A ride through the Balkans / Trip Reports

A ride through the Balkans

The route: Tirana, Albania - Sarajevo, Bosnia

Strava routes

The length: 900 kilometres

The ups: 15200m

Riding days: 12

The calories: Heaps.

Riders: Toby Roberts & Pete Mitchell

24th May 2024

Photo by: Toby Roberts

In June 2023, I was living in Wellington over the winter, finishing up some of my studies. I received a book as a birthday present from my brother entitled 'The Big Bike Trip' by Freddie Gillies. When I didn't have my head in books about aviation law, flight manuals, and other dry scriptures that I was putting myself through at the time, I made my way through this incredible book of memories about a trip by three kiwi lads who rode their bikes around the world.

At the same time, I was also putting together an interest-piece film for the bike-packing company, Aeroe, starring my good friend Toby Roberts, who would later play a big part in this adventure. So, whilst I was in Wellington for the winter, the ideas started cooking, and I couldn't get the idea out of my head that 'next year I'm going to bike through Europe'. I didn't really know what that would logistically look like. I knew I could get time off work over winter, as that's the quiet period in my line of work in the outdoors, and a great time to escape the Wānaka winter! I started browsing flights and rough locations that I'd like to go through, and also fired off a few messages to my friends in Europe to tell them "I'm coming to Europe next year ... are you around?" Just to see how it felt to say it really!

Having worked in mountain-bike world with WORD for the last three years and for Aeroe for a couple of years, I'd only ever done a little bit of actual bike-packing, and then only overnight trips. So, it felt time to do something decent and go for a big ol' tour somewhere far away and see what this bike-packing thing is really all about.

Because it's usually a rational next step to these types of ideas and as a form of commitment to the trip, I decided to buy a new bike. I did some googling and chatted with friends and decided to go for a steel frame gravel bike. Something that was strong, cheap, and most importantly, looked cool. Welcome to the bike family - Marin Nicasio - AKA 'Nicky'. I found it in Burkes Cycles in Wellington on sale for $1000!? In the bike world, that's a steal! It's as basic as they come, full mechanical brakes and shifting, and weighs as much as a baby elephant. But this was exactly what I wanted... something that I didn't care too much about getting knocked around and abused in overseas airports and wouldn't put too much of a dent in the bank. As I had just finished studying, there wasn't much to dent.

I decided that I'd buy the bike on the day I passed my commercial flight test as a little 'well done me' kinda thing. I also didn't want to buy it before-hand since if I failed my final flight test, I'd need that money for a resit, which would cost me three Nicasios!

On the 29th of August, 2023, I walked off the tarmac of Wellington Airport with sweaty pits, wearing fancy shoes that I wear once every 2 years to look like a pilot on flight test day, and a smile on my face, heading straight for the bike shop to pick up the new bike. What a day. Mission's on!

The bike that would take me 2200 kilometres around Europe in 9 months time.

Over the summer, I continued my work in Wānaka, saving a few extra pennies with a few side hustles to get the Euro trip fund going. It felt so good to be finally saving a bit of money that wouldn't go straight back into Avgas for the little piston engine planes I'd been flying. Instead, funds were going into the Jet A1 fuel to get me over to the other side of the world to ride my bike.

This idea originally had me going solo for 6 weeks, starting in Greece and finishing in Germany. But the thing about good ideas is people usually want to join in. I'm very selective about the people I choose to spend time with in the hills and on missions; to me that is the most important factor when planning a lengthy and complex trip, as this one was to be.

One Friday morning, I found myself at the gym with my good friends Sam and Toby. I tabled my idea and while I don't recall extending it as an invite as such, pretty quickly both Toby and Sam had decided they'd be coming along for the ride. How good was that? We sat on the idea for a couple of months and then eventually decided to pull trigger and book tickets for a late May exit out of Wānaka. Unfortunately, life responsibilities meant that regrettably Sam could no longer join Toby and I for this trip. Those who know Sam Hoskins will know he's irreplaceable, so we didn't feel the need to fill the 'third spot', and Toby and I would just go at it ourselves. Tickets were booked, and May 24th, we were going to be out of here!

Over the Kiwi summer, I planned on doing some training. well, that kept getting postponed and I became more and more aware that I would have to take the 'I'll train while I'm over there' approach. Toby is a veteran of the overseas bike-packing game; he usually does a trip like this each New Zealand winter and escapes to warmer climates, as well as timing it in with a trip back home to see his family in England and Spain. So, we decided that Toby and I would do three weeks together in the Balkans, and then we'd go our separate ways - he'd go home to the UK, and I'd keep riding through Central Europe on my own for another three weeks.

