Bolted from Bosnia and Coastal Camping in Croatia
I had heard stories of insurance being refused or charged at extortionate rates on the Bosnian border so I went on the Bosnia Government website to get the details of which border had insurance agents.
On arrival at said border, it transpires there is no insurance but this was no problem for the canny border police. He claimed he could sort if for €50. I questioned what he meant, ie sort insurance or ignore the no isurance and all I got was €50 equals no problem.
Having queued for 90 mins to get this far I thought sod it, I am not going back through to another border that may or may not have insurance. So I decided to bluff, I showed him the online webpage showing insurance was available and told him I had looked it up and it was only €20 for a motorbike.
He had a change of heart and agreed €20 was fine. So, I think he knew that I knew that he was asking for a bribe but I still pushed it and said, so for €20 you will give me insurance? He agreed (of course I knew this was a lie). He had his €20 and I got my passport back and off I went.
So I was uninsured on some of the worst roads so far but no matter, it is an adventure and not sure how much value Bosian insurance is. I rode through 3 police checkpoints on the way to the campsite but luckily was not stopped. That night looking at the passport it transpires in all the "negotiations" he had forgotten to stamp it so I was now illegally in the coutry as well.
Today I rode for the nearest border into Croatia and had a 120 min wait and a 500m queue to get to the exit point. This was of course plenty of time to think about the fine/prison tine for illegal entry to a country. I stashed €20 handy just in case and tentatively approached the border control. The car 4 in front was waved through, the next 2 were properly checked over and by some miracle, I was just waved on without even stopping. I could not really relax for another few hundred metres until inside Croatia.
After all that I had a relaxing ride along the Croatian coast and was camped up by 1pm 10metres from the beach and have had 3 swims already in the Adriatic sea.
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