The Balkans seems to have become a very popular destination for the adventure riding crowd in Europe. And with good reason, it is a great region for riding and the people are most welcoming. We definitely love it there and will be going back in 2014, but first we'll share a report of our visit to some of ex-Yu last year.

"We" are my girlfriend laouen and myself, for this ride still (don't ask) riding a Yamaha FZ6 and a Tenere. The original plan to spend our 2,5 weeks of summer holiday was to ride form our flat in the centre of Belgium across the Alps to Slovenia. At least that's what we thought of doing until I noticed a post on the HUBB advertising the HUBB meeting in Montenegro, which would fall smack in the middle of our holidays. Montenegro isn't that much of a detour from Slovenia, is it?

Here's the rough route we'll be following:

We start off in Belgium on June 19th early in the morning as we have a long day ahead of us. We'll be doing mostly long boring German motorways today so there's not much interesting to say. 800km of mind numbing mile munching through the summer heat from Leuven in central Belgium to Kissing, near München in Germany. We hardly take any pictures and none are really interesting.
We're staying with a Belgian friend that moved to Germany a couple years back to marry a German bloke. We haven't seen them since their wedding 1 year ago, so it is great to meet again. It turns into a very pleasant and late evening.
That inevitably leads to a late morning. It is 11AM when we are ready to get going again, but that's ok, we're taking it easy. There should be some more interesting roads ahead of us getting out of Germany and into Austria. In any case, the views are better than yesterday.


We grab a sandwich at a gas station after filling up and look for a cool spot in the shade to have our pick nick. After that the road takes us past the Walchensee where we choose a small pass across a low ridge. The road is tight and twisty and pretty deserted. That might have something to do with the toll that has to be paid. After that we ride along the Deutsche Alpenstrasse into Austria's Zillertal where we find a camp site. We only managed 220km today. but we had fun. And the best parts are still to come, this is all just a prelude.

Off down to Kotor this September, so I'll be reading your report with interest.

We haven't been down to Kotor on this particular trip, but that's definitely on the agenda for next summer!

Camping quickly gets you into a "natural" rhythm, crawling into the tent at sunset and rising with the sun in the morning. We're back on the road before 9AM. The plan for today is to ride the Grossglockner Hochalpstrasse and then cut across via Lienz to Villach and into Slovenia.
Weather has been very hot the past 2 days, but today starts of rather drab and gloomy, even quite chilly. The thermal shock causes me to start taking really crappy pictures while we're riding up the Gerlos pass.


On the descent towards Zell am See the weather changes drastically and we are quickly back to the heat of the past days. We duck into a shop for some provisions and then it's straight to the Grossglockner. The toll is pretty steep, so we better enjoy the ride. After about 20km we spot a nice place to have our lunch. At least the money pays for great views.


It's another 30km down to the valley floor. The price by mile isn't cheap but you get the views and 47 hair pin bends thrown in for good measure. After Lienz, Villach and then it is only a short burst to the Slovenian border.


This may be a good time to introduce the bikes we are riding. Laouen is riding a Yamaha FZ6 with just under 88000km on the clock when this picture was taken. Some wide handlebars, hand guards, a soft luggage rack and a set of Magadan bags turns it into a true FZ6 Adventure. I'm on the XT66Z Tenere, a bit bland in comparison.

The landscape this side of the border is at least as impressive. Only 15 minutes into the country all I can think is "Slovenia, douze points". We stop to soak up the view and have a coke.


We continue our ride over the Vrsic pass, which is an amazing ride. Many of the 50 hair pins are paved in cobblestones and the view of the mountains is simply gorgeous.


And we are not alone to enjoy it.


We took our time to enjoy the landscape on all of our stops today, so it is already getting close to 5:30. Time to start looking for a spot to put up our tent. The first camp site we come across looks pretty nice. Small, cosy and on the banks of a mountain stream. Well take it!
The FZ6 decides to have an anniversary there and then.


Our route of today:

We get up early again, but we take our time breaking camp and have a nice chill breakfast at the camp site bar. By 9:20 were ready to get going again.
There's some sightseeing on the menu today. We're passing through Tolmin and it would be a shame not to miss out on the gorge. We follow the Soca valley to Bovec and then it's on to Tolmin where we start looking for signs to point us to this natural wonder. Except we don't find any, or at least not any that that we understand.
Fortunately the friendly lady at the gas station where we fill up informs us we need to look for "korita" and explains us how to get there. It is only about 5km out of town, along a small snaking road.
When we get there it's pretty quiet, the park site is almost deserted. It is getting pretty warm already, so we leave our stuff with the bikes and start walking.


For 4 EUR per person you get access, a little map and the advice to walk the route in the reverse direction with this weather. Meaning starting off with the long slow and warm descent while temps are still agreeable. Once we hit the riverbed it should be a lot cooler there.
It's pretty deep.


So deep some stuff falling down doesn't even make it all the way down.


The river water is as clear as any fancy expensive swimming pool's. A tad colder maybe.


The entire walk supposedly takes about 1 hour, but we take a lot of pictures and try to soak it all up. A nice Slovenian girl offers to take our picture on one of the hang bridges.


By the time we get back to our bikes it's noon. Time for a little snack at the bar, a pretty good ham and cheese sandwich.


After lunch our ride continues via Cerkno to Ziri through some nice valleys.