Sljeme, Ivanščica, Sljeme 13.4.2024

 

I have already done Sljeme and Ivanšcica in a day, but this time I wanted to add another Sljeme on the return, to increase the elevation gain (since climbing is the thing I love the most).

The day started kind of slow (I didnt feel like pushing), but I was feeling well. So I just used the cruising speed. If I comes to me I will push, otherwise I just take it easy.

I havent been on the Kustošijanski makadam in a while. This is a gravel road that climbs on Sljeme from the west side. I am not the most entertained by gravel, however since this road starts close to me, this is supposed to be the fastest way to climb on Sljeme from the west. I say supposed because its still a gravel so it takes more energy that paved roads.

The road is mostly in good shape, without too much loose rock along the way.

After climbing and descending Sljeme I still didnt feel in the race mode, however I decided to continue. There was some headwind from descending Sljeme all the way to Podrute, across the hill to Bela near Novi Marof and even going towards Prigorec (below Ivanšcica). Again I dont remember seeing this on the forecast :)

But the biggest problem was the heat in the middle of the say (it was around 22°C I think but like always exercising under the middle day sun never feels pleasant). This was the part of the day I felt the most tired or just felt out of place.

Water source after passing Podrute and Pokojec on the descend to Bela.

Dvorac Bela

One of those weird named places (in Croatian this means panties :)

Luckily, once I started ascending Ivanšcica (on the gravel road which leads through the forest) I felt better, started having more energy and actually felt more rested (then a few hours before) once I got on the top of Ivanšcica.

I was on the top around 16 o'clock. There were some guys preparing the jump with paragliders, but apparently the wind had almost died down at that point, so I left before and didnt know if they actually made a jump in the end.

The top was pieceful and quiet (just what I need on the week day), I have only seen a few cars going up, and that a good thing because the gravel road leading to Ivanšcica has a lot of loose rock, and dust and you dont want to go up there with a bicycle when the cars are driving next to you.

I havent pedaled the whole way up (just like the last time I went up with a bicycle) because the road is very steep at places and because of lot of loose rock and dust, it would be very hard to pedal all of this (escpecially with 28mm road tires I had). But if you have gravel tires and you want to destroy your knees (which I dont), its definitely duable.    

On the top of Ivanščica

View from the top towards Sljeme

View towards north / west (towards Slovenia). In clear skies you can see Slowenien alps from here, but not today.

View towards Varaždin

Piramid on the top of Ivanščica, a nice place to hang out

Descend down into the Lobor over Oštrcgrad way (which revealed some new gravel roads destroyed by excavator machines) it makes me fucking puke, like there is no enough of these gravel roads already.

Forest of Ivanščica

Last part of the day with a second climb over Sljeme went pretty well, it was the end of the day with sun going down into the night and the temperatures were just right for the final push.

So end of the day was actually very pleasant, despite the fact I still experienced tiredness, although not nearwhere how I was expecting.  The temperature was just right, after after the sun started setting, and I could push my body further.

One day I may do Sveta Gera, Ivanšcica and Sljeme all together in a day which would be the biggest ride yet for me. Currently I am a little bit tired (bored) from riding these roads all over again..

Sveta Gera and Sljeme with a bicycle 5.4.2024

 

This ride has finally come on the menu :)  

The route is mostly road with some gravel ascent to and descent from Sveta Gera.

I have picked a week day to have less traffic on the hills.

The weather was good, little bit windy, and I havent paid much attention to the wind direction since it was not high (I would not ride in high winds anyway). 

It was supposed the blow from the south / west (but that was actually the day before) but since I postponed the ride one day after, on the ride day I noticed the wind from the north (as I was approaching Samobor), but this wasnt an issue since I quickly entered Samoborsko gorje, Žumberak and rode through it all the way to Sveta Gera, so this wind was not a problem in the hills. And it actally helped little bit afterwards :)

                                         

Water source somewhere before the village of Petričko Selo. There are quite a few water sources on the way through Žumberak, including some waterfalls so water is not a issue.

