Pero and his bike

nedjelja, 05.05.2019.

Alone in summer 2015 - Part Five

You can come back on the fourth part of this travelogue here.

THE FIFTH DAY OF THE JOURNEY

The map of the fifth day of the journey you can see here.

The pictures from the fifth day of this trip you can see here.

The upper, bleary snapshot, taken while the soul of my camera was sleeping, shows that I was active it that morning. So at 6.41am, everything was ready to continue the journey.
The whole camp was deeply floating in the spaciousness of the dream, so I got out of the camp quietly and started the journey.
The camp in deep sleeping


As today is the Feast of Our Lady, I expected the river of pilgrims who have been walking on foot all night long and comes finally to the church early in the morning. And really, it was a river of people, but they did not were coming on foot. They were coming by cars.


Those old, traditional pilgrims who, biblical, with a walking stick, have been coming to the church, I barely met them. It seems to me that the old, traditional conception of pilgrimage of long and hard, but persistent and patient walking retreated in front of a quick, superficial visit to the sanctuary with an air-conditioned tin pet, and then even faster return.
True, in front of the church, from a distance, I saw a lot of people. Who knows, maybe they, or some of them, have come earlier on that old, traditional way.
In the continuation of the riding through the place, in search of a turning to Ljubuški, I passed by the bus station. Compared to that "station" in the Konjic town this looks like the main terminal, not just a station.
The Međugorje place bus station

At the exit from the Medjugorje place, there is a huge ironworks store, interesting to me because it even has a cage for a dog.
Željezarija = a ironworks store
Kavez za psa = a cage for dog

After the ironworks store is a large crossroad in the form of a circular flow. This road, as well as the surrounding buildings, give the impression that all this is located somewhere in the rich western state, not here on the karst of the Herzegovina.


A couple of kilometers after the Medjugorje place I came to a small place named Cerno. In fact, I did not see the houses from the road, there is only a church that is confusing - a church in the wilderness.
Before the church is a funny jumbo poster that warns that fire here can be a big evil.
On the jumbo poster is written: They light and burn

A few kilometers before the Ljubuški town is a big "Kiwi sport" store which I choose for a breakfast place. Even though it was only 8 am, I felt hungry, probably because I got up early this morning. The sun was already hot, so I found the shade behind the big commercial display of the store.


While I swallowed the snacks in my mouth, I noticed the forgotten plastic rosary on the curb. It seems to me that some of those traditional pilgrims forgot it this morning. I left it to live in anticipation of who would take it up. It's enough for me that I filmed it with the camera.


In front of the Ljubuški town, more precisely in front of the descent leading to that Herzegovina town, on the hill were the remnants of an old town attributed to Prince Stjepan, although that town, as some said, older than him.




Downhill is not something particularly long, just one kilometer, but it was my pleasure to ride down toward the field where is the Ljubuški town.


I still believe that there is nothing interesting in the town, especially if I'm in a hurry to get out of the heat as much as possible. So at the intersection, right before the entrance of the town, I turned right in the direction of the guidepost that showed the way to the Imotski town.
Behind the Ljubuški town, there was an uninterrupted array of villages behind each other. Slightly down, to the left of the road, is a fertile field with plenty of vegetables and fruits, which is seen from the roadside offer. Here, in addition to the abundance of sun and fertile land, there is plenty of water from the Trebižat river and Tihaljina river, so only good will is needed, so the effort will be paid.
By passing beside a sanitary ware store I recorded nice advertising for tiles, ceramic, probably, and maybe some others.


Every time I'm passing through this area by bicycle, and now its third time, I always have been fascinated by the Klobuk hill (klobuk = A hat).


Along the Klobuk hill is a village named as the Klobuk village. In this village, I was interesting to me an example of separation the fertile ground from karst soil.


A five kilometers before the summit of the pass, and dozen before the Grude town (as the signpost already says), I rested a little bit in one of some of the shade which was by the way. It is only 9.30 am, so in these shade can still be found that grain of the freshness, although at the open area sunrays are already burning.


An hour later, I finally saw the eastern part of Imotski field and the Grude town in it. The enjoy in downhill riding was followed.
At the entrance to the Grude town, faceless residential buildings welcomed me. However, they were especially interesting to me because here I was looking for a break during biking from the Mostar town to the Imotski town in 1982.


Beside the City Hall is a park of pine trees in which I have allowed to myself rest in the shade with the consumption of juicy peaches, bought yesterday in Medjugorje.
The City Hall of the Grude town



A few kilometers in front of the Imotski town I left that town on the hill. I continued by the main, which road across the Imotski field, and on the other side of it, I crossed the river Vrljika by riding on the bridge.






From my earliest childhood in the summer, I visit this place. And from my earliest childhood every time I see the crystal clear waters of the river, I remain equally astonished, utterly amazed. Which true gift of God!
It remains to me now to climb up to the Perić hill. I had at disposal an asphalted road of about one kilometer and a half, or a double shorter path, which is additionally bumpy due to the preparation for asphalting.
I chose this last one.
Self-portrait on Dalmatian karst

The place where I made a self-portrait is good to look at the field and across it.
The Imotski field and the Imotski town on the other side of the field

On the other side of the field, on the slope of the opposite hill was the Imotski town near Modro lake. Three kilometers to the left of the Modro Lake (not visible in the picture) is the Crveno Lake, the deepest lake in Croatia. Although I didn't visit these lakes this time, images, of it which I made them at some earlier visit, is following.
There is a well-groomed path to the water of Modro Lake and you can swim. But there is no access to the water of the Red Lake for now.
The Modro Lake = The Blue Lake (modro = blue)


The Crveno Lake = The Red Lake (crveno = red)


Was the shorter road, which I chose for the Perić hill, took more time or not, I do not know. I know I finished today's riding.
Today's kilometers

The ending time of today's riding

INSTEAD OF THE SIXTH DAY OF JOURNEY

For that 90 kilometers, as far as I have to the Split city, I was planning to take this sixth day. In that city, I continue this journey by train in the dusk, and the next day in dawn I would get in my Slavonia finally. However, the man dreams but God determines. And God has decreed that on this day, on the sixth day of my journey, hear the prayers of the people and give them the rain to the thirsty ground. That is why I left a bicycle from my relatives. They drove me to Split city. Around 6 pm, I found myself in the Split city. In the rainy, very, very rainy the Split city!
Later I heard that in Split had been 43 dry days with daily temperature above 30 degrees C, one after the other.
Split railway station, wet with abundant rain

In the train wagon, there were bicycle places, but I did not have a bicycle now.



The wagon was newer production, modern, well-maintained and with uncomfortable seats.


If I had already apart from it, there were people who were still inseparable with their bikes and who intend to continue the journey with this train, together with their bikes.


About an hour and a half after departing from Split, and before going to sleep, I managed to greet the Perkovic railway station.


What to say in the end?
For a couple of days, I needed to have a good sleep and have a good rest. However, it did not pass a week, and I caught myself that I forgot the tough and sad moments of this journey (from this distance it did not look so heavy and so sad), and how I was starting to think where and how to ride next year, which extra tool to take (cracked spokes), which equipment, how to avoid the heat, how ...
Like Mujo from the end of the joke at the introduction of this journey report.

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