Seven countries, one loaded bike: cycling the Trans Dinarica from Rijeka to Mavrovo
We are publishing the story of Coen de Jong, who cycled from the Netherlands to Rijeka in Croatia, where he joined the Trans Dinarica cycling route on his way to Mavrovo in North Macedonia. Another story that reads differently from the others, just as every traveler experiences their journey differently. But all your stories have one thing in common: enthusiasm for nature and people. Are these two things or can we say that man and nature are so inextricably intertwined that we can speak of one? Anyway, Coen, thank you for your contribution and good luck on your new adventures!
I picked up the Trans Dinarica in Rijeka, Croatia in July, two months into a longer trip. My bike carries around 20 kilograms across six bags, a Garmin, and both a gas stove and a Trangia alcohol burner. That second option felt like overkill until I reached the Balkans, where pharmacies reliably stock 96% ethanol and gas canisters are a matter of luck.
Worth noting: I rode the TD in reverse, starting from Sarajevo rather than the southern end, because I had already cycled through Montenegro and Albania the previous year. It works perfectly well in either direction, though it does mean some of the stage descriptions in the navigation pack read backwards.
Emptiness in Croatia, mountains and meeting locals in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Croatian section immediately showed what the route is about. Past Križišće it drops onto gravel along the Dubračina river, almost no cars, exactly what you came for. From there it climbs into the hills above the Kvarner bay rather than the D8 with all the summer traffic, and the roads are so quiet that during a half-hour lunch break near Senj a single car passed. The air smelled of sage. The Velebit and Dinara sections that followed were hotter, rougher, and better, the spring at Vrelo Cetine in particular, a blue-green source the locals call the Eye of the Earth.
Northern Velebit National Park, Croatia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina raised everything: the mountains, the heat, and the human encounters. The climb to Prokoško Jezero (lake) at 1.670 meters is listed as a secondary road on the map. In practice it is steep and rocky, with passenger cars picking their way up at roughly cycling speed and no mobile signal at the top. A man at the entrance quoted me an admission fee. I mentioned I had cycled up. He waved me through.
In Fojnica I had coffee with Thierry, a Dutch national living in Bosnia and one of the people behind the TD’s development. Understanding the reasoning behind the route’s choices made the riding feel different afterwards. Then a descent to Klotjevac in fading light that deserves a plain warning: steep, loose, long. I came off the bike. My left hip had opinions about it for a week.
Serbia opened with Tara National Park, where a single day covered 1.300 meters of climbing on gravel that had largely reverted to riverbed. The Uvac gorge later that week, where griffon vultures work the thermals above a meandering canyon, is the section I think about most. South of Sjenica, looking for somewhere to camp, I ended up in a farming family’s yard. Through Google Translate, a camping request became dinner, a shower, and a breakfast parcel handed through a car window by a grandfather on his tractor the following morning.
Uvac Canyon, Serbia.
The worst and the best of what Trans Dinarica offers
The route continued through Kosovo and into North Macedonia, where the Sharri Mountain National Park delivered what might have been the hardest single stretch of the entire trip. The first eleven kilometers out of Popova Šapka took five hours. I had to detach my rear bags and carry them separately up one section because the slope was simply too steep to push a loaded bike. But at 2.000 meters you are on an alpine meadow with wild horses, herd dogs, silence, and no one else. Then sixty kilometers of forest gravel, almost completely flat, barely a soul, pure flow. Two days that contained the worst and the best of what TD offers, sometimes within the same hour.
The final stage ended at Mavrovo Lake. I swam before the temperature made that a questionable idea, pitched my tent, and a German couple nearby passed over their leftover rice. A good place to say goodbye to the TD before continuing east into Turkey. The route had taken me through seven countries, over mountain ranges I could not have found on my own, and into the homes of strangers who had no reason to be that generous. I will be back for the southern leg through Montenegro and Albania. But that is a different trip.
One honest note for anyone planning this: the harder stages are harder because the terrain genuinely earns it, which is not always true of hard cycling routes, but is consistently true here.
Prokoško Lake, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bike & gear:
- Bike: Santos Travelmaster 2.6 (26”)
- Tires: Rene Herse 26″ x 2.3″ Humptulips Ridge TC
- Gear:more traditional bike touring setup. Two rear panniers (Ortlieb), two Ortlieb fork packs, MSR Hubba Hubba NX 2p tent on the back rack along with laundry, sitting pad and even a foldable chair. Space for ± 3,5L of water in various bottle cages, stored in 1-2L plastic bottles and Camelbak podium insulated bidons.
My full gear list can be viewed on packwizard.com.
