A Bridge Too Far

We had been staying in the fortified city on the Croatian coast of Dubrovnik (claimed by our Kiwi friend, Stacey, to be named after a well regarded local, Brother Nicolas – The Brother Nic or “Du-brov-nik” in local dialect). This is where we finished our backpackers cruise of the coastal islands and made the most of the final days of our summer campaign. Lazy days enjoying sun and clear waters.

We took a day trip up to Mostar in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Neretva river. It is most famous for Stari Most or the “Old Bridge.”

The bridge was originally built by the Ottomans in the 16^th century and still today the town has distinctly Muslim and Christian neighbourhoods. In 1993, after standing for 427 years, regional war and its artillery shells finally got the better of it. In a book store just near the bridge we watched a video of the war that focused on the destruction and restoration of the bridge in 2004. It resisted a good deal of punishment before collapsing into the river, many shells just bounced off it.

The local lads started throwing themselves off it no doubt as soon as the foreman turned his back over 400 years ago. The 21-25 metre freefall, depending seasonal fluctuations in river levels and who’s word you take, separated the men of the town from the boys. On the drive up our guide, Gabriel, explained the river is snow melt and given that Mostar is considered the hottest city in the country with summer temps regularly in the 40+ deg C range, the shock of sudden immersion at over 55km/h into the icy waters further adds to the risks. Wikipedia states “only the most skilled and best trained divers will attempt it”. Of course since its reconstruction that hasn’t stopped fool-hearty tourists from having a crack, including Oz TV’s Hamish and Andy.

Gabriel stated we wouldn't be doing the jump on his tour. Before releasing us for a few hours of free time, he took us for an orientation of the town, but I wasn’t paying too much attention, my mind was on other things. Trying not to let the gravity of it all sink it I made my way back to the bridge and the diving club. A quick chat and I was 10 meters up on the “screening” platform to test my bravely. Two jumps, some instruction on stomping the landing with strong legs and I was apparently ready. 

My jump instructor (who claims to have placed in the Red Bull dive competition held here a few years back) advised me to focus my mind on only the bridge, the river, and me. As I stepped up over the rail, sun in my eyes, a crowd of gawking day-trippers growing around me, my mind was anything but focused. Others had done it, I was here now, I had done my "training".  What was I thinking?!?! But my plan always just that - best not to think about it too much. And so off I went. 

Signed into the jump book as the 1011th to take the drop.

 

Some colour for my troubles

French Revolutions pt 1 - Scope and Approach

We had to ride from the French boarder to Sans Sebastian in Spain. It was hot. Insanely hot and the road steep. We were bothered and on edge. The unsympathetic traffic roaring by 3 foot away on the highway unnerving Anne didn’t help either. High-noon sun reflected off the black tarmac doubling its relentless 35 degree intensity. It sapped our strength, patients and the will to push on with the loaded push bikes up the endless incline. This was the halfway point of a leg of about 20km but our most challenging of entire trip given the hills and navigation difficulties. And did I mention the midday heat? Thankfully it would be the last time after seven weeks of cycling that we had to ride with fully loaded bikes. I focused on a swim at the beach, the first "proper ocean-side beach" since leaving Australia over three years ago.

I’m aiming to blog the cycling touring portion of our trip in several entries starting with an overview of our plan and approach. Hopefully this will give readers context for future posts that will cover specific regions, accounts of our gear or experience with the French rail network for example.

Our plan was several weeks living off our bikes in regional France. Anne had ideas of country fields bursting with sunflowers, rolling hills of sprawling vineyards, fine food, bubbling wine, and fairy tale castles with wonderland gardens. The final two weeks were my main concern, getting some quality off road riding in the Basque hills of Spain followed by big mountain riding in the French Alps.

Basque Coast - Photo by Doug @ http://www.basquemtb.com/

The approach involved living off our bikes in campsites and the occasional hotel or home stay. I wanted to take my own mountain bike despite it being a compromise for traditional cycle touring. Even if it meant the occasional hard slog, it took about two minutes and the bike was fit to hit any local trails in the vicinity or test itself in alpine conditions. Fortunately, we had no intention of racking up excessive miles with fully loaded bikes, instead would set up for a period and use the unloaded ‘clean’ bikes to extent the range of our day trips. Trains were used to cover vast distances stringing one region to the next so we could see much of what France had to offer the cyclist. 

Itinerary

Start

Overnight ferry from Portsmouth, England to St Malo, France

Week 1

Pontorson, Brittany to see Mount Saint Michael

Bayeux, Normandy to visit D-day landing beaches

Mezidon, Normandy to ride the Route de Cidre

Week 2

Amiens, Normandy to visit WWI Australian memorials and cemeteries

Epernay, Champagne

Week 3

Side trip to Poland for a friends wedding

Week 4

Tours and the Loire Valley

Week 5

The city of Bordeaux

Week 6

San Sebastian, Spain for beaches and serious back country mountain biking

Week 7

Les Gets, French Alps for ‘bike park’ riding in the big mountains

End

Transfers and flight back to UK via Zurich 

Bike Setup & Gear

James

Rose Granite Chief - Full suspension ‘All Mountain’ with 150mm of travel, hydraulic disk brakes

Tyres - Continental Mountain King II, 2.4in

Baggage

-        2x 20 litre rear panniers on a seat-post mounted rack, 10kg limit

-        20 litre Klicfix bar mounted basket, 7kg limit

-        20 litre cycle-specific backpack

Anne

Ghost Miss 1200 - Entry level mountain bike, basic front suspension, V-brakes

Tyres – Continental Traffic, 2.1in

Baggage

-        2x 20 litre rear panniers and 3kg tent on rear rack

-        Klicfix Bar mounted handbag

-        20 litre cycle-specific backpack

Day 1. St Malo train station after disembarking ferry at 8am 

The full suspension design of my bike imposed limits to my load capacity so Anne was the designated mule and carried the tent in additional to tools and spares.

For navigation we used a Smartphone and French sim card loaded with adequate data allowance for Google maps. France has may cycle specific routes so our extended day trips did not require complex navigation. However in the cities or making our way from train stations to accommodation, Google Maps and old-school map-to-ground did the trick.

For shelter we aimed for a 3kg limit. We went with a lightweight 3 man expedition tent, the Octane 3 by Blacks, plus a small 2x2 meter tarpaulin to line the “awning” floor. There’s lighter and cheaper options on the market but the extra space for a minimal weight penalty made sense. About 3.3kg all up. Also in the interests of space and weight, we invested in quality down sleeping bags, 600g each, plus silk liners for comfort at close to freezing conditions. Apart from a neat collapsible silicon kettle, our kit was the usual basic, low weight, simple gear. Although not self-inflating and a little extra effort to pack away, the six-chamber blow-up air mats we opted for were a good mix of weight, space, comfort and cost. All panniers but the one holding spares, tools, and miscellaneous items, were rated as waterproof.

That's all for the first post. Hopefully I’ll get posts up on riding in the Alps and Spain shortly for my fellow mt-biking and action enthusiasts.

If you got any further questions or points of discussion just let me know.

James