Reflections on the Balkans & Romania

I've finished.  Reached the end of my Trans Euro Trail ride.  Sitting now in Bucharest, I thought it was worth jotting down some quick notes in terms of my reflections on the last few countries I've ridden through and the TET route across them.  This complements and updates my previous post on France and Italy.




NB: There were virtually no route corrections to make on any of these days - it's a different style of trail-riding to ferreting out the legal bits in Western Europe.

I'm incredibly grateful to Roman Bale, Ivan Drobjnak, Ivan Gligorijevic and Jon Florea.  And overall, cannot understate my praise for John Ross.  I just could not have done this trip without their work.  I had no basis or knowledge on which to plot such a route myself.

• Slovenia
• Beautiful country.  My favourite photo of the trip was taken from Mount Nanos.
• Roman's new loop is very worthwhile doing.  Gives you a great overview of the country.
• Nothing so technical a big bike could not manage.
• Takes two days.
• Last hundred kilometres or so to the border are on gravel motorways.  Combined with the further stretch in Croatia, it get's a bit tiring/boring.  Hence why you must do the new loop first!
• Croatia
• As above, the stretch from the border to the coast is long and tree-filled.
• Climb up from the coast is tricky and engaging, but manageable on a bigger bike.
• You don't really get to see any famous sights or characteristic features of Croatia (well, except the sea and some islands).  The country has a lot more to offer, but it would need a pretty big change to take the route to those places and probably demand changes elsewhere in Bosnia too to accommodate.  But for v2.0, this is what I'd look to change.
• Bosnia
• I think everyone knows Bosnia is a great country to ride off-road.  It really is.
• Stunning landscape and scenery.
• If you're coming from further afield and haven't visited Sarajevo, it's worth the trip.  The run from Sarajevo to Mostar was one of my top four days of the whole adventure.
• Owing to the land-mine threat, there is no single track or really technical riding at all.  It's still good fun, and therefore very manageable on a bigger bike, but it doesn't feel quite as "adventurous" as some of the riding in Romania or Monetenegro or even the muddy single-track in France and Italy.
• Montenegro
• Just stunning scenery.  The TET route only takes 1-2 days to cross the country, and is really worth doing.  Another highlight of the trip.
• There's an easy and obvious short-cut to make into Serbia if you are heading East rather than South.  If you do this, try to cross as far East as possible (more than I did).
• Serbia
• I'm really glad I travelled through Serbia, and Belgrade was surprisingly different to what I expected.  Very friendly people.
• I didn't ride the whole route.  I'd like to know what the south-east is like.  I suspect I missed quite a lot.
• Unfortunately, in the bits I did ride, the country just doesn't enjoy as much spectacular scenery as it's neighbours (well, except perhaps Hungary!)
• The route here was more Western European in character, hunting out single-track in wood-blocks and the like.  It makes a nice change from some of the gravel motorways. But there are long-ish road connections between, and you feel the off-road bits are there for the sake of riding off-road - which isn't a bad thing - but not covering terrain.
• But I was disappointed by Tara National Park.  It had been hyped to me, and is pretty, but doesn't compare with Montenegro, Bosnia or Romania.  The trails are dull here too, graded smooth gravel motorway, and lots of trees to stare at.
• Highlight in terms of riding is the area around Srednji Povlen.  I'm sorry I missed the second half of this.
• Delibato Sands are worth the loop.  It's a real contrast to the whole rest of TET to be riding on sand.
• After Slovenia, Serbia is the first place you are going to find spares/tyres/etc.  Bosnia and Montenegro are too poor and the route doesn't go near the right areas of Croatia.
• Romania
• Trail riding heaven, but you knew that already.
• Given that my expectations were high, I was actually surprised how much tarmac you ride.  As a proportion it's still low, but not like Bosnia.
• Partly, this is because of geography - the trails run perpendicular to the mountains, rather than along the valleys in between.  You end up criss-crossing the direction of travel.  That makes for easy short-cuts if you want them.
• You can make good choices about whether to ride another logging road (fun, bouncy stuff - no gravel motorways) or loop another lake (they can be fiddly and much longer than they look on the map) or press on.  But don't miss the ridge-line rides.  These really are worth the loop, and faster too.
• There are a lot of wild dogs, and they're pretty aggressive.  Packs of them.  This just wasn't a problem anywhere else on the route.
• The people are very friendly, and visibly accommodating of bikes.