The plan was sorted, training was a thought, and away we'd go!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Days before leaving chilly Wānaka on our test ride with fully loaded bikes.

After months of planning, collecting gear, and putting together the pieces of the bike-packing puzzle, we jumped on the plane to Europe!

We decided that we'd fly into Istanbul, Turkey, to spend a couple of days there on foot to see the sights while we got over our jet lag. Istanbul was where Toby and I discovered our shared interest in 'people-watching' - not in a creepy way, just good old fashioned, daytime people-watching. We cruised around the city, coming across benches to perch on for an hour or so to absorb the comings and goings of the locals and the tourists. This theme carried through the rest of our trip together.

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Toby being a tourist of the people, for the people.

After 2 full days of Turkish hustle and bustle, the most plastic surgery we've ever seen, rooftop bars, and early morning calls to prayer, we endured a frightening drive across town to the airport to start our ride in Tirana, Albania!

But first... a quick scam courtesy of Air Albania just to remind us of where we were. As we were checking into our flight, an Air Albania gentleman saw us with our bike boxes. He approached us saying we would have to pay him 70 Euros each for our bike boxes, even though we'd already paid for an extra bag online and had found no information about bike boxes on the website. This led to one of the best quotes of the trip where he said, 'I'm the information now'. We handed over the money, 'cash only of course...' Defeated, we got on the plane and crossed our fingers that we would see our bikes in 2 hours' time in Tirana.

We landed in Tirana, Albania and stepped into what was a very hot awakening to what the next few weeks would be like. We got through customs, found our bikes, and in no time, we had built up our bikes, and had the boxes swept away by some kind airport worker, and then, we were riding! Damn, it felt good!

I genuinely think that, in many ways, it's more tiring being a tourist on foot and walking around big cities than it is knocking out big days on the bike.

Riding through the outskirts of Albania's capital city was a hectic experience, all the while watching big storm clouds brew in the mountains. Too soon, a mega downpour and light show erupted that had us cowering for shelter only an hour into our ride. It was on the first climb that we met our first Albanian shepherd who was so excited when Toby took out his camera to get a few quick portrait snaps. These ended up being some of the best photos of the trip, as you can see. Equally, that night after we descended into the next valley, the heavens opened up again. As we were coming into Klos we rode past the most incredible looking tree house. We looked at each other and said, "Should we see if we can sleep in there?" It was right outside someone's house and as the owner was out on her deck with her little kid we called up with a mix of English and sign language asking if we could sleep in the tree house. Happily, she replied, "Po po, it's okay, it's okay". This was our first experience of Albanian kindness and hospitality, which didn't stop there!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

The first night's accommodation that was lucky to remain standing.

This was also our first night testing our camp cooking system running on 91 petrol... Let's just say, testing it in the dry wooden tree house for the for the first time wasn't my smartest idea, and it was lucky we had a few water bottles up there at the ready! Our first night in Albania could have ended very differently otherwise, and Klos would have had one less tree house.

The next couple of days we both felt like we were still a bit woozy, with jet lag and energy levels a bit all over the place. But beautiful Albanian roads and respectful drivers made for some epic riding. We were treated like kings when we'd ride through the many small towns, where the kids would come out and chase us down the street for high fives and fist pumps. Some would want to ride our bikes around and others would just like to test out their English. I loved these small towns. Usually, the town centre would be blocked off to cars with cobble stone paving which made it pretty cool to ride through.

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Typical Albanian small towns with cobbled main roads closed off to cars. Clean and quiet!

We found out early on that Albanians don't eat breakfast... well they do, but it consists of a coffee, a ciggy and maybe a side of raki... that's what the men would be having at 8am in the morning at the cafes anyway! For us it was packaged pastries and anything that we could get our hands on.

On the second day of riding I found myself feeling a bit rough about 50kms in. I couldn't really pinpoint it, I just felt super whoozy and tried to justify it in my head that it was just jet lag and the heat. Turns out it was not. We got through the second day which was around 110 kilometres with 2000m of climbing. That evening, I was an absolute space cadet; I just wasn't functioning at all, I just wanted to be horizontal. I was hoping I'd just sleep it off but sure enough the next morning was worse. I really tried to be positive about it, and when Toby asked me how I was doing in the morning I'd say "yea, I think I'm feeling better", just to try to kick my brain back into gear. When we were riding into Kukes, I gave my Uncle Gary a video call, who conveniently happens to be a doctor. I told him I had symptoms of acid reflux, and he suggested going to the nearest pharmacy and getting some Gaviscon to try and kick it in the guts.

