Stewart Law

We entered Bulgaria from North Macedonia at the top of an enormous hill and were immediately welcomed by a great big downhill!

I deliberately left this part of Plovdiv out of my story so I could write about it here. This statue of Miljo was my favourite feature in the city.

With an epic 95miles under our belt from yesterday we were ahead of schedule. This allowed us to have a full day exploring Plovdiv, rather than a half day as planned.

We arrived in Skopje yesterday, what a fantastic city! There’s a lot to do here, so Skopje, we will return! Travelling on a budget means you have to pick the places to spend your money and you just can’t see every city in all its glory, however walking around Skopje was a treat.

Our first stop was Skopje, we really enjoyed our short time there and the city has some wonderful statues and interesting history. The weather was not on our side during our visit to North Macedonia and it rained on and off every day.

Marko encompasses exactly what warmshowers is all about. He’s an experienced cyclist whose travelled A LOT by bike…over 38 countries. He knows biketouring!

We didn't spend much time in Kosovo but the time we did spend was pleasant. The roads were in good condition and the traffic was very light.

We’re now out of Albania and enjoying Kosovo!! After Stew’s injuries we’ve been keeping mileage low, only riding 20 miles a day for the last 2 days. Stew found it relatively easy today so if it goes well tomorrow we might do more.

Albania was our first real culture shock of the trip, the world took a very sudden change from the developed european world to a much poor and culturally different one. The first and most noticable difference was the road quality and the change in vehicles.

We’ve been so well looked after in Albania. Stew is still recovering from his injuries so we’ve stayed in Krumë – the same hotel Abdullah took us to a couple nights ago.

This picture was taken yesterday, on my way up a climb I spotted this dear man tending to his sheep. I stopped to take a photograph. As I was doing so he waved and started to walk over.

When Stew and I set off to cycle around the world people asked us what we were most afraid of – and I said “dogs”. It took me to Evesham, England just 70 miles from home for me to realise the biggest threat to us is TRAFFIC.

Injury – I guess it was always going to happen, but were we expecting to be the catalyst ourselves? No.

Yesterday we rolled into Albania, country number 9! We’ve been resting up for a day – much needed after the last couple days.

We were only in Montenegro for a very brief time but we found it very pleasent. The roads are very similar Croatia, however there are many holiday resorts scattered along it's coast line which made it very easy to find places to stay.

I think from my stories and double post today, you can see that we’re having THE BEST time.

If you visit Kotor definitely, definitely walk to the Fortress! The route we took was roughly 2 miles up and down and it took us roughly 2 hours, stopping lots to talk with people and taking snaps etc.

Could life get any sweeter? Riding along the Montenegro coast was a real treat and now we’re eating pizza in a gorgeous restaurant looking over the coast and mountains 😍

What a great few days cycling we’ve had: gorgeous, steady mountainous climbs & beautiful descents, Croatia’s coastline and a new milestone reached: tonight we rolled into Montenegro.

Croatia is a beautiful country to ride through, it had lovely pristine landscapes and crystal clear seas. The road surface was very good here but the terrain can be very steep at times. One of the most challenging aspects of cycling in Croatia was the weather, it rained quite a lot while we were there and we spent quite a bit of time in cafes trying to warm up.

At the bottom of the mountain pictured we had a decision to make…do we cycle through the tunnel, Sveti Ilija or go OVER the mountain!?

I’d asked Stew if we could spend more time exploring Croatia, so when we re-routed to cycle Croatia and it’s islands I was thrilled.

Here are 3 lovely people we met yesterday. In order of images: Dana, Severin and Chantal.

Almost forgot to share this lovely news… Cardiac Risk in the Young featured our bike ride on their website today! Visit their site here: