Serbia, Where, have coffee with me translates to come drink Snapps with me...

A great week here, friendlier more outgoing people and great getting off the beaten track. But back to summer weather, 35 degrees all week.
Campground to Cacak 65 km
A mixed first day that started off on a quiet road but soon joined a main highway. Drivers thinking nothing of overtaking coming towards us, as if we were not there... Lots of exiting into the gravel until we found some secondary roads. And just a few more tunnels... Our knee jerk reaction on seeing a train line at lunchtime was to get a ticket straight through and out but we opted instead to continue and find the quieter rds, which made for a much more enjoyable afternoon but we had to head back onto the busy road to find somewhere to sleep. There was a cheap motel right along the highway, great food with all the truckies stopping to eat and fitting, I thought,  watching Novak Djokovic win the US open tennis while in Serbia. They are very proud of him.
Cacak - Kraljevo 68 km
25 km on the busy highway then onto a local rd for the afternoon, we met a school teacher, Borac, who rode up behind us on his way home, he spoke quite good English and led us through the town then a stop for coffee, then to his place for Snapps, its compulsory to have at least 3... He had a basement apartment available and offered it to us for the night so after a restaurant meal we were set. We were ready to go at 8.15 when he dropped by on his way to school to pick up the key. Lovely friendly person who went out of his way to make our stay in his town memorable.  He was telling us there are not enough buildings at the schools for the students so they have half the students coming in the morning, the other half in the afternoon and no sign of that changing.  Again the people here seem to have little faith in their government but it does seem a little more prosperous than Bosnia.
A lot of buildings half finished though and abandoned as if the money has run out. Old decrepit cars, still a lot of Yugo cars made in the old Yugoslavia last made in 1981.
Kraljevo - Krusevac  80 km.
We took a parallel rural road which was interesting, small holdings growing produce, we overtook lots of tractors and trailers carrying the cabbages and red capsicums to market, everyone friendly, waving and smiling. Not a great day in the food ordering department, lost in translation again. The coffee did come in a big cup but was undrinkable, later we ordered lunch and got enormous bread buns, salad and then 2 meat patties nearly as big as bread and butter plates and an inch thick... Massive hamburgers, not quite what we expected.
We stayed right in the centre of Krusavac and enjoyed an evening out. The main street in the towns gets closed off to cars around 7 pm and becomes a walking only street, the people who live in the nearby apartments enjoying coffee, ice cream or beer,  shopping or watching cable TV, mainly sport, the Serbian basketball team was doing well in the euro league so everyone was out watching the game. Not a lot of restaurants, more fast food or takeaways, hamburgers, pizza, kebabs.  Nice looking people, most quite tall, but quite clearly a very mono culture.
It felt too hot to go anywhere the next day so we had a quiet day off the bike.
We heard the main road to Bulgaria and Sophie was really busy and lined with tunnels so we opted for the longer steeper border crossing more south.
Krusevac - Prokuplje 80 km
Country rds, we stopped for ice cream at a shop and the lady and elderly gentleman there were thrilled to bits to see foreigners. Coffee and photos and  maps being drawn and animated discussions took place. I think they believed if they repeated it over and over louder each time then we would eventually understand what they were trying to tell us. Luckily a sales rep dropped by,  she spoke English and translated, turned out the road we were on soon became a dead end and we needed to take a different rd which was under construction, so that was helpful and saved us unnecessary kms in what was a long hilly day.
The alphabet here is cryillic and makes the road sign reading really difficult, in the main cities it is written in English letters as well but not in the country places. It was hard to match our map with where we wanted to go but we figured it out, found a nice hotel and enjoyed another evening strolling the town with the locals.
More churches and old monastries to visit in this area.
Poorer as we went south, rubbish tips on the outskirts of villages just dumped anywhere. Basic housing and as usual lots of people stocking up on firewood. 
Prokuplje - Leskovac 73 km
Straighter flatter roads parallel to the new motorway but we decided it must have been a toll road as all the traffic was still on the road we were on! About 6 km from our stopping place, about 3 pm a guy on his way home from work cycled beside us and insisted we come to his place for coffee. His house was right beside the road and his wife and mother were there too. As well as his dog called Linda... A big house and section, lots of fruit trees and garden. So coffee first, followed quickly by Snapps and lots of food, tomatoes, Snapps,cheese, Snapps, walnuts, pears, more Snapps, it was hilarious, basically playing charades to communicate, he showed us his supply of home made Snapps, he had over 300 litres. More Snapps... it took a supreme effort to get away but was a very enjoyable couple of hours. On to the motel complex we were heading too, only to find it full with 2 bus loads of Polish tourists, "a very unusual situation" the chap in reception told us. The camping area was not very nice but we got talking to a Hungarian couple in a camper van, another half hour gone, then we moved a few hundred metres to look at the next accommodation option only to be stopped on route by a cafe owner, shouting us beer and trying to give us free food. I left Trevor happily being entertained for a bit and sorted a room at the next place before it too was full. So the last 6 km took us over 5 hours... But great fun.
