After 4 Star luxury we are preparing to travel into Bosnia…we're unsure what lies ahead... On the road again… we just can’t wait to be on the road again! Ros – doing her preparations to be first rider of the day Three and a half hour ride ahead! We hit the 5000mile mark on the odometer!...and we celebrated in 37.5 degree heat on the motorway We were pleased! Until… Toll road! …but we managed this time…no issues. This police bike followed us after doing a U turn at the toll road previously…Pol checked the GPS to see the speed to follow...finally he overtook us in a 30km zone and sped off. We rode past a remote looking little villiage to find… …To find modern day construction site… …which turned out to be a border crossing! This is the Croatian side…which we just showed our passports to…they stamped out exit and we slowly moved forward…. …to find a mean looking Bosnian border guard….he wanted our passports and for the first time on this trip, our motorcycle insurance paper… Ros was slightly ******** it as we showed the mean looking border dude our insurance papers and he said that we did not have a “green paper/card”….and that it would cost us 15 Euros if we wanted to purchase insurance so we can enter Bosnia…. So he directed us to a house that lies direcly inbetween the 2 border crossings where a lady came out (with minimal English) and asked us for 5 Euros for insurance…we still don’t know what we paid for! Pol was really excited to enter Bosnia… we presented the insurance paper to the border guard and had our passports stamped…on the road again! Bosnia: A car yard in the middle of a neighbourhood! There were so many fruit stalls (especially watermelon)!!!! We wanted to buy one but had 2 issues at this time; 1) we did not have Marks on us and 2; we were not sure how to carry a really big watermelon on the bike!! Then a slight hiccup: The GPS ran out of battery (sometimes the GPS power connection from the bike to the GPS does not work)….we had to manually hold the GPS connector in the bike with one hand for the GPS to charge and turn on again…when we turned it on it had to be completely rebooted – and search for current location etc which takes 10 or so mins….finally…we managed to find that we were headed in the wrong direction..did a U turn and Ros had the idea of taping the GPS cable and connector so we can have constant power to the GPS in stead of having to hold it in place…BRILLIANT IDEA!! (at one stage when pol was doing low gear manouvering, Ros had to reach over and hold the wiring to keep the GPS charging!!!!!) Ros looking for the duct tape… WELLA! Sorted! The GPS settings completely reset so we had to figure out how to get our old settings back (including metric measurements!) …on the road again: 38.5 Degrees!!! The roads at some points were not so great… Ros wondered why it would take us around 3 hours to travel 240ks…the roads!! Intersection – lucky Ros slowed down – there were 2 trucks taking this corner pretty wide 39 degrees! (Apartments overlooking a cemetery…less rent?) …only in Bosnia! Fruit stall central! Which one to go to? The roads were so good to ride on here and the sweeping bends opening up to show mountains on one side and water on the other! A little bit of old… …mixed in with the new This road is a little hard to ride on … very slippery and you get stuck in grooves...feels like the bike is taking over steering control!!! Navigation system – only by pillion! Traffic was…challenging…at times. Very slow. Some houses we found were not fully built…but people seemed to be living in them …then we hit roadworks… We hoped to God that there was no one oncoming around this bend...luckily there wasn’t! Then…the GPS took us… …and…then… Small street… ..and seemingly; a dead end… …so we turned around and headed back. The GPS registered this part of town as the town center of Konjic ..more road works and tight streets! (Famous town bridge) We spotted a café by the river and decided to stop and see if we could find accommodation via internet….the dude on the left directed us to that parking spot – even though we found an easy one to get to on the other side of the road…this one was a little tricky getting up a pedestrian crossing and sharp left…but we did it! This dude helped also when we left to ensure there was no traffic coming through a sharp bend we couldn’t see down. English is very limited around these areas. Pol can understand some of what they are saying…Russian is also a Slavic language. At this stage we didn’t have any reception or WIFI available so Pol did some blogging while Ros enjoyed a beer before heading off again toward somewhere where WIFI could be accessed! Found somewhere! We stopped at a Hotel with a restaurant attached and had a drink and used their WIFI… Ros found this place…about 20 mins away… (pics on the way to our accommodation): This truck driver pulled over and waved us through. Nice dude! We found many derelict buildings ...and wild dogs!! These roads were narrow and it started to rain slightly… …and then stopped just as soon as it started. …we were very careful through sharp bends….a lot of cars did not stay on their side of the road!! Ros parking at our accommodation! Check out the views!! This place is next to a pretty big guides camp and we heard dance music coming from it all afternoon and into the evening!! There was dinner available at the accommodation…and given it was already early evening we headed straight down – We bought these koalas at Perth airport before we left…and only put these two on our bikes today! (First time we used the GO PRO on our trip too – because both camera batteries were dead by this stage) Testing out Go Pros selfie…although we cant see what the pics look like until we transfer the photos to the computer!! Quick little walk around the lake (Jezero)..the clearest water ever…: (we found some bottled water to buy along the way too – the water that was coming out of our tap in our room was not clear - it was white!) Ros – checking out the temp of the water – not too bad apparently Dinner – The couple that own this accommodation also