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Cracked on day 2... the beginning of the demise!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Arriving into Kukes my mind and body were not operating, and Toby was kindly bumbling along with me and could tell something wasn't quite right. We arrived into Kukes township and met another bike packer with whom we engaged in a bit of conversation. I briefly subbed out of the conversation to duck into the local pharmacy to see what they had to get this acid reflux thing dealt to. In true Albanian style they showed me an option that they thought would sort me out and said, "You need a recipe for this one" which I interpreted as being a prescription. I replied, "Oh sorry, I'm just travelling through and haven't seen a doctor", to which they answered, "It's okay, you can have it anyway". Great result. Things were looking up, but as soon as we sat down for a Pizza lunch, I nipped off to the toilet which provided the confirmation for which I had been looking for the last two days. I came back to the table and Toby said, "Mate, I thought you'd died and gone to heaven," to which I replied, "I didn't, but that bathroom did." It wasn't pretty and for the next 3 days I had the most brutal runs, fever and acid reflux experience, cooped up in a hotel room in Kukes, Albania, of all places... on day 3!? Ominous? I hoped not.

We decided that Toby would continue on and I'd intersect him once I was back in the land of the living. Sharing a room with someone who is got an upset stomach to put it politely, is pretty grim, and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. My mind was up and down over those three days, not really knowing when I'd come right, and gutted that this had hit so early on. I thought the thing that would stop me from completing this trip would be a fitness thing or a knee injury... not this!

After 3 days I wasn't 100%, but I couldn't stay in the room any longer and watch the days go by, so it was time to pack some extra toilet paper and see what the legs had in them.

To my surprise, my legs felt great! Without the fever, I was able to manage the stomach with some tactical stops.. yep.. and managed to knock out 110kms with 1800m of climbing into Kosovo and back into Albania to the foothills of the mighty Valbona!

Toby had ridden/hiked through the Valbona a few days earlier and was now heading up to the Durmitor national park in Montenegro, so to intersect him, I took a different route and made my way to the coast through the Drin Gorge to Koman on an old school boat. Over the next few days, I made my way to Kotor, Montenegro, where I would wait with open arms for Toby for just one more day.

I really enjoyed getting to Kotor. It was that section that gave me confidence that I actually could do this trip, and my body was capable of knocking out these big days, justifying to myself that the sickness was playing a big factor on my energy levels earlier on, I wasn't just unfit! During this section I met a bunch of other bike-packers from all around the world. I really enjoyed hearing their stories about where they had come from and pick up little insights from their trips. The best part was seeing their bike set-ups. One girl was doing her whole trip in Birkenstocks (German, of course). Another girl had ridden from France to Montenegro with a guitar on the back of her bike and her bike weighed about 40kgs. The scope was broad!

When I arrived in Kotor, I was bombarded with tourists unloading from cruise ships and busy roads with cars all jamming into the same small-town roads. It was a rather spectacular location, tucked into an epic fiord with massive cliffs all around it. However, the secret was out about this place, meaning it was packed to the rafters with other people who looked just like me!

The mission was on to find a wild camp spot in this luxury town. Lucky for me, the French girl with the guitar gave me some coordinates of the place she stayed in, swearing it was the only flat grassy place you could camp that was out of sight in this crazy town, and she was right! Whilst it wasn't anything fancy, I was stoked to be able to call that little patch of grass home for the night and save paying high prices for accommodation in town.

Kotor was where I would meet Toby who put in a huge day to meet me there the next evening. He'd just had an absolute cracker of a few days, riding through the Valbona National Park and the Durmitor National Park in Montenegro. The man was buzzing!

We celebrated with a beer and fried fish in the Kotor old town. This overseas trip was a bit of an introduction back into eating meat; being a vegetarian in Eastern Europe is not really a thing. I wasn't quite as well versed as Toby on the varieties of fish on offer that night. We ordered a mixed plate of fried fish which had what looked like to me jelly fish. I said, "Can you eat the stingers?" to which Toby replied, "They're not jellyfish, ya dick!" Turns out they were squid. Makes sense. I was learning!

A few images from Toby's Valbona Valley and Durmitor National Park escapade while I was in recovery mode!

Toby reported some of the best days he's had on his bike in the Durmitor National Park. It was a shame we couldn't ride this section together, but I was stoked he was still able to get out there and tick it off!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Our patch of grass in downtown Kotor.

Toby and I spent a night on the same patch of grass I'd found the night before in Kotor before making our way up the Montenegro coast into Croatia the next day to a beautiful campsite just north of the Game of Thrones city, Dubrovnik! On our way along the busy Croatian coast, we met our first fellow kiwi bike-packers. They were on the side of the road when we were descending a hill at speed, and we just heard "They've got Mons Royal!" We knew then that we'd come across some other kiwis. We met them further up the road and pulled over for a chat on the side of the highway.