Leskovac - Trans in Bulgaria 98 km
We had to spend all our Serbian money so stocked up on a few things at a village on route to Bulgaria and a few more potato pastries.  Another conversation with a local who told us the Serbians are used to being called the bad guys himself included even though he was only 10 when the war began. A legacy that seems will remain a long long time.
Then it was up, up and up, 30 km up. And tough. Amazing what we will do to avoid tunnels. Then a great fast 15 km down to the border crossing into Bulgaria about 4 pm. It was a Saturday, no money exchange places at the border and the first day of a 4 day national holiday. No banks open until Wednesday... Hmm... Hope they take euros...

Bosnia Herzegovina, 14000km and some scary days...

September 2015
Coatia to Bosnia, Plitvice to Bihac -35 km
The easiest border crossing so far, just a cruisy 15 km on a quiet road, no mountains or rivers to cross. Croatian and Bosnian officials side by side, exit one country enter the next. A little bit of excitement when a Dutch camper van driver knocked out the security camera, lots of raised voices and heated discussion but the guards with the guns held the power... Interesting to note the camper did not overtake us as we headed for our destination so it may have been turned back. He was being rather aggressive.
We arrived in Bihac, Checked out the tourist office, got an accommodation recommendation, exchanged some money then headed off to 'Grandma's place' . Actually I think it was more like Great Grandma's... Complete with sear sucker bed spreads on divan beds and a chain smoking worker retiling the bathroom. We had to ask him to leave everytime we needed to use it...But the lady was lovely bringing us bowls of grapes and numerous apples and offering us coffee.
Just 35 km in and the change is evident. The country has that unkempt look and feel, rubbish lying around, quite untidy looking. Stray dogs... Lots more houses with signs of  the war still apparent, unrepaired bullet holes and signs warning of land mines. (Photo) Much poorer than what we saw of Croatia. Cafes everywhere selling mainly coffee. It seems the poorer the country, the more unemployment, the more coffee houses and places for people to gather.
We wandered the town, Trevor found a dentist who replaced a filling for $10 euro. Quite upmarket premises and a lovely lady dentist.
Bosnia is mostly Muslim with a lot of Mosques but it does not seem to override their everyday life. Mostly the women do not wear the hijab (head covering), A European feel still exists.

Just 22 km up the road
It was raining when we left Grandma, she was very concerned that we would get wet, well that was my interpretation, she spoke as much English as we spoke Bosnian - zilch (these ex Yugoslavian countries all speak the same language) and she loaded us up with more apples...
We waited a while at a cafe then headed off about 11.30  slightly uphill into deteriorating weather, foggy misty cloud and driving rain. I felt really bad, the virus continuing to sap all my energy. Just 22 km and we happened upon a newly opened lodge that seemed pretty much in the middle of nowhere. That was my call to quit for the day. Beautifully appointed rooms, a hot shower and I slept all afternoon. Lucky Trevor had a book as there was no TV or WiFi and the generator went off at 10 pm to be replaced by candles... Also lucky we had enough food with us so we didn't need to eat at the overpriced (in our opinion) restaurant!
Near Bihac - Kljuc 75 km
Lovely breakfast then off we went into clearing skies. We were nearly at the top of the climb so it was flat cycling after that for most if the day. Not much traffic at all and not much along the way just farm and agriculture land. We seemed to have acquired the celebrity status once more, with kids waving and cars tooting. Only one hotel on the outskirts of town, there was noone there when we arrived but the bush telegraph must have worked because soon after the manager showed up, later in the evening another 2 couples checked in which was nice as it felt a bit odd being the only ones there.
Kljuc - Jajce 75 km
Again an easy day towards more of a tourist destination by a lake and an interesting area where there were lots of little huts/mills (photo) that were used in the past, the water powering the wheat grinding. A nice day and a campground near the lake so we stopped and set up camp.
Jajce - Travnik 80 km, Who let the dogs out??
We looked around the nearby town and old fort area, enjoyed the yummy pastries stuffed with potato, (apple pastries in Croatia, potato, meat or cheese here) and had a chat to a local, it seems they are a bit fatalistic about their country and government, not believing they can change anything or make a difference. Unemployment is really high, 30-40% , there appears to be no industry and they all say corruption is very bad. A lot of the Croatians who were living in Bosnia have moved to Europe looking for work now that Croatia has joined the EU. 
Then it was off through some awful tunnels on the way out of town and quite a climb later in the day. It is quite a hilly country with small roads up the valleys. Lots of scary dogs about. I have got better at stopping, yelling and picking up a rock, seems to work...although when there are a few of them together it is not nice. The traffic increased heaps when the road we were on joined another busier one. It was cooling down when we finally found a place to stay and dark when we headed out to eat about 7.30, Autumn seems to be on its way.
Travnik to Sarejevo 98 km
We left early, a real nip still in the air. The traffic was manic, a really built up industrial area that went for about 20 km with lots of trucks on the narrow rd. The drivers aren't bad - there is just no etiquette around cyclists because there are so few so they pass very close.  We rode on the footpaths whenever we could until we turned off onto what looked like it would be a quieter option. It was slightly better but no shoulder on the road so Trevor added half a tree to his bike (photo) to increase the distance between him and the vehicles. It seemed to help. They definitely had to slow down before overtaking. We made good time, stopping for lunch at a very local diner... we devoured a whole chicken and bread, they seem to cook everything here on a spit. A bit of a climb over a hill later then down towards the city of Sarajevo.
