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UPDATE: To read about how the Serbia 2007 Mountain Bike Trek turned out, click here!
It is high time I sat down and wrote about this up-coming endeavour of ours, which I have alluded to in previous posts but never actually explained in detail. Well, here we go!
Zero-Day is approaching for a big mountain biking tour of Serbia that a group of friends and I have been dreaming about since last year. We want to see this beautiful European country as it should be seen - from the saddle of a bike!
The Plan
The plan originated with Rob MacCurrach, an Englishman who with his wife Tricia has spent several incredibly enthusiastic and energetic years in Serbia and, suffice to say, probably knows more about the country, especially its nature, than most locals. Serbia has huge, untapped hiking and mountain-biking potential and even though there are of course local enthusiasts, almost anywhere you set out to cycle in the mountains is unmarked, unmapped (except on aged military maps which are not publicly available) and there for the discovering! We had done some weekend trips before, but Rob had the idea to explore a larger tract of Serbia by bike, taking in mountain regions, and sticking to trails as much as possible (i.e. avoiding tarmac).
On Sunday 29th April, a small team of intrepid mountain bikers will head down to Brzeće, which is on the slopes of Kopaonik, one of Serbia’s major mountains (though not the highest), and a popular ski resort. Currently it looks as though there will be four cyclists: Rob, Zoli, Robi and myself. We also have backup - Dušan who has no interest in cycling and who will be driving the jeep (Lada Niva!) on ahead to a daily rendezvous point to start setting up camp, and who will hopefully bail us out of any trouble we might get into.
The Route
Believe it or not, we have yet to finalise the route! Aleksandar Veljković, local GPS afficionado, kindly (actually, he can hardly wait to get stuck in to OziExplorer!) mapped out a potential route for us through the general area we are aiming at. Rob and I have since started plotting our own, modified version of this route, but we still have to finish it (and print off all the maps, arrghh!) so in the meantime,
Google Earth to get an idea of what we are planning here. You can also check out the screenshot at the top of this article where you can see a general view, with some markings for those of you who have no idea what part of the world we are talking about! Hope you can make out the multicoloured track on it. You really need to get down into a 3D view in Google Earth though and see what kind of terrain this is (though most of the route is not mapped in hires unfortunately). We will be using GPS, though Rob is VERY happy poring over maps and finding ways through the mountains. I think GPS will give us just that bit of help we need to avoid getting lost unnecessarily, though some might argue that is part of the fun!
The aim is to take in a whole swathe of Serbia’s mountainous regions, including the aforementioned Kopaonik (fairly tame and touristy), Golija (wild and unpopulated!), Zlatibor, Tara (if we decide to go for it, it’s quite a detour, but well worth it) and finishing in the region of Valjevo, familiar territory. The whole trip will probably be 400+ km (250 miles) which would not be that much on the flat, but here we won’t be doing more than 80km/50 miles per day absolute maximum. The terrain varies from a few hundred metres above sea level, to approaching 1800m (5500ft) and we will clock up thousands of metres of climbing.
I am REALLY looking forward to it - this is going to be a unique experience I think, and I would like to share it with readers of the blog by keeping you regularly updated for the last few days before we set out, and also by blogging live from the “road”, an ability I have now perfected on previous small-scale trips. So make sure you sign up for the RSS feed (link at the top of the page), or for email updates (enter it in the field on the right - powered by Feedburner, so you won’t get any spam), and we will do our best to give you a first-hand view of an authentic, wild Serbian mountain biking experience!
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Posted on April 24th, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All), Serbia Bike Trek!
E, bravo majstori.
Baš mi je krivo što ne mogu da vam se pridružim.
(Straja says he wishes he was coming!)
We will put you down for the next time Straja, for sure! Actually, we would have been happy to have a few more riders along, but it is pretty difficult to get people out of their armchairs and onto a bike.
Though once they have been, it is sometimes difficult getting them BACK in the armchair again
Of course some people live too far away as well (I would hate to think what it is like getting a bike on a plane).
pozdrav! jel se zna tacan datum kad idete?
Cao! Zna se zna se, u nedelju se okupljamo u Brzecu, tj. 29. aprila i u ponedeljak ujutru krecemo! (ne znamo jos gde cemo da knjavamo u nedelju). Hoces s nama?! Bilo bi nam vrlo drago da povedemo jos drustva. Ogranicava nas jedino prevoz (ja cu morati busom do Brzeca izgleda, nema mesta u dzipu), i satori (ide nas 6. za sada, i taman smo nasli satore za 6).
Poziv je otvoren iz druge - mozda neko moze samo deo da predje ako ne moze celih 6 dana da izdvoji.
Tek danas sam video da planirate put pa sam malo neorganiziran, ja dolazim u BG 27 aprila letim sa JAT-om i ne znam da li oni ustvari dozvoljavaju prevoz bicikla u svakom slucaju zvacu ih sutra. Ne znam jel vi to rekreativno ili ste pro?(pitam zbog kondicije) Sator imam za dvoje ,ne znam jel jos nesto neophodno…
Bilo bi super da nam se pridruzis. Za bicikl ne mogu da ti pomognem, nisam nikada probao, pogotovo ne JATom! Ali verujem da postoji nacin.
Vrlo NISMO profesionalci! Naprotiv, poprilicni smo amateri, i borimo se da se resimo zimske kilavosti. Rob, glavni organizator, ima 50ak godina, tako da budi bez brige
JAT dozvoljava prevoz bicikla ,ali autobus nece (karte odavno placene)
pa mi se sve komplikuje,u svakom slucaju probat cu da se snadjem za bicikl u BG, ako ne uspem vidimo se drugom prilikom i sretan put !!
Autobus? Je si li izricito pitao? Gde to uopste ustvari - dolazis iz UK? Busevi unutar Srbije obicno primaju bajsove, doduse nekada posle gundjanja i negodovanja vozaca. Bilo bi super kada bi nam se jos neko sa strane pridruzio, tako da poziv ostaje otvoren, za tebe i za jos nekog koji je eventualno zainteresovan.
Hey, this is turning into a real bilingual blog…!
da pitao! , i zavisi kolko prtljaga imaju momentalno tako da ne mogu nista obecati (vozac kaze da su bunkeri uglavnom uvek krcati). Vidim na net-u da ima nekih bicikli (polar) za otprilike £100 ,ne znam da li bi to posluzilo. greetings from sunny Bournemouth..
da pojasnim ! pricam o autobusu u engleskoj !
Onda mi je sve jasno, to samo u Engleskoj prave probleme
Sta ja znam, taj Polar… Nije bas ozbiljan bicikl (ne vozimo ni mi ne znam kakve zverke!), ali bi mozda posluzio za ovu jednu turu! Nazalost, nemam rezervni bajs - jedino ako neko u BG moze da ti predlozi nekog dobrog polovnjaka za slicne pare?
Hajde, budi u kontaktu! Poslacu i svoj direktan mejl.
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