This year Territori4x4 has released a new Raid. It is the Balkan Raid, a journey through the countries from the former Yugoslavia, established in the Balkan area, with a whopping 30-odd participating cars.
Our adventure begins in Venice where the participants meet at the beginning of the day 09.08.09 to collect from Albert and Eduard the stickers, the mini-guide that, with very good judgment, Jordi has made and the roadbook of the first day.
Once the groups have been formed (some in advance, others by affinity, others by chance), the march begins. We must arrive in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The route takes the road until we cross the Italian-Slovenian border, but soon we take the track. A green track, which is the color that we will see throughout the day and throughout the trip. Completely surrounded by vegetation, the slopes disappear in the middle of lush beech forests.
Spectacular, mountainous landscapes, “orderly” villages, clean, full of flowers and orchards, where you can breathe a deep peace, except for the inopportune intervention of a local farmer who is bothered by our presence, blocking the road with his truck. Jordi Tobeña and Albert Margarit had extra work this day.
Before arriving in the capital, we visit Lake Bled, a summer resort for the locals, where regattas are classic.
The visit to Ljubljana is made at dusk, which allows us to enjoy the “chill-out” atmosphere throughout the city center.
After dinner, the organization proposes a meeting that will become a must every day, we take stock of the day, roadbooks for the next day are distributed and what awaits us in the next stage is explained.
The good organization and the delivery of roadbooks the day before by the organization facilitates the good and independent march of the participants, which is appreciated when it comes to such a large group of cars.
The morning of 10.08.09 was spent visiting the Postojna caves and Predjama Castle. The visit to the caves is made on a train that runs through the upper galleries, in a 5km stretch of a total of 20km that can be visited. With a temperature of 8ºC, the visit is pleasant.
Predjama Castle, carved into the rock, belonged to the local Robin Hood, one Erazem Lueger.
The entrance to Croatia takes a while to wait at customs. This is how these times will be from now on, generally between one and two hours to stamp passports, check car data and pay a tax at the occasional customs.
Upon arrival in Rijeka, the group is divided into two hotels, as the parking lots are small and will be able to accommodate the crowd of participants of the Balkan Raid. We take the opportunity to take a swim in the Adriatic before visiting the city.
Today, 11.08.09 we will visit the lakes of Plitvice National Park, but this will be in the afternoon. We have the whole morning to enjoy the slopes that border the Adriatic Sea, which offer us breathtaking views, to arrive after lunch at Plitvice National Park. The visit lasts approx. 3 hours, a winding path next to the lakes, to be able to appreciate well the waterfalls of almost azure blue water, clean, transparent.
We head to Bihac, a Bosnian city where we will sleep and rest for tomorrow’s stage.
We woke up wanting to raft. It’s all about having a good time rafting (quite gentle, very gentle) down the Una River. Needless to say, we paddle a lot, but we laugh even more and get each other much wetter.
Rafting causes the separation of groups. Those who do not go rafting start early in the morning with the scheduled route. The others, we have to wake up a little more.
We head to Vitez, we are shocked by the presence of signs at the foot of the track alerting us to the danger of mines, signs that will often be repeated when driving through Bósnia.
The route, fantastic, of impressive beauty, only tarnished by the mishap suffered by the Toyota FJ, which in the end is reduced to a scare. Here we must applaud the work carried out by the mechanics of the group. An excellent job.
Already recovered from the fright, we slept in Vitez.
We left early in the morning of 13.08.09 to visit Sarajevo, its Olympic facilities and arrive in Mostar with enough time to visit this city that really shrinks the heart because it is when you visit it that you realize what wars are capable of.
Before that, however, we quickly visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Although the city is almost completely rebuilt, here we begin to realize what its inhabitants must have suffered a few years ago. The marks of bullets and bombs can still be seen on the facades of the buildings that were left standing.
Despite being a cosmopolitan and modern city, the view is diverted to those buildings, without being able to avoid it.
Near the capital is the venue for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Games. The summit is accessed by a narrow, stony and very steep track. The views that are dominated from the top of the ski resort are breathtaking. The valley is fantastic, a totally green blanket, dotted with winding tracks where from time to time you see a cart loaded with hay for the animals, some farmers who collect grass and wood to spend the winter, or the shepherds who with all their courtesy ask us (how can they or how can we understand, although sign language has no borders) where we are going, or where we are from. People very interested in talking to us, very friendly and very smiling.
They never deny us a possible photo, and if they can they even invite you to drink their cherry liqueur.
And finally, Mostar. A stunning city. If Sarajevo has already shocked us, the truth is that Mostar has left our hearts totally shrunk. It is here, in this city, divided by the Neretva River, that one can really realize the useless sufferings that human beings are sometimes able to endure just because of the political, religious or ethnic differences of the inhabitants of the same country.
This city is also where the coexistence that these countries from the former Yugoslavia have today is best reflected. The skyline shows us an endless number of bell towers of Christian churches, neighboring the minarets of the mosques, which is shocking to us.
If you have the courage to enter any of the destroyed houses, you will still be able to see the bags of earth that used the locals as trenches to defend themselves from attacks.
The old bridge is rebuilt. But, as we have said before, the echoes of war coexist in this city with the modernity of its people.
Dubrovnik, one of the most charming cities in Croatia, is our next destination. So after visiting the city of Mostar again in daylight we headed towards Dubrovnik, one of the most important tourist centers on the Adriatic Sea. On the way we stop to visit the endearing little village of Pocitelj, and while we negotiate the curves of the coastal road, we stop to eat fish in a local restaurant that is well worth it.
