Another belated report from our mountain bike ride from Užice to Žabljak in Serbia.

The plan was to forego the fire and breakfast and everything in the morning and just pack up and zoom down to Priboj, where we could have a proper cup of coffee from a proper coffee pot and get some breakfast too. This we duly did, after another wheel-rim-scorching descent of more than 10k.

After stocking up on supplies we headed back out and up another fearsome hill which offered spectacular views back towards Priboj and which would take us west towards the Bosnian border and the village of Sastavci right in a “corner” of Serbia. One of these days I will share some interesting insights into mountain-biking with panniers - just a clue: there IS a weight issue. This was another pretty wild section, only the beginning and end asphalted and with nary a soul around, just the way I like it, with some really epic landscape. Once again, the importance of taking plenty of water was impressed on us as we encountered a number of dry springs along the way.

Sastavci and the Goleša

Having in the non-descript village of Sastavci, downed enough water to drown a Bactrian and refreshed ourselves with ice-cream we now hit the tarmac south towards the Montenegrin border. Before that, though, we had to wind our way between the Goleša - two great, facing rocks called the Pribojska and the Hercegovačka Goleša, which made for spectacular riding, which this video does no justice at all:

Bučje

Then it was yet another uphill slog as day began to fail and we decided to stop at a small logging community called Bučje, in the grounds of another of those dead village schools in which Serbia sadly abounds. At least, I hope the school was abandoned, else we’ve just left the burning ruins of our campfire in the middle of the school football field.

We got the fire lit just in time, as the very ominous and rumblings turned into deafening crashes of thunder and a good old downpour. It’s a lot easier keeping a fire going in the rain than it is starting one. And we were very glad for our raincoats too.

Tomorrow we need to get our passports ready - it’s time to make the crossing into Montenegro, and because we are seriously lagging thanks to a couple of missed turns (heaven forbid we take any wrong turns tomorrow!) we need to make 90km tomorrow, including the climb up from the Tara canyon to Žabljak, our destination!

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Posted on August 29th, 2008 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All)