Bromley to Bucharest: Day 20: Šmihel to Štirovača, 323 km

Day 20 - Šmihel to Štirovača, 323 km

So... There are a whole lot of trees in this part of the world...

Initially, to complete the descent off Nanos, tracks included another slippery-after-the-rain single-track to make me glad of my coffee that morning, my new tyre, and that I had my stopped when I did last night.

To think that for a brief moment I contemplated cutting a corner of track and pressing on. Don't do that in Slovenia: I would have missed sights like this.

Then lots and lots of curvy, fast-as-you-like gravel logging roads. Lots. Kept mumbling to myself "weight forwards, forearms vertical" to keep the front wheel gripping in the bends.

Trees trees trees trees trees. All the trees.

Not so fast

Made it to Croatia.

Croatia!

Where the forests continued. I was getting pretty tired at this point - 250km of logging roads - when the inevitable happened and I lost the front on a gravel corner in my first proper "off" of the trip (rather than just toppling over).

I came out of it unharmed. The bike however - well, the brake lever that's been bending back and forwards like a yoga instructor at a training camp finally succumbed. Fortunately it's still just about workable.

Still just about workable. Good job it didn't take a bigger gouge out of that engine casing.

Very glad of my gear: leather Klim gloves, cordura Dakar Pro shirt, and d2o armour held in place by an Acerbis vest, and knee armour wedges into two cut-off socks from Decathlon.

I ducked down on to a parallel road for 15km to gather my thoughts, then pressed on more gingerly.

(Anyone know a KTM/husky dealer in Croatia or Bosnia? I know there's one in Podgorica but not intending to go that far down.)

One for my brother (called Alan)

I can really see why Roman has added the new loop in Slovenia. Otherwise you're gonna see a lot of trees and nothing else. So how have I rationalised a loop in Slovebia when I criticised it in Italy? I'm not 100% sure, and so I'm partly revisiting my conclusions on the previous country.

If there is a qualitative difference, it's that Roman's route takes in the sights, up to the edge of the karst, views over Trieste, the castles and valleys, etc. The trails also flow. So it's not like the loops are just there to take you off the road. Plus you can comfortably do the whole country in two days.