Dubrovnik is a walled city, completely rebuilt since the end of the conflicts. “The Pearl of the Adriatic”, a World Heritage Site. Stroll through its narrow streets as the sun sets, have a few drinks on the terrace just outside the wall, with the brackish scent of the sea, a pleasant feeling.
They say that laughing out loud before going to sleep helps you fall asleep. That night all of us who took the bus to the hotel with Josep Mº (from Quim’s group) will have to thank him that the next morning we all woke up like roses. If not, ask him.
Despite the fact that 15.08.09 was a day off, all the participants unanimously decided to visit the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. One of the most impressive bays, the southernmost fjord in Europe.
The diversity of countries forces us to cross border after border, patiently waiting in lines at customs. We leave Dubrovnik (Croatia), pass through the ghost towns (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and arrive in Montenegro.
We cannot miss the visit to the ghost towns in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which we access by an abandoned train track. As it is a one-way road for about 20km approx, it forces us to organize ourselves in an orderly way, creating a meeting place in the old station where all the groups constantly communicated by radio station meet, with an excellent moderator like Albert. The visit to the abandoned villages transports us again to the cruel reality of a war, especially when we arrive at the village of the “hanged man”, an inexplicable sensation when we turn the curve and have a first glimpse of a mannequin hanging from a tree. Symbol for the next Croatian commandos that arrived in the village, proof that all the inhabitants had been annihilated. We still have goosebumps and a chill in our bodies.
We reach Kotor on high mountain tracks and the view offered by its bay compensates for the lost moments. The city, surrounded by walls, offers us a refreshing ice cream in its main square.
Now it’s time to head towards the ferry that will allow us to cross the bay and return to Dubrovnik. Although the roadbook sends us on the mountain side, we allow ourselves the freedom to take the coastal route, which makes it easier for us to admire the life of the Adriatic coast more closely.
We return to Dubrovnik almost at dusk, being able to admire from the heights of the adjoining mountain the “pearl of the Adriatic” at night, with its illuminated wall, the dim lights of the boats docked in its bay.
We leave Croatia to enter Montenegro. Truly inexplicable. We never tire of admiring the landscape, completely wild, although dotted with inhabited houses, which surprises us a lot, since life here must not be easy. It is an inhospitable place, at an altitude of 2500m. This landscape fills us with peace, a pleasant feeling of well-being, so much so that if it were not for the fact that we have the hotel booked, the whole group agrees that staying overnight at the top of Durmitor Park would be a surprising experience.
Before arriving at our fantastic SPA Hotel today, we stop to take photos from the top of the bridge that crosses the Tara River and admire, although it will be a panoramic view, the famous Tara River Canyon.
After a succulent breakfast at the 5* Hotel we begin the stage in which we will enter Albania, a country totally unknown to Europeans due to the isolation it has suffered from the communist regime of Hoxha for many years.
We cross the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, a whole labyrinth of streets that the roadbook reveals corner after corner. We are struck by the color of its houses, the streets full of life, and the disparity of people living together in the same space.
On the way to Shköder we visit the Monastery of Moraca. Nice, but very touristy. As Jordi Tobeña would say, correct.
Finally we arrived in Shköder, where the next day we visited its castle of Rozafat, a fortress quite deteriorated today, but good views of the city.
Today’s stage is quite relaxed, with the intention of being able to reach Tirana, capital of Albania at a reasonable time and be able to visit it without haste.
On the way we visit the town of Krüje, where Sakandenberg Castle, a national hero born here, awaits us.
The center of the capital Tirana is visited in a short time. Actually, everything interesting is located around Skanderbeg Square. That’s why we decided to leave the center. It doesn’t cost us too much. Two streets away and it looks as if we have changed cities. Gloomy apartment blocks, without balconies, typical of communist countries, narrow streets, water tanks on the facades, …… pure communism.
20.08.09- In yesterday’s meeting the Organization of Territori 4×4 proposed to us to carry out today’s stage in two different versions. Either the Albanian Central Trail (a 100 km route that takes 12 hours, crossing Albania through the mountains in the center of the country) or another quieter route to reach Lake Ohrid.
Unanimously, all participants sign up for the Albanian Central Trail. We can’t miss it, although we don’t have them all with us.
The route passes through steeply sloping tracks, river beds with stones of a considerable size, descents on practically vertical mountain slopes, where the trucks of woodcutters of the locals cannot make the turn, so, as Tobeña says, they make the descent to the Albanian. A head-on section and the next reverse, as we explained it, we also tried it.
It was great. Long, slow, with mud in some sections, although we enjoyed it like Cossacks.
We were lucky enough to be able to make contact with a group of lumberjacks while we were eating. Friendly people, hard work, collecting wood for the winter that must be hard, although now in summer we were very hot. Perhaps the hottest day of the whole trip. After the route we go directly to the hotel (in Ohrid, Macedonia) as we have spent the whole day doing these 100km.
We are coming to the end of the journey. Although tomorrow we will head towards Greece, to the Meteorae, half of the group will head towards Serbia, Belgrade, to make the return by car via Venice.
So this will be our last dinner together, our last meeting together, but we have the memories of the good times lived, of the laughter, of the scares (fortunately few) so we open a bottle of cava to celebrate having met and toast to future outings together, because this is really promising.
The visit to the Meteoras is done in a short time, as we arrive almost at noon and without wasting too much time we head to Igoumenitza to take the ferry back to Ancona (Italy).
I would like to thank all the participants of the Balkan Raid for their good disposition thus making it an unforgettable trip. My special mention to our travel companions Pepita, Maite, Francis and Josep Mº for the good time they have given us.
Elsa Roura.
