Sorry about that - was crook this morning so didn't finish the blog. This is meant to be read as a follow on from the other one sent from Graz this morning...

As I rode out through Bosnia I rode past hundreds, if not thousands of destroyed houses. Many looked as if they were damaged more than 14 years ago, but I couldn't help thinking about what happened to the inhabitants.

At Dobroj I turned on to the main road into Croatia. Immediately I noticed many more international number plates and even some motorcyles. I stopped at a supermarket for breakfast and it felt good to be in a western feeling environment.

I liked the look of the fortress at Dobroj so stopped and inspected it. It was smaller than the castles I had seen in other countries, but still held a commanding position on the landscape and would have served to keep a lot of people in or out depending on the time. There were three young people employed there to welcome tourists, however the entrance was almost impossible to find. Furthermore I had to park the bike on the side of the road adjacent to an abandoned pair of houses with household rubbish spilling onto the street. Understandably there were not many people in the fortress. I did enjoy talking to the knight and his beautiful princess, who kindly made me a coffee.

On toward the border and I had a minor incident. I was lane splitting as usual and as I shot past a small old car taking off, it veered to the right and I felt the bike wander right a little as it glanced off the car's fender. I cut that one a bit fine, must leave a bigger gap next time!

The ride through Croatia was uneventful - the most spectacular part of the country appears to be the Adrtiatic coast. I passed by Zagreb and continued toward what I thought was Austria, meaning to stay the night in Graz.

The police had other plans though. I think they were doing some sort of traioning exercise for emergencies, as I saw something about it on the TV at night - couldn't understand what they were saying though. Basically they shut off the entire motorway on a Sunday afternoon and diverted thousands of cars, trucks and at least one motorcycle, through several small towns until we eventually came to a border crossing. I asked a policeman if this was Austria and he said it was, before giving me a map of Slovenia and showing me our location.

I rode on northwards but took a wrong turn and ended up staying the night at a tennis camp (only two courts) and it is there I think I ate something not good.

I felt pretty wasted in the morning so took the shortest route to Graz, booked a room and stayed here two nights.