As I have not ridden this road from Stojdraga to Sošice (which is a real gem actually) for several years now, the first pleasant surprise for me was that they have put anew asphalt which now goes from the beginning of the climb before Stojdraga all the way to Poklek (a lovely little village in Žumberak). This road was not in best shape and now its superb to ride there. Unfortunately new asphalt road ends just after Poklek (why oh way?) which then follows with some kilometers of worst part of the road you need to endure (literaly hole on the hole). I forgot where this worst part was, but was quickly reminded afterwards. None of this really matters and should not persuade anybody from riding through Žumberak on this secluded road which gets even better as you get closer to Sošice and other little villages there (Sopote, Tomaševci..).

After Sošice (which is the start of ascent to Sveta Gera) you follow the gravel road all the way to the top. Road is wide, in good condition (could be better on places) there is to much loose gravel. Still I had not problem riding pretty much all (even with my current 28 mm road tires).

I have not riden this with a bicycle before (but I was on the top or at least so I remember from long time ago).

Small church before the village of Tomaševci

The top of Sveta Gera was peaceful, with only a few people around. There is a shelter and small chapels on the top so one could easily spend the night there if found on some adventure.

The descent on the other side was really good. I picked a road towards Cerov log and was very plesantly surprised in how good condition the actual gravel road is. There is almost no loose gravel (like on the Croatian side of Sveta Gera) and the road is smooth (with a few holes here and there) so you are just flowing down. This is a good example of how the gravel roads should actually be (at least when its dry). Neither climbing a descending with a bike on the loose gravel is fun or easy for that matter and hard packed gravel is the best. 

This reminded me of gravel road which leads to Ivančica (a mountian close by) which I have also visited with a bicycle that has a lot of loose gravel and its really hard to ascend with a bike unless you have a mountain bike tires and even then you struggle because all the loose gravel moves beneath your tires. The same goes for descend.

Once I got down the road on the Slovenian side, I did a little bike check, food and drink and began unnoficial part 2 of the day, which is a straight road push (no ascent pretty much all the way behind Sljeme). And this is where the wind (which today was coming from the north approximatelly) helped me a bit because it was pusching me in the right direction so I was felling super fast. 

My energy levels were also very good, still had quite a bit in me until I hit reserve levels (when you go into battery saving mode :)

Somewhere before Sljeme I needed a store, but I still had food left, where I quickly grabbed another bottle of juice and few fresh tomatos before I hit final (whcih is not quite final) ascent over Sljeme. This road is the least visited by me (from all the roads leading to Sljeme) but there is nothing wrong with it actually except for being maybe little bit boring. 

Here is where I finally started to get really tired, at least to push ascents. But it was a time to start suffering.

Since I forgot the road (which is a good thing if you ride endurance and you dont want to look at the map like me) I was pleasantly surpised when I hit the top near Hunjka sooner then expected. 

Quick descent on the other side (I didnt needed any more food, which I consumed from the beginning of the ride like a bear) and I found myself in Zagreb. Only the final push over last few hills until I hit my neighborhood. I always ride above the hills and not through the city for obvious reasons (traffic, lack of city infrastructure etc..), even if this means I have to climb more.

Dont have much (any) of a pictures of the ride afterwards because I was mostly focused on riding.

2023 Croatia to Denmark bike trip recap

I have cycled in counter clockwise direction (starting from Zagreb Croatia) because I wanted to see Slovakia, enjoy Poland coastline and then Denmark. The rest was just there for backup if I was left with more time or just decided to change plans as usual. 

The whole trip lasted little bit less than 3 months, but of course such a long journey could have lasted several times longer and I still not be bored, at least in most countries. But I had 3 months on my disposal so this what I have done. 

Countries I had most fun in:
Slovakia, Poland, Denmark


Countries I will be back:
Slovakia, Poland, France


I have skipped north of Italy now because I have cycled this before and its close to my home country so I am often there.


