16/7/19 Vrgorac to Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

57km  Total 2,295km

We took advantage of a car wash to give the bike chains etc a clean prior to leaving Vrgorac.  Keeping the running gear clean is always a challenge!

Today we left the Croatian cycling route cos we were heading into Bosnia and Herzegovina.  We're using RidewithGPS and we ended up on some pretty ordinary dirt roads.  It keeps us off the main roads, but it's a learning experience working out how to avoid in the future.
The day started with a wonderful descent down into this huge valley - you can see Vrgorac in the photo.

The border crossing this time was really straight forward.  The border official even asked if he could take our photo cos he was so impressed with what we're doing!

We must be getting into mosque country - this is the first one we've seen

I reckon Croats and Bosnaks must be drunk alot judging by the way there are grapevines everywhere.

In one of the towns along the way we got talking to one of the locals.  During Tito's time he was gaoled for 20 years for being anti communist.  He was in a cell with 200 people, one toilet, lots of mental health issues among the inmates.  It would have been great to spend time with this guy and understand his story more.

Mostar's at the bottom of a valley so another huge descent at the end of the day.

And finally into the hugely touristy town of Mostar, famous for Stari Most (The Old Bridge) that was destroyed during the Balkans war and was rebuilt via aid from other countries.

View from Stari Most

We're here for a couple of days and will do a train trip up to Sarajevo, spend 2 days there then come back to Mostar where we'll store our bikes while we're away.