Concerns riding Off Road in Croatia and Bosnia
 

Hi All,

I am a new rider, well I don't ride the motorbike but enjoy the ride on the back :thumbup1:, this may seem like a silly question but I have done my research and read a lot of articles etc.

I have concerns riding off road in Croatia and Bosnia due to the landmines that are still active. There are maps that show, there a still quite a lot of these around and they are not just located around the dispute lines of the border but located all over the two countries.

I have also heard of recent incidents that have occured from tourist that have ridden or walked through the tracks and :oops2: something bad happens.

Has anyone had any problems with the off road biking and is there special roads that are made for the off-road biking in these two countries....just would be nice to also see the scenery and not be so parniod about the landmines.

I know silly but still feeling uneasy.

I did some push bike touring in the Balkans and was pretty concerned. I don't think it really is an issue with the riding but more wild camping if that is your thing.

My advice is think "has someone been along here in the last 15 years". If you can see a track then it should be safe. Just be careful about stepping off the track for a piss, photo or pitching a tent. The other advice is talk to the locals, they know what's up.

Thanks for that. I am very concerned as we were thinking of wild camping but I think we may just skip that and stay in accommodation :) .... What did you do for rest? Did you stay in accommodation or camp in special camping sites?

The rule of thumb, nearly 20 years ago, was "don't step off any hard surface, ever" unless you are absolutely sure that the land has been cleared of UXO (there is probably far more than deliberately placed mines in those countries; I have no idea how much of that stuff has been cleared).

Thank you for your response I don’t think I will be wild camping now ... its apparently illegal in Croatia. Not surprised though, there was said somewhere the mine situation would not be completed cleared until 2015 or so
:oops2:

I don't really see the point of wild camping in general but especially not in Croatia, there are plenty of small "official" sites that cost pence. In Bosnia there are plenty of cheap hotels, I was there a couple of years ago and only paid £34 for a double room, half board, in a decent hotel in the tourist trap of Mostar.

Wild camping can be great.... Guaranteed alone time if you do it properly.

I was looking into the mines out there too. There are A LOT and they're not even close to clearing them all. Some will NEVER be found. It will be like France/Belgium where farmers are still digging up mines 70 years on.

I'd rely on local knowledge. Tot other travellers who could be speculating. No matter how good their intentions. I'd be skipping on the wild camping out there if it were me. Unless it was guaranteed cleared.

When I was camping in Albania I usually pitched my tent were the sheep were. I figure out that if there were some mines, than sheep had already cleared them...

Sent from my GT-I9100G

Thank you for your response. Is there a list of countries that have a mine problems that I can view

I have done quite a bit of resaerch and I was not aware of mines in Albania, where I will also be visiting.

I spent some time on foot in a heavily mined area of Mozambique right after the end of their civil war. What impressed me most was the fine line between what was known to be ok and what was not: there'd be a narrow path on which everyone walked, but stepping even a half-meter from the edge of the path was totally unsafe. In villages there were fields where crops were being grown just inches from identical fields which had maimed children. The locals knew, but I sure didn't.

I also remember seeing "minas" warning signs in some very unlikely places near the Chile/Argentina border. It turned out that mines had been sown in the passes, then carried long distances by flash floods and deposited unpredictably. Just because an area was never mined, or used to be safe, or had sheep grazing it last year, doesn't mean there aren't mines there currently.

For me, under any similar circumstances, that would render wild camping out of the question.

Mark

Edited to not cause confusion with the later..more indepth post.

I did wild camp, but chose places carefully. I'd say it's easier on a pushbike as you are going at a pace that you can evaluate spots for camping without slowing your pace much. A couple times it was simply at the corner of a field, or a section of road that has since be rerouted (say by an old bridge next to where a modern bridge has been since built)

edit: I didn't venture offroad in these areas for a few reasons, one being the landmines. They could have fewer places that are able to be deemed safe.

All the stuff from work is restricted and is not allowed to be reproduced....so, I have done some basic research and knocked up a slightly better format.

Common sense rules.

1) Absolutely Avoid the following areas.

A) Vacated/abandoned buildings and the surrounding grounds.

B) Private property,woods or orchards.

C) Unattended fields/heavy vegetation

D) ### Military areas or known conflict zones, or battlefield debris###

E) Cordoned off, fenced off areas.

F) Advised or warned by locals.

2) Travel only on road, or recognised hard surfaced track.

3) Do not pick up or disturb unkown or suspicious items.

4) Do Not interfere with any kind of label or marking....legally, this is the same activity as if you were laying a minefield yourself.

Marking of Minefields.

If the area is being actively de-mined then it " should " be marked up in an obvious and recognised manner, cleared zones will again be marked up and normally a date and an information plate of the clearence will be nearby.

Outside of an offical de-mining site, anything and everything can be used.

A local warning of a suspected or actual mine can be something as simple as a circle of stones placed around the suspect device, or a triangulation of sticks nearby...a few pieces of coloured cloth or a local mine warning plate. You do not really want to be in an area that these are being used.

A few examples of mine signs...official and local.

Depending on what part of Bosnia or Croatia you go will obviously depend on how near to the conflict zones you will be.

Unfortunately there was not really a so called frontline as such, as during the conflict it was not unknown to find the four main factions all fighting each other in one town/valley and then find 2 factions allied with each other fighting the other two.This caused a great confusion in how to keep track of the battlelines and drove our cartography people absolutely crackers when sending out the weekly updated maps showing the main conflict zones.

Result being, there were battles and skirmishes all over the place, often unrecorded.

You also had the criminal element....effectively bandits who had their own agenda, and had access to military hardware..including mines..doing their own thing.

If you go off exploring, you will quite easily find the remains of old bunkers and trench systems, destroyed military equipment and demolished houses.......AVOID EXPLORING THESE as mentioned earlier.