cook for guests and tonight is traditional fire pizza night!!!! (pic blurry …we realised after transferring pics to the computer that we need to hold the Go Pro a little longer as pics are being taken otherwise they turn out like this one!!) (blurry – yes…but here’s the table – all tables were full and it was such a nice night – just talking, drinking and eating!) When we finished up we went back to our room to find a giant grasshopper which Pol was terrified of and Ros was nearly terrified of…Ros unwillingly and finally (after half an hour with a towel) got it out! (Thanks Ros!) The next day… Today we planned on going down to the Jezero lake early for a swim…but were hampered by our wake up time and indecisiveness about what to do exactly today and when… We had also planned a trip to Lukomir - one of the highest and remote villiages in Bosnia So…to Lukomir we head…without a swim…and without breakky…so we stopped at a random hotel on the way to Lukomir (which was 2 hours away!!!!!!!) Pol went nuts with the Go Pro (taking almost 600 shots in a day!) On the way to breakky: Ros spotted a donkey in an old building as we passed it and had no time to take a pic…..so we decided to turn around because there won’t be many of these opportunities to take pics of… …turns out...it was a cow...in a building! …and then….behind us… …There was another cow! And then… …there was a calf…followed by… another calf… And then… ...There was a problem; 1) The cow was inspecting the bike and had calves 2) There was a bull inside the building behind the bike 3) The cow was stomping her front leg at us 4) We had no way of getting to our bike 5) The first cow was showing signs of interest in what was happening outside 6) We didn't have much cow experience between us to know exactly what to do 7) Pol didn’t end up recording this as she forgot the cameras memory card in the computer. …so Ros made a run for it to the hills and pol hid behind an old building…luckily…we both had our helmets on and Bluetooth working so we were speaking to each other…Pol saw that the cow was headed toward Ros and was away from the bike…so Ros ran around a building to the bike and jumped on and rode toward Pol…pol jumped on. Phewf. Pol has never seen Ros jump on a bike and start it up before riding off so quickly before – dust rose behind her! Issue averted…on our way to breakky before Lukomir…Awesome scenery… ...and narrow roads Crazy Bosnians/Croats/Serbs! …think we over ordered! …but we managed to eat it all!! The police car turned up after us – and clearly was not so great at parallel parking! To Lukomir: Busy town centre – filtering time! We felt sorry for these travellers – we get stuck like that when we have panniers on too! Anything goes in the city center! Open spit – Bosnian equivalent to fast food outlets! The melons…so big! These stick things were everywhere in the countryside…we yet have to figure out what they are Rooftop pool ..some really nice bends – no side barriers – kind of like bowling with the sides down! …then we see a lot of cars…and pedestrians… …markets! There was some police presence here too – check out the armoured van! Ros paid 1 Euro for this made in Turkey singlet! So much meat!! Whole chickens – and meat! So many people but we managed to make our way through in the heat… Getting closer to Lukomir: The paved road ends… …and it gets a little gravely… Ros – going into rigormortis – gravel getting loose and it feels like we’re on a snow sled The GPS is now saying we have around 11k’s to go…and we can’t see the village…and not getting anywhere anytime soon.. the GS is taking a slight beating on the rocks We did think of going on the grass but there were rocks in it too… Still… no sign of the old villiage – definite sign the road isn’t going to get any better… ….getting closer… One relieved Ros. We’re here!! Pol’s happy to get off the bike… We were called over by an old lady sewing socks…who sold Pol these for 15Euros…we didn’t have the heart to barter with her but we bet shes the highest paid knitter in town! This villiage lies close to the edge of the cliff – It was a hot day and walking up to the top took a little effort…we are so glad we decided to go through the gravel – when it was getting a little tricky… The villiage – completely remote and has minimal essentials – these people live the old style way …only toilet available – old squat toilet… …Ros thought against it! What an amazing little village. We're not sure if people live here all year around as in winter the conditions are really bad with snow etc, they get snowed in and can't get anywhere. We're glad we made the effort to see this place, very unique! We had a quick and warm beer and water – in their little pub - the older man who ran it was sitting with his group of friends having a beer and snacks. Eventually we realised he was there so we could pay. The way back wasn’t as bad – we figured out how to keep the bike on path. Pol smashed out the off road riding, she wasn't messing around! When we did get back onto “real road” – that - still - was not the most easiest or safest to drive on… …the weather is beginning to change… Road block – where the markets were held earlier that day..so we had to make a detour adding an etra half hour to our journey back and it was beginning to rain – poor Ros – she only had shorts and ashirt on!! As our GPS isn't water proof Ros has to almost sit on it like an egg to protect it from the weather elements. Both of our bums were SO sore by this time as we had been sitting on the bike for around 5 hours with not much rest! It was miserable on the way back – the temp dropped down to 20 degrees and was raining – Ros got wet and cold (reminded us of our shewsbury trip in England!!!!) we also had a 1.5 hour drive ahead!!! Near our accommodation there was a small corner store so we thought we’d buy dinner before heading back – it was getting late. By now the rain had stopped and the temp was back to a warm 26 degrees We created our own little picnic. Yum, salami, cheese, nuts, and crisps. A good sandwich! Very definitely ready for sleep!