower. Then Tom, Peter and I walked over to the bar out on a little pier and had awesome IPAs in the plural while having discussions of international impact.

We headed back around 5:30 since the other guys were on kitchen duty. It was a special day, not only Henk’s 60th birthday, but also cook Ellen’s last night with us, plus our final member, Graham, finally joined the group. A cancelled flight from Vancouver, rescheduled for a week later means he missed he first week of the tour, but boy was he welcomed strongly by the group.

The dinner was epic. The tapas appetizers came with a bottle of Prosecco for each table. Then a bottle of Chilean Merlot, plus a 1 liter bottle of Slovenian Merlot. Then a bottle of limoncello per table – you get the picture. So fun and friendly and tasty. We said good-bye to Ellen and welcomed Graham and ate like you can when you’re on a crazy tour like this.

I got ready for bed with that awesome feeling that comes on the night before a rest day. I don’t have to do ANYTHING tomorrow, and my body is starting to feel good.

Sept 9, 2022

Stage 5 of 36, day 5 of 43: 72.04 km, 552m climb, 3:23 Moving, 4:20 Total, 54.6 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	352.2	5149
Italy	29.3	346
Croatia	40.7	272
Total	422.2	5767

It was a miraculous day. We went to sleep the night before knowing that the weather forecast had been solid for a couple of days: hard rain during the hours we would ride. But in the morning that was hard to believe as we looked out to see almost no clouds. We had a decent hotel breakfast, cleaned bike chains, packed up and left a bit after 9am. It was warm and sunny, but there were some eerie very dark clouds out to sea as we rode south along the coast, crossing back into Slovenia after just 5 km in Italy.

Our luck held and we had some fun gravel sections. This day had two GPX tracks, 5 and 5g where g stands for gravel. The gravel option was said to be a tiny bit shorter and would cut off some sections with bad traffic so of course I took it, along with many others.

After that we had a climb that included a tunnel over 500m long, and the second we were out on the other side, my phone said “Welcome to Croatia”. Also the sky got way darker.

It started raining at 33 km but somehow the weather gods smiled and it just stopped. A little later we rode through a very wet area but it never rained on us again. Feeling good, we hit the official Croatia border station. It was a bit of a zoo with many cars and a few others on bikes too. The Europeans just flashed their cards but the border lady was very interested in my American passport and scanned it for a long time before stamping it.

Then we were off on a Croatian gravel climb up to a beautiful viewpoint with a view of scary clouds over the sea. We stopped for snacks and photos.

We had some more gravel sections, lots of turns and then one comically muddy section. But the sun was out and the next thing we saw was Ype’s lunch van, at a gorgeous spot on the coast.

From lunch it was under 20 km. It really felt like a half day. We rode up and down, through a funny holiday park and eventually came to the campground and found the Bike Dreams truck. By this time I was hot, so I didn’t bother with a shower or soup, just put on my bathing suit and went in to the Adriatic Sea. It was so nice, I’d go so far as to say perfect – about 24-25C/75F, refreshing and pretty clean.

After a long soak, several of us had hot outdoor showers, ate soup and then headed to the bar that had just opened. Local beers were cold and yummy – we spent a couple of nice hours there.

Eventually it was time to set up my tent and prepare for dinner – I was on the serving crew tonight. We had bruschetta appetizer, pasta with shrimp/mushroom sauce, salad, lots of wine and dessert. There were basil plants at each table to harvest from. Then the washing line to clean a million plates, pots and utensils and we were done. What a great day!

Sept 8, 2022

Stage 4 of 36, day 4 of 43: 146.82km, 1682m climb, 6:44 Moving, 7:34 Total, 66.1 kph max

Country	Distance	Climbing
Slovenia	326.4	4965
Italy	23.8	250

We started out the normal way, with a big Bike Dreams breakfast at 7am. Everyone was ready early since the forecast was for rain most of the day, starting soon. So we headed out before 8am and cruised along, down the valley.

It was pretty, following the famous Soča River (known as the “Emerald Beauty”). It has an amazing emerald color, everywhere.