Trevors love (not!) of cities has not changed and he made murmurings of camping 15 km out of town! That seemed completely pointless to me so I had to drag him along right into the heart of Sarajevo. The road turned into a fast expressway for about 10 km which was a bit disconcerting but finally ended and we cruised along the bike path for another 10 km up to the old city and through what used to be known in the war as Snipers Alley. We found an apartment very close to the centre and only 25 euro so we were all set and enjoyed a wander around the old city later in the evening, although we were really tired, lots of gorgeous old buildings. It's not a huge city but quite long and narrow surrounded by hills. Interesting to visit given its past history and hearing about it over the years. (Photos)
There are many many grave yards all over the country similar to the one in the photo, they are the war cemeteries. So many young men died.
We did a bit of sightseeing, resting and eating the next day and I tried not to think too much about the tunnels I could see on the road leading out of the city... (photo)
Sarajevo - Gorazde 86 km
About an hour out of Sarajevo we decided we had had enough of Bosnia. We had ridden through 6 more very scary, long dark tunnels, more about them later...,  Trevor had attached another half a tree to his bike because traffic was bad and we were loaded up with stones to throw at the snarling dogs! But we were still a day and a halfs riding from the border with Serbia. Thankfully the road petered out to a quiet one and the dogs gave up.
After 45 km there was a choice of roads which 2 local guys discussed with us in detail,  25 km on gravel through a gorge with many long unlit tunnels or 35 km up and over a mountain. It was a no brainer for me, I was off towards the hill, Trevor finally followed trying to find out where the logic was in my decision making. I was confident I could ride the hill, but not sure I could face the stress of more tunnels. That's all the logic I needed! So up we went, a steep long but nice ride to a summit (photo) before winding down to the town. It was the kind of climb that really deserved a sign with a name at the top but there was none, it became to us the 'Col de No tunnels... ' We slept well, very tired and I was comforted with the fact that I had avoided many tunnels... Ignorance is bliss aye?
Gorazde to a campground in Serbia, 75 km
The first 15 km lulled us into a false sense of security, a nice ride then we crossed a river and headed up a narrow gorge.
It was deceiving at first, we could only see one tunnel at a time. After the first 2 which were both over a km long I really started to get anxious because by then I could see them all ahead.  There was no choice but to continue, no way were we going back to Sarajevo and no way was there any transport option through them, we had not seen a single pick up truck or ute over the entire week. Let me explain these tunnels. Some have a few lights near the entrance and exit then the lights are visible in the ceiling but do not go, some have no lighting at all. The odd one is lit sporadically all the way through but basically they are big black.holes in the rock. They vary in length, the shorter ones 300 - 400 metres, but a lot 800 metres plus and some over a km with corners to navigate.
We settled on a simple strategy early on, the faster you go the quicker you get through... The main stress is the noise, it doesn't matter which direction the cars or trucks are coming from, the sound reverberates from everywhere and it sounds as if there is a freight train coming right at you. Plus you feel invisible as it is so dark at times.
So picture this...
Sun glasses off...
Flouro jacket on...
Rear facing flashing red lights attached to bikes and helmets.
One bright night light that Trevor has to hold by hand to shine for both of us.
We wait, about 50 metres from the entrance, sometimes quite a while, for traffic to lessen or at least not to be coming right up behind us.
Ready set go and I hit the tunnel at speed going like the clappers, as if not only is there a freight train chasing but 5 rabid dogs, the adrenaline pumping and soon yelling, "shine the light, shine the light, its getting dark, I can't see... " and Trevor yelling "well you're going too fast, I can't hold the light and change gear at the same time, slow down, you are going 35 km per hour uphill... " then a car or truck or 3 whizz by not slowing down at all, scaring the living daylights out of us and this continues until we exit...
22 tunnels later...actually I lost count. What a morning, although I must say we did get a little more in sync the more we did. We were in the middle of one just before a town and a convoy of cars came into it towards us, a wedding party I think, blasting their horns, I think our ears are still ringing. Then a puppy decided to join us scampering along barking and yelling all the way through 3 tunnels, just what we needed, a little more mayhem! It took a long descent to get rid of him.
Not sure if the actual risk was as great as it felt but never the less it was very scary.
Finally out of what was actually a lovely scenic gorge and towards the Serbian border. No love lost between these countries, exit Bosnia/Herzegovina then it is another few kms to the Serbia border control. Onwards and up and up and what do we get to another tunnel, straight through the hillside, 898 metres.
Successfully navigated the other side opened out into a huge high plain and it was a quick downhill to a campground. A pear Snapps was poured on arrival, good thing it was too strong for me as after surviving that day I may have over indulged! I settled for the peppermint tea instead then we put up our tent amongst the pear trees.
So an interesting week, another country crossed, but definitely not a cycling paradise.