A rear moment with Pete taking a turn up front... momentarily.

A night in Orosac on the Croatian coast was like a home coming for Toby as he'd been there before and was hyping up this beach side campsite for a while. It was lovely to get into the water and have a beer on the jetty whilst attempting some subpar backflips and reminiscing 'we used to be better at these...'

Despite having the ability to cook food with our petrol driven Ali Axpress cooker, and the pots we took that got very little use. We made the comment early on that 'we didn't come to Europe to chop vegetables..' We only used the cooked a couple of times and in hindsight, I wouldn't bother bringing it again next time. The food is so cheap, and if you're cooking noodles and pasta every night, you're missing out on eating the local food which is one of the best things about bike packing!

Looking down into Dubrovnik (Kings Landing Game of Thrones)

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Looking out towards the Croatian Coast at sunset.

Our original plan was to ride all the way up to Split on the Croatian Coast, but after spending a day on the busy coastal road, and hearing from other bike packers that it gets worse... we opted to head for the hills and explore Bosnia!

Bosnia wasn't on the cards to begin with, but on our flight from Auckland to Hong Kong, we sat next to a lovely Bosnian lady who was really selling us on the dream to change our trip to ride through her home country, so it was nice to get to visit a few of the hot spots she'd recommended.

Boarder crossings hadn't been an issue at any point, and were usually quick and and easy. However.. our exit from Croatia into Bosnia wasn't as straight forward, and somewhat comical! After riding along the Croatian Coast for 20 odd kms, we punched up a winding, backroad 600m climb to reach the saddle, which was also the Bosnian Border. We didn't see a single car on this climb, just a couple of dead snakes, and sweeping views of the coastal islands. When we arrived at the saddle, we were greeted by Bosnian border control who were a little surprised to see us. The lady asked us where we were going to which we replied 'Mostar'. She looked at as as if we were crazy and said 'that's a very long way away' somewhat concerned. She then went on to tell us that the road ahead is closed due to rockfall and road works 'cars can't get through there'. Toby and I looked at each other a little concerend as we knew the other route into Bosnia was a huge backtrack and re-route that neither of us fancied. Toby asked 'is it illegal for us to ride the road?' to which she responded, 'it's not illegal, but I don't recommend it'. That was all we need to hear, bring on the adventure!

The road was epic, super remote, and lush. It was a funny feeling riding down the hill waiting to come across something that would turn us back, we were both mentally prepared to be hike-a-biking around washed out roads, or pedalling back up the hill the way we came with our tail between our legs, but it only ended up being a couple of diggers and trucks that were easy to navigate around and we were through! Job done, the risk paid off!

After a big 130km day in 36 degree heat we arrived in Mostar, which was one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. We hit up the old town, and eyed up the famous 20m high bridge over the Neretva river and once again said to each other... 'we would have jumped that back in the day' yeah right! The next day we took a rest morning and did a little bit of shopping at the first bike shop we'd found on the trip so far. Toby needed to replace his Ali Express rotors, and I needed to get a new GPS watch, as my Wahoo wasn't getting signal, so out with the old, in with the new Garmin Solar! A bit of a splash out, but buying the watch back in New Zealand would have been an extra 30% on top. Bosnian Bargains.... go on then!

That afternoon we began the next phase of our trip, into the Bosnian mountains! A short distance, but 1400m of climbing, was one of the most challenging yet rewarding days I've had on the bike. When we told the guys at the bike shop where we were going, they said 'good luck' and the 'the first part of the climb with f*** with your head.. it's dead straight and a solid 11% until it goes into the more manageable switch backs'. They were not wrong. It took me a while to get into the groove on this climb, but once we were settled in, I started to really enjoy plugging away up this beautiful climb that took us into a little farming village, Ruiste.

We found the most incredible wild campsite overlooking the back of an impressive mountain range we were once on the other side of.

I had been often making the comparison to 'shrek spec landscapes' with the meadows, rocks, and... well that's about it really, it made sense in my head! We rigged up our bivvy set up, which was bomb proof, flipping our bikes over, putting a small piece of inner tube around our front brakes (park brake) and ran a rope between our 2 front wheels to give us something to attach our bivvys too, and put a tarp over if we needed to. Elite level bike packing camping some might say!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

The next couple of days continued in similar fashion, and was some of the most remote riding we did. Chunky gravel roads, multiple punctures for yours truely, which lead to a fair amount of short term frustration I must say, but once I was back on the roads, it was happy days. We got another incredible night camping at 1500m overlook an epic canyon, and out towards where we had come from. It was so refreshing wild camping in these remote and quiet places, definitely a highlight of the Balkans for me.