We rode in a group, on gorgeous uncrowded roads, with a funny river crossing at one point. At about 40 km, I felt first one drop, then many, then pretty quickly it was raining, hard. I added shoe covers and a rain jacket at a little bus stop, missing a massive downpour, but there were so many more that before long I was soaked. There were a bunch of one-way construction zones with traffic lights, but soon, we got to turn off on a little-used road that climbed up steeply and consistently, 9-11% mostly, 600m total.

We were still 2 km from the top when I came upon the lunch truck, setup with rain shelters. It was absolutely pouring and SO nice to get off the bike and refuel.

I left in a lull and then got soaked finishing the last 2 km to the top. Then lots of rolling and down, and up again… I wasn’t very psyched. Finally I stopped around 80 km for a snack in a tiny bus stop. 6 or 7 riders came by pretty quickly and I jammed the food in my mouth and took off and caught them. We road up another 200m hill, and rested/ate/peed on top at just over 100 km.

After crossing into Italy, the road went up and down for a while and I was not feeling strong or motivated. But then I came to a viewpoint looking over Trieste, a city I had wanted to visit since I was a kid.

The road changed to one lane, one way and it was not our way. It was full of cars, one after another coming up and no room to ride. Some crazy car driver was trying to go down it and honked madly at me when I passed him. But we both couldn’t go at all. Finally the line ended so I cranked off down the hill as fast as possible. It was super steep so the car had no chance. It went on and on, then got SUPER steep (-25%?) and turned to cobble stones. Before I realized it I was passing the other riders who were all playing it safe with their narrow tires and walking. I emerged into the city and was immediately fully awake. The traffic was insane! Busses and motorcycles and cars, all going at a snails pace and me, airing on and off sidewalks, passing on the left, having a blast. The route twisted around and came out at the water front by the government buildings. Gorgeous and such fun riding.

I met Bob R [actually Simo who played up a joke on day 1, introducing himself as Bob, just to add confusion – the truth came out day 4 or 5] and we rode the last part together, about 8 km, a roundabout route, up and down and around, sometimes through giant deep puddles, some bike lanes, but ending at the Hotel Sonia where Bike Dreams was all set up. It felt really good to finish this amazing stage.

We had nice hot showers then massive snacks, then made plans for going out to dinner. Niek, Bob M and I took a taxi back downtown to the Piazza Unità d’Italia which looked so amazing on the way in. We walked around for half an hour then settled in at a fancy outdoor pizzeria. We had a round of Italian IPA, pizzas, then wine – Bob and I went for Prosecco because the actual town of Prosecco is so close to us here (under 10 km). I was getting full but we are only in Italy for one night so a high-end gelato place was absolutely required. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow we have a later start due to the hotel breakfast, 9am. That just happens to be the time that the weather forecast has scheduled 4 hours of hard rain to start. And of course we expect our ride tomorrow to take 4 hours. Today was the wettest I’ve been since 2019 in Argentina and I hope tomorrow doesn’t break that record. Good night!

Today was an optional ride – we are staying at the same campsite in Bovec for two nights. The ride was short, only 52km, but climbing to the highest point on a road in Slovenia, 2200m, a climb of 1800m or so. Both my Achilles were hurting from the previous two days so I opted for a rest day, along with many others.

After breakfast I walked “downtown” and did a little shopping, did my laundry, read and passed the morning very nicely. By lunch time everyone was back and we enjoyed a double meal of lunch plus soup. In the afternoon, not much happened, but we did make it to the Thrsty River brewery by 4. Bob and I had planned to meet there but when I showed up with 6-7 others, he was already there with 6-7 others. So we had a grand Bike Dreams party, sitting outdoors, most people opting for 4-beer samplers. I had a great NE IPA called Mirky, a stout, a “Belgian IPA” and a “Sour IPA”. And pretzels and more beer, so fun.

After that we walked back to camp and had a nice dinner, with lots of Slovenian Merlot. Bob had the “Marmot” and gave a great talk about the funny things that happened in the last day. Life is so good.

