My alarm rings at 5:30 am and at the same time I hear the church bells. They had been ringing every 15 minutes throughout the night, but I hadn’t noticed them once. I've slept very deep. When I check my phone, I realise I only have 7% battery left – lucky the alarm even rang.
I plug in my power banks, only to find out both are dead. So, I quickly try to get the next villages on the route in my mind and set off. I get lost three times, and my phone dies completely. I'm in the middle of nowhere – no bakery, no supermarket, no gas station. Then I remember my GPS watch, which I brought as a backup.
At the next bakery, I charge all the power banks and use the time for a big breakfast. I take a look at today’s route: it’s supposed to be super flat through Croatia. So I decide to aim for a long distance and book a hotel in the first town across the border in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It feels great to have a clear goal for the day, and that feeling carries me through. I look forward to my first bed after five days of sleeping outside.
In Zagreb is a banned road when entering the city. I had invested a lot of time in planning an alternative route, which looked manageable on Google Maps – just a short trail section near the river. But reality had other plans. The alternative path was completely overgrown, and I ended up pushing my bike for kilometers through a jungle. Then came the chaos of Zagreb itself, with heavy traffic that cost me hours. I make a mental note to find a better route next time.
By 21:00 pm, I still have 100 km to go, and I start to doubt if I’ll reach the hotel. I call them via WhatsApp to check if a late check-in is possible. The reception will be closed by then, but the owner offers to leave the key in the door and promises a pizza Margherita in my room. It doesn’t get much better than that. Energized by the thought of food and a bed, I fly through the night and arrive at the Bosnian border around 2:00 a.m. There’s a traffic jam stretching for kilometres, even at this hour. I ride past all the cars and get to the front of the line. The check-in in the hotel works without any problems. I take a long shower, wash my clothes and go to bed at 3:30 am with my pizza. What a day.
distance // 342 km
elevation // 1.612 m
moving time // 17:16 h
break time // 3:13 h
sleep duration night before // 4:00 h
location // bivouac
highlight // first burek
problems // bad route to avoid banned roads
The entire route is compiled in a collection on Komoot. You can also find the individual stages of the race on Strava!
Komoot: Joschka Völkel Strava: Joschka Völkel Instagram: @joschka_voelkel
by Reasonable-Cup-5324