Photos by: Toby Roberts

Mountain shepherd towns, local food, and friendly locals made for an epic few days in the hills. Despite the heat, access to water was never an issue, we'd always come cross running water coming out of hoses in the ground from natural springs, some that would flow into big concrete tubs which were just waiting for one of us to jump into.

Photo by: Toby Roberts

The capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo had become the final target for this part of the trip, as it was a place steeped in history, and also had a big bus station meaning we could get us and our bikes all the way to Italy on. Riding into Sarajevo was a rather cool way to end our time in the Balkans. I was ready to take a couple of easy days off the bike after a fair few punctures, and some chunky gravel, Sarajevo was a welcome sight!

Photo by: Toby Roberts

Photos above by: Toby Roberts

We spent 2 days in the city, exploring the 1984 Olympic Bobsleigh track, on our bikes of course, and meeting a couple of interesting locals, one in particular gave us a full 2 hour debrief on the history of Bosnia and a thorough insight to the political unrest of the country. These types of conversations were always super interesting, and an engaging way to learn about the places we were in. We were staying a couple of blocks down the road from where Franz Ferdinand got assassinated back in 1914, and they still had the car he was shot in, parked on the corner as a tourist sight to see.

Sarajevo was a very fitting place to finish our Balkans adventure, but we still had one challenge to work through before we could let our hair down and live our Venetian, spritz drinking dream that we'd had in our heads set on, first we needed to get our bikes on the busses. Our first bus was to Zagreb, Croatia, then we'd transfer to another bus to Venice. Sounds simple...

Bikes into bus mode

Sarajevo sight seeing innit'

The first geezers saw us as an opportunity to get an extra $10 cash for lunch to put our bikes on their bus after telling us 'Bikes are big problem!' once our were already tidily tucked away under the bus and had paid online for our bikes... We paid up and endured the 10 hrs to Zagreb where we received a fair amount of disappointed looks from the bus drivers just because we were cyclists... Our next bus was not much different, until Tobys eloquent Spanish came in handy when he managed to swoon the bus driver into liking us and making it a rather pleasant bus ride into Venice, Italy!

Ah Venice. You Beauty. We spent the day mooching around Venice, sipping on Spritz's, nipping in and out of shops, and joining the huge amounts of tourist doing exactly the same thing. We spent the day with our new mate Maddie who we'd met on the bus the day before, who made for some good chats and laughs.

Toby and I usually took out the prize for being the worst dressed humans anywhere we went that had any hint of tourism activity. The double Mons Royal, socks and fake Birkenstocks apparently isn't the 'in' fashion in Europe.. We lost count of the amount of disgusted looks we got at our Ali Express footwear especially in Istanbul and Venice. Ah well, we were on a bike parade not a fashion parade!

We finished our day in Venice, just the way the trip started in Istanbul. Up on the most famous bridge on the Island, leaning on the railing, people watching. Watching people go by on their boats, and enjoy their meals on the side of the canal. In almost a poetic way to end the first part of the trip, just after Toby almost dropped his phone into the canal, I lent over to get a good look at a fancy boat going beneath the bridge, and quicker than my 'five spritz deep' brain could comprehend, my sunglasses slipped off the top of my head and into the most famous canal in the world, never to be seen again.

The perfect day in Venice to finish an incredible trip through the Balkans, with memories that will stick around for a life time. The one thing that was left to do was figure out how Toby would get his bike and bike box to the airport from our guest house the next day before he flew home to see his family in England. I'd like to share the photo I received from Toby the next day on his way to the airport, whilst I was on the train to Milan. Not that I ever doubted Toby's creativity and ingenuity, but his solution to save $70 on an airport transfer was nothing short of genius. I'll let the photos do the talking.

So that was that. Toby was off home, and I was off to Milan on the train to begin phase 2 of my Europe bike packing adventure.

I went into this having done little research and route planning, and left that to the master bike packing planner Toby, who knocked it out of the park with getting this trip happening. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to do this trip with Toby. Being able to share that kind of experience with such a good friend is a very fortunate thing to experience for anyone.

The secret is out about the Balkans, and we weren't the first to ride bikes through there, and we definitely won't be the last... but it was our first time, and my first ever long bike tour trip. I had well and truly court the bug for the simplicity of bike packing, and gained a lot of mental and physical energy that would carry me through the next part of the trip.

The Balkans had it all for us. Big mountains, beautiful rivers, incredible coastlines, and extremely welcoming people, which together facilitated a very memorable mission, with a bloody good mate.