Sept 6, 2022

Stage 2 of 36, day 2 of 43: 82.41 km, 1574m, 4:43 moving, 5:25 total, 69.5 kph max

Total through 2 stages: 203.4km, 3533m climb

I slept a little better, maybe due to a gift of a melatonin pill. I packed up at 6:30, breakfast at 7, and we started about 8. Breakfast was the typical Bike Dreams: muesli/granola cereal, with creamy good yogurt and honey, banana and milk. Then a round of bread with peanut butter and super good cherry jam. Plus tea.

We started with a little climbing, warm in the sun. Soon we were out in the country, going up a very little used road, cool and shady. It gently climbed as we went up a valley with gorgeous views. That ended abruptly with a 18% grade sign.

Sure enough, it was steep. But not so long. Then a fun descent to a town were we picked up a bike path and took it for quite a while. Then up onto the “Russian Road”, which turned out to have a ton of traffic and be very steep. The climb was 800m over 8km, but some sections were way over 10%. Each switchback is numbered and I was counting it off in 50m chunks – they came rather slowly. I stopped for a banana and pee break, then continued. When I was down to 2km/200m to go, there was the lunch truck! They found a super scenic spot and it was SO nice to get off and eat.

I was pretty hot and it takes a lot of concentration riding the super steep switchbacks with motorcycles and camper vans everywhere. The jam ups gave the motorcycles problems too – I saw one couple crash and the passenger fell over hard landing on her head – she was ok but it was a little chaotic.

After lunch, I was energized but it seemed even steeper and hotter. Still how hard can 2 km be? Soon we were on the top, a zoo of people.

The descent was nice but comically crowded. I first passed a couple groups of 15-20 bicyclists, then two groups of 10 motorcycles, a bus, several cars and camper vans. Even with no one in front it was too steep to ride very fast. After the descent there was about 20 km to go, mostly downhill with a couple of little climbs at the end. The camp in Bovec is nothing to write home about, but not bad. Various people went out on beer runs. We had some delicious pepper/cauliflower soup and tons of snacks. Eventually hot showers happened and I scored a pretty nice tent spot.

All in all it was a good day of riding. My back is feeling quite good now, basically cured I think. My Achilles on both feet are sore – we are staying here two nights so I have the option of not riding the ridiculous climb tomorrow…

Stage 1 of 36, day 1 of 43: 121.1km, 1969m, 6:23 moving, 7:00 total, 75.8 kph max

After a second night of only 4 hours sleep, I woke up to fog but great excitement to be finally starting this adventure. There was a massive breakfast at 7, loading the truck, then we set out around 8:15. I hadn’t really tested my bike but it was perfect. We cruised through the city for a while, then countryside. After about 20 km the fog lifted and it got really beautiful. Everyone rode at their own pace, no leader, I was with others and solo sometimes throughout the day.

It was scenic, climbing slowly the first 50 km, then we had the first and biggest of 3 big climbs. It was over 10 km climbing about 800m. I kept a sane pace and stopped once to pee and eat a banana. It was warm and slightly humid, but noticeably cooler/nicer up high. At the top of the hill we found the lunch truck and had a nice refueling stop. Bread, pesto, cheese, tomato, pickle, arugula, chips, olives, cookies and more. I didn’t stay too long but headed out soon. The descent was pretty great – lots of fast curvy fun, only occasionally braking, lots of 60+ kph which felt so nice in the cool higher-altitude air. My back had been bothering me a lot but it was fine during the ride.

After some more flattish and super scenic cruising, the second hill hit. It wasn’t as steep or as long, but I was more tired so it wasn’t a lot easier. Then there was a third one, again a little smaller – by this time we had climbed 1900m, pretty rough for a first stage. Then a final descent, even faster. One section was 18% down but was too curvy to go fast. The 10% section below was better. Slovenia has lots of electronic speed signs, and one of them I passed said 76 kph in big red letters and then drew a picture of a speed limit 50 sign. The pavement was great, the turns mellow, little traffic; it was quite safe.

Then we arrived at the famous Lake Bled. We got to ride quite a ways around it, ending at Camping Bled, a huge campground, with hot water for showers, lots of tent space, free wifi, what more do you need? It was immediately back to the routine from the Andes Trail: first a round of soup, this time coconut cauliflower, a recipe from the cook on the barge Katie and I were on in Holland recently – our cook worked on board the same barge. Plus chips, drinks, cookies as needed, nuts, candies, whatever you like it’s there. I have a giant 3 person tent and a wonderful self-inflating mattress – I set up quickly, took a shower, then settled in to write this. What a first day!

