Touring A Tour With Many Surprises

Part 1/2:
From Thursday to Sunday last week I took with my wife some off days and we rode with our bikes to Sarajevo in Bosnia again.
We started at 0600 hours our tour in Austria, crossed parts of Hungary and Croatia and entered Bosnia. The distance to the border of Bosnia is about 415 km and from there to the capital city, Sarajevo, we rode another 300 km. The long queue of cars and trucks (about 3 km) at the EU-border Croatia to Bosnia we passed by through using the line of the other direction.
After checking our passports and the papers of our bikes we were on tour again in a few minutes.
As I reported the last times, the fuel.price situation has not changed yet. The further to the South, the cheaper the prices for fuel were. In Bosnia the average price for fuel is 1,10-1,15 €/litre.
In Sarajevo we booked an apartment again and payed €15/night/person in a full equipment apartment with lots of nice features.
Our moving time was about 8 hours and in sum with our stops for refreshments and fuel we arrived at 1500 hours in Sarajevo.
After a short refreshment in our apartment we joined one of the nice restaurants directly in the area of our apartment. On the next day we planned a tour to the city of Mostar, the mountain Hum, the city of Medugorje and a visit of the lake Jablanica. Everything went really fine until the afternoon. After our swimming in the lake I found my bike without the license plate. According to the bad roads we used before we arrived at the lake, I expected that I had lost it on those roads. Therefore we rode the next 1,5 hours to look for my plate. But we didn't find it.
After this we went to a police station in the city of Mostar to report this problem. I had another look at my bike and saw, that the quick release system of my license plate was completely damaged. This meant the loss of my plate was not caused to the bad roads but to a "brutal" theft of my license plate!
The following report and official business at the police station and the needed official stamps for the police report took me about 3 hours. The police was very friendly and helpful but I had to buy official stamps at the post office in the nearby which took me more then 1,5 hours of waiting time due to the long queue there.
After finishing this "action" we rode back from Mostar to Sarajevo and arrived there at 2200 hours! This meant we had to ride in low light conditions and in the night which is not a good idea in this area according to the street conditions and the free running animals. But we made it without any further issues. Only the insects situation got extreme. In the light of our headlights it looked like permanent snowfall. Our helmets got nearly blind.
After a refreshing shower we "recreated" with some cocktails in a bar.
On the next morning I bought a thick pen and "drawed" a handmade license plate for my bike. After that we did a tour into the mountains in the area of Sarajevo and enjoyed some hours at a mountain lake called Boracko lake.
After riding back to our apartment we packed our luggage again and prepared our ride home back to Austria.
At 0600 we started our tour and used the lower traffic situation of the Sunday morning. At the EU-border I had some action with the border police according to my handmade plate but by showing them my official report papers of the theft I was allowed to pass without any further issues. Without those report I would have occurred many legal problems!
After a moving time of 7 hours and with some stops four fuel and refreshments we arrived at 1430 hours at home. After the unpacking and a short shower I did the reporting action again in Austria at an Austrian police station to get the needed official papers to receive a new plate for my bikes. This time it took me only about one hour.
On Monday morning I received a new license plate and some new official maintenance stickers from the local insurance and admission office for my bikes. In sum I payed €6.- in Bosnia for the official stamps of the police report, €17,60.- for the plate and the official maintenance stickers and €18.- to change the plate number for my yearly electronic vignette for the Austrian highways. An occasion in my perspective. I expected lots of more!
At the end some informations to our bikes and our distances.
We rode in those 4 days 2.054 km. On the first and last day a distance of each 714 km. My Rocket behaved basically very well as a kind of a long distance bike. The Yamaha's experience is well known till now, because my wife rode since last May in 2024 more than 24.000 km with it without any issues. But my Rocket needs some maintenance after 9.200 km since the end of February this year because sometimes during the start process it had a complete blackout of the electric system and all settings fell back to the factory settings. After a few seconds it came back again and was ridable without any issues again. This happened nearly every day one or two times.
My favourite dealer will fix this problem soon!
In the following some impressions of our tour.

On our way in Bosnia.


Our bikes on a parking lot near our apartment.


One of the great roads in the mountains of Bosnia.


Recreation time in a local restaurant.
Nice wines are available here!


A view over the terrace of the restaurant.


There was no road left!


Some more road impressions.


My helmet with the "insect decoration".


Delicious breakfast goodies.


Local Club-Sandwich.


A 2nd part will follow soon.

 

@joe mc donald:
Many thanks to you!

 

Part 2/2:

On the mountain Hum the "Millenium Cross" (30 m high).


The city of Mostar.


The cathedral of Medugorje.


"Holy equipment" stores everywhere.


Jablanica lake.


Again.


My bike. At this moment I was not aware the missing license plate


Lake Boracko.


A road in the mountains.


Ready for take off back home.

 

@Bikerman:
Many thanks to you!
You are so right! At our overnight parking lot we used big chains to get a "secured" look of the bikes.