Alen tells me that there is nothing much to see if I head north towards Hungary and I should head to a town call Travnik and Jajce north west of Zenica. Travnik is well known for its old fort and blue water spring and Jajce is famous for a waterfall within the city. So last night I was conflicted on which direction I should go. To Budapest and follow the Danube cycle route to Basel or towards Zagreb and see what happens. One is predictable and safe the other is totally the opposite. I planned to sleep over it.
Next morning I woke up to winter wonderland. There was a snow dump last night and it is the first time in my tour so far that I have seen snow. After checking the weather the report seems to indicate that it will be grey, snowing and cold. I did not want to stay one more day as the forecast for the week isn’t any better so I decided to push on regardless. But where.
After a nice breakfast of local goat and smoke cheese and toast, I made up my mind to Travnik and be unpredictable and see what happens. There are two ways to get to Travnik one is along the river which means a highway or one across the mountain via a rural route which is shorter by 9KM. Guess which route I took ? The mountain one of course since it’s shorter. Who cares if there’s climbing involved. What goes up must come down right ?
Well it was tough and messy. The climb was alright but with the overnight snow dump there is still a fair bit of snow on the road and I get an ocassionaly splat of wet grimey snow from passing vehicles. The bonus is there was some incredible vistas all round from snow covered rooftops of quaint villages against a stunning backdrop of white capped mountains. This was worthwhile.
After about 15 or 16 KM of climbing to the peak of around 800m, downhill ! The downhill was quick and thankfully not too uncomfortable even though it continued to snow here and there.
I stopped for half an hour in a coffee shop right after the downhill to warm up.
Eventually I reached the town of Travnik in time for lunch. I had the best meat Burek ever. It was fresh from the wood fired pan and was fantastic. I had it with a yoghurt drink like the locals. After that I went to look for the blue water spring and then visited the old fort. The fort was closed by the time I got there so I only managed to see it from the outside.
After that I went to shop for my dinner and ate something simple before turning in for the night. The forecast for tomorrow seems to be good. Well not sunshine but at least no snow or rain. It will be around 70 KM to Jajce via the river and valley and 41KM via the mountains. Guess which route I took ? Stay tuned tomorrow.
Lions Project : RM 235.20
Reflective Saddle 