After a nap, we had dinner at 6 with lots of fun conversations. It’s so cool to be back in this life I haven’t had for the last 3 years.

Funny thing of the day: there are so many Wordle varients it’s not even funny. When someone makes the obvious Spordle (Slovenian placenames Wordle) I found a real winner today: Strnj. I tried googling it with no luck, wish I took a photo for proof.

It was a little depressing on the last day before the tour to have no information from British Air about my lost bike and bag. My old friend Petra and her boyfriend cheered me up by taking me out to a fantastic outdoor restaurant for a few hours.

At 5, we had the Bike Dreams briefing meeting, received our jerseys, etc. A bit after 7, I finally heard that my bag and bike had been found and would be delivered the next morning. That was a bit late as we are scheduled to leave at 8 for our first (massive) ride. When I asked if I could come to the airport and pick it up myself in the evening, they said no because the plane would arrive after the office closed. But we knew from two other rider’s experiences that the office had to stay open until the last plane had arrived.

So our excellent driver Henk drove me to the airport, arriving at 8pm, just before the London BA flight arrived and just at official closing time. We talked to the nice baggage guy and he explained that he would bring out my bags after all other people had left, probably an hour after landing. Sure enough at about 9:30, he popped out and motioned me over. There it was! There was a little comedy with the customs guy who grilled me with a bunch of questions – turned out he was just really interested in our route.

We drove back to the hotel and pulled up at 10pm. There was Ype, our master mechanic, all ready with a bike stand, pump and tools.

I made it to my room in the hotel around 10:30 to find my roommate, Bob, from New Hampshire, working on organizing his bike and gear. We had a fun time together getting things ready and went to bed before midnight.

Travel these days isn’t yet back to what it was. My flight on Thursday was cancelled and rescheduled for 29 hours later. That flight worked ok but had the drawback of going through Heathrow, my least favorite airport in the world.

The flight to Ljubljana was 30 min late after a 3 hour layover so baggage should’ve been no problem. But after the bags stopped coming, I had to join at least 20 people at the lost luggage office – luckily I was near the head of the queue.

The guy took my information and sounded really positive about being able to deliver my bike and pack to the hotel in the morning, but I have doubts. I had booked a shuttle so that bringing the large box would be no problem – the guy was there with a Nathan Hoover sign and drove me 25 minutes to the hotel. I checked in and then went to the bar to see if there was any food. It was about 10pm and I hadn’t had dinner. No food but yes beer which was ok. While I was sipping a nice Slovenian lager, several of our Bike Dream riders walked up, two of whom had also lost their bikes/luggage. Soon, in walked three of the crew – it was great to see our Andes Trail master mechanic Ype after 3 years and nice to see our driver Henk who I had dinner with in June in Holland. I got to meet our guide Wilbert who I’ve emailed many times over the last 5 years (I signed up for this one early in 2019 and the previous trip in 2016).

We’ll make it work somehow, I am positive. Back in my room at 11pm, I received a text from British Air lost luggage, so at least the guy at the office did something right. Good night!

On September 1, I’m off to Ljubljana, Slovenia for my next bike adventure. This one is with the same Dutch company I rode with in South America, Bike Dreams. The ‘Balkan Boulevard‘ goes 3500 km through 7 countries, and lasts 6 weeks. If all goes well I’ll be home October 19.

This trip is in a similar style as the Andes Trail I rode in 2019: mostly camping out with some hotel nights sprinkled in. We’ll ride 4-6 days in a row, then have rest day somewhere interesting. The average distance per day is about 100 km and the average daily climb is 1450m (gulp). In the Andes we only averaged 1000m per day but had worse roads and presumably worse weather. I’ll be bringing my Salsa Cutthroat gravel bike again – it’s in the shop now for some last maintenance.

I have unicycled some of this route before, in Slovenia and Croatia, but I’m most excited about riding in three countries where I’ve never been: Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially Albania.

Watch here for updates – our first riding day is Monday, September 5, 2022!