Country with the most spectacular sea:
Poland

I would never believe Poland has such a spectacular looking coastline!   (although it can be crowded but thats true everywhere)


Country I have met most bike travelers:
Denmark


Most annoying country:
Germany :)

Do you need help?
Go to the other side of the road!
Go to the cycle path!
Do you need help?
This is a walking path, that is a cycle path.
Do you need help?
You cannot sleep here!


Country with the widest and cheapest selection of peanut butter:
Netherlands

It appears big supermarkets in Netherlands (like Lidl) are full of real organic peanut butter selection and it very cheap, pretty much like in Poland.

Since this is an ingredient I cannot cycle without, I welcome this a lot. I find it really good for recovery in the evening after dinner, unlike other junk food like chocolate.


Gear malfunctions / issues:

(generally les than last year's trip to Norway)

2 failed air pillows just started gradually loosing air (both of them were refunded) but I just dont have luck with airpillows :(

Most of my quick tire patches were failing (maybe because of old glue), the same ones I have used last year when they performed well.

This resulted in quite a few tire changes during which I managed to destroy some inner tubes by pinching them with tire levers no matter how careful I have been.

I learned to use hands as much as possible but some tires are very hard to mount with just hands.


Police encounters:

Only one (usually I dont have any). I slept in some park in the Netherlands trying to hide myself from the rain below some half opened shelter and the police woke me up at night. No problems whatsoever, they were polite and wished me safe trip after they checked my ID card, but they still woke me in the middle of the night :D


Mosquito nightmare on Baltic street:

I had only one bad period lasting about a week (few days In Poland on the coast and few days after that when I entered Germany) where the mosquitos were just horrendous, like the worst days I have ever experienced in Finland.

At one point I probably had 30+ bites on each of my legs.

Reppelants in spray dont help as I have learned so far, only those smoking spirals work if you inhale the smoke which must be very good for your health.

Luckily the rest of the trip was fine, and even in Denmark there were pretty much no mosquitos at all.


Fighting headwinds:

North of the Denmark (from the town of Aalborg) and above was very windy on both sides of the coast (east and west) but this was to be expected since its very exposed to Oceans.

There was also one very annoying period when I cycled from the Netherlands into Belgium and then France. Wind was strong here pretty much like on the top of Denmark and this was unexpected for me as I was not even on the coast but inland passing through Bruxelles and going downwards towards Paris.


All in all, it was a little bit more relaxed trip than last year's when I went to Norway.  Not exactly what I wanted to do but still something to fulfill my current exploring desires.

The only reason I cycled Europe again this year was because I didnt have more than 3 months of free time and I didnt feel like flying somewhere for such a short period.

But Europe doesnt do it for me any more.
 I desperately need to go out.

03.10.2023 Crossing into dirty Italy

And I love dirty Italy

But what I dont love is what you see on the pictures and that is a lot of fog, almost looks like polution (and maybe it is partially especially when its combined with the fog)

There was non of that in France on the other side.

Nevertheless I love being in Italy (for all the reasons) and I chose this mountain pass because I have never been here before.

The road would then take me first to Torino then Milan, where my plan is to take a train to Gorizia and skip this norther part of Italy. 

But only because I have cycled this before (some parts even more than once) and I am close to home so I just want to get home now. 

Not to say that train journey are easy with a bicycle, in fact its quite the opposite. 

I have already learned that this part from Milan to Gorizia requires you to take 3 trains (there is no direct route when you have full bicyle). 

I wont even mention what mess it to go from one train to another with a heavy loaded bike and often with minutes to spare trying to find your next train in busy train stations.

The only good thing about this is that it all costs 38 eur, so at least its cheap.

Back to Italy.

I immediatelly started to enjoy this dirty Italian arhitecture (as I call it). Even when houses look like ruins, there is some beauty in them. 

I can tell you right away, when houses look like ruins in my country, there is nothing beautiful about that. They just look like ruins.

