It would go from Belgrade, via Sarajevo, to Herceg Novi. It would connect the routes used by the popular Ciro train. The idea of building a bicycle path on the Ciro trails attracts the attention of domestic and foreign cyclists. Cyclotourism is slowly gaining importance, and in one bicycle tour one could experience the charms of gorges, canyons, Herzegovinian fields, karst and the Adriatic Sea.
The screech of the locomotive, clouds of steam above the landscape crossed by the narrow-gauge railway can rarely be seen and experienced as a tourist attraction. If the abandoned, impassable, and old Yugoslav railways are restored, they could easily be part of the tourist offer.
Cyclists have already recognized the potential of narrow-gauge sections from Belgrade through Sarajevo, Trebinje, and Herceg Novi. That is why a 15 km cycling route has been established in Trebinje on the route that runs through the valley of Trebisnjica and Susica to the town of Jazina. It was overgrown, Ciro used to pass there, but now there were literally trees growing from that line, one part ground in a length of maybe 800 meters.
“First, the local authorities did one part, one tunnel was prepared, the machines also worked a little, and then there were these GIZ projects and so on. And today, luckily, we have a very nice trail, 90 percent goes by the river near the lake, beautiful nature, on the right is the Orjen nature park, perfect, “ said Slavenko Vukasovic, from agency Herz Adventures Trebinje.
”Cultural and historical monuments, rivers, Herzegovinalandscapes, vineyards and a rich catering offer, all in one place. Now they are working on promoting the potential of cyclotourism, which is experiencing enormous growth in the world. More and more people choose to spend their vacation riding a bike, hiking, so the interest is growing. Now it’s up to us to promote it as much as we can, agencies have appeared here and there that offer various tours and actually promote this trail. We have to do our best to have the best possible offer. Development of local tourism, promotion of cultural heritage and natural beauty are the recipe for successful cooperation of local communities. There are more and more initiatives to grow this into something much bigger, ” said Petar Spaic, cycling club Vucji zub.
“Certain initiatives when it comes to this whole story exist in different countries, in Serbia and in Montenegro and Croatia, so this is definitely a regional story, bearing in mind the fact that many cyclists demand and look for longer routes. So it is definitely necessary to connect all these stories and in that way to get a popular regional tourist product,” said Bojan Benderac, director of the Development Agency of the city of Trebinje.
The idea of connecting green bicycle paths along the old railway lines and connecting the Western Balkans has been alive for years. Mirko Radovanac, a retired traffic engineer and cycling enthusiast, sees this story as a life mission. Two years ago, we expanded our project to the Western Balkans. It is a route of some 1000 km and it was the main backbone of the railway in the old Yugoslavia. We want to connect all of the municipalities, of which there are about 30 to 40, and to jointly try to assign this route the designation of so-called EuroVelo trails. EuroVelo is a network of longer cycling routes. The idea of adding a new one to this network is present in the minds of enthusiasts. In the meantime, cyclists are discovering new narrow-gauge routes, tunnels, and bridges with which they try to bridge natural, cultural and other less visible barriers, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