This belong to my funny signs collection

More fog

Until Milan, I still had to sleep one more night outside and I was struggling to find a host for several days already. 

Started looking for a host in France around town of Chambery and onwards as I was climbing over the mountian pass into Italy.  

However I had not luck and I was running out of electricity on all my powerbanks.

Today I was supposed to be in Torino, which is a big city.

There were plenty of hosts on the map, however response rate was almost not existent.

So I ended up in the middle of the city in the evening.

Its not so much a problem for wild camping (although it is sometimes) because after years of experience I can pretty much camp anywhere. I have made my peace.

I saw this was going to happen and there is not much you can do about it.

Looking at the map it didnt show any suitable area because everything is heavily populated. 

Personaly I hate sometimes when this happens because although wild camping is possible almost anywhere (if you want it), you may loose a good night sleep if you end up in the city centre trying to camp.

So that was exactly was happened :D

I ended up in some public park (in a very busy town center) and after dinner and all that even managed to find a place to put a tent.  

I would even have a good night sleep if there was not for some concert happenning not very far off and this was quite loud and lasted well into the night.

Next morning the plan was to go straight to Milan which was still far off (around 160km) and in normal circustances this would be managable, but recently I had some saddle sores which prevented me pedaling too much in a day (I couldnt do much more than 100 realistically).

Luckily in all this I managed to find a host in the country side in small town of Lomello (which was about 50km outside of Milano).

This was my first Italian host and her name was Ausilia and she was a very keen cyclist with many past race experiences (like Brevet and similar).

However she was very busy that day so we only met briefly when I arrived, later she had to attend a town meeting.

Still I had some conversation with her and her friend on their farm property.

I wish it was different because it would be very interesting to listen stories about her racing background.

However I was happy because I managed to do all my necessities (laundry, charging devices..) so I could continue the last stretch of my journey.

Forgot to mention that exiting Torino today was one of the worst cycling experinces in traffic I had ever had probably.

It was partly my fault because I switched from "bike touring" to "road ride" in Komoot that morning (because I wanted to get to my host today as fast as possible) so I am sure Komoot took some blaim (basically "road ride" takes faster, straight and often more busier roads).

I am used to Italian drivers being quite zipping around but I find them still careful of cyclists (probably becuase cycling is a national sport in Italy) and I remember passing through Milan (which is a huge city) several times in the last few years and although trafic was very alive, I still felt safe being inbetween the cars in strict city centre.

However exiting Torino today seemed like all this was amplified by 10. 

Roads were in terrible condition (thats the time when I wish I have 50mm tires instead of skinnies I like to use), bumps and potholes everywhere and it seemed like there was no cycle path anywhere where the Komoot took me so pretty much all the time I was staying with the cars on the road.

I still had a smile on my face all the time but (oh boy) if felt like I was going to die that morning many times, or get siriuously hurt :)

It all reminded me of those places like heavily populated streets of India with traffic scenes where everything is completely out of control.

River crossing somewhere on the outskirts of Milan

 

29.09.2023 Crossing the alps from France to Italy

French country side has proved to be very interesting. I was following Eurovelo 3 (along the river of Seine), then little bit of Eurovelo 6 (along the river of Loire).

All this was never boring to me and offered very quiet athmosfere to cycle, free of other vehicles. Also wild camping was very easy on most of these parts since it was following only cycle paths. That assumes of course you are comfortable with wild comping in plain sight (as I call it). Its no so much hiding when you camp but more respectful open your tent after dark and wake up early(er). For me, this usually means 23-07.

Since my route took me towards Torino, at one point I stopped following Eurovelo and Komoot guided me towards the alps on the way to Italy.

One day I found myself on the landscapes which look very similar to what I have experiences in Italy on my previous trips.

The path was following the river of Rhone and there were lot of hills with grapes.

Camping in the woods next to the town of Chalamont.

The area suddenly become all rocky making me think how many climbing areas must be around here.

I actually took a swim (more of a wash) in this river and this suited me a lot, because I havent showered since leaving Paris (which wasnt that long ago, but still took a toll one me). 

The river was kind of green looking and I think rather clean but the coast of the river was this mud which you had to scramble to get in and out of the river.

So I was using flip flops to try to get out of the river and avoid too much mud on my feet and in the socks.

But the river was well worth it.

French arhitecture

Groslée Suspension Bridge. Beautiful bridge across the Rhône river, between Groslée and Brangues.

Very quiet area next to river Rhone with cycling paths only. it would be a dream to sleep here somewhere..

Passing through the canyon and the cliffs of Gorges de la Balme. This part was very beautiful but also very busy with vehicles. 

The 1500 meter long cycling tunnel Tunnel du Chat (going through Mont du Chat) and connects Savoyard Avant-Pays to the west and the Cluse de Chambéry to the east.

I ended there one night and I was struggling a bit to find a place to sleep that night. 

After leaving the small town of Yenne (located on the east side of the Rhone, by the Gorges de la Balme) I continued to cycle upwards, I decided to go on the other side through the tunnel hoping on the other side would be better places for camping. 

But other side of the tunnel actually proved to be worse with just a parking lot where cars could access and some hiking trails not suitable for camping and full of people leaving shit papers (which I fricking hate and who does not?).

Then I decided to cycle back through the tunnel because it was little bit more suitable on the other side but only just. 

All this took me way into the night.

I end up sleeping next to this building alongside the tunnel which I guess is used for tunnel maitainance and inner workings.

Next morning the view over Lac du Bourget. This is where the tunnel exits on the other side. Looks very nice but its also very busy with traffic.

Next day after cycling though town of Chambéry and following the valley towards Mont-Cenis Pass over the alps I had some nasty roads on which you had to cycle with a lot of traffic and a lot of these constructions sites escavating the surrounding rock and trucks driving around.

Luckily at the end of the day I managed to find perfect camping spot next to one of these water facilities with a view over the city of La Chambre.

Slept nicely that night with loud sound of water running. 

Inevitable sleeping gear drying in the middle of the day in the sun.

Victor Emmanuel fort, an impressive fort which raises next to the road.

In fact, there were other similar buildings like these in this valley. If I was not loaded with all this gear, I would definitely went on exploring the road which leads to this fortress.

The town of Val Cennis, an alpine ski resort. After this the climbing begins. But this town is already at around 1300m of elevation so there is not a lot of climbing to the top of this pass Mont Cenis.

The trip contined next day through the valley towards the Mont-Cenis Pass.

I decided to end the day early and stayed next to the river, which was easily accessible next to the road. 

This was just before the town of Val Cennis after which the climbing over the pass starts.

Of course inevitable washing with soap in the super cold river in the evening and in the morning was bound to happen.

Cosy dinner with my favorite food, frozen vegetables which I quickly prepare in boiling water.

The next day was the day I went over the pass - and onto Italy.

The town of Val Cennis, an alpine ski resort. After this the climbing begins. But this town is already at around 1300m of elevation so there is not a lot of climbing to the top of this pass Mont Cenis.

Except from this one peak, I did not see any other snow covered peaks when going over this mountain pass. This a could be view towards Dent Parrachée, but I am just wild quessing based on orientation.

This pass was very beautiful, even more because being beginning of October, there was almost no traffic at all at the top. 

The lake view from the top of the road reminded me a little bit of Norway. There were some camper vans parked below next to the lake. 

The lake looked clear at least on the shallow parts next to the coast. There were also gravel roads leading around the lake and into the surrounding mountains.

I immediatelly got the wish to sleep in this surroundings. Of course this would not be possible without the warm 3 season sleeping bag which I do not have with me on this trip. This lake sits at 2000m of elevation so the nights are very cold.

Descend on the other side into Italy was nearly not as nice as French side and the views it offered!

Misty Italy, almost looks like pollution.