Want more adventure in your life? Hear real adventure travel stories and practical insights from people who explore the world in bold and meaningful ways by bike, on foot, and close to home.
Seek Travel Ride is an adventure travel podcast for anyone curious about travel and looking to bring more adventure into their everyday.
Host Bella Molloy chats with adventurers and everyday people about bicycle touring, cycle touring, bikepacking, long-distance cycling, and other human-powered adventures. You’ll also hear slow travel, cultural discovery and micro-adventure stories that show adventure can happen anywhere.
Expect travel stories, helpful advice and practical tips you can use to shape your own adventures, whether you’re dreaming of world travel, planning your first bike travel journey, or starting small with something close to home.
Remember it doesn't need to be epic to be an Adventure!
Cycle touring through Bosnia: Madeline Hoffmann - 1 day of your trip
•Madeline Hoffmann•Season 2
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Ever wanted to go cycling through Bosnia? Well listen to Madeline Hoffmann share one day of her journey through this country. This was just one day from a cycle tour that saw Madeline ride all the way from Germany to Australia.
The incredible experiences from this particular day in Bosnia are exactly the stories that only those taking bike adventures can share.
Keep your eyes peeled with another full length episode to come which will fill in the gaps from that adventure - bringing her all the way from Türkiye to Australia!
Okay, listeners, for today's episode, I am featuring Madeline Hoffman. Madeline actually featured as guest for episode number one, way back when I first released the podcast. And she's going to be sharing one day of her trip, which is going to take us to Bosnia. Now, if you've just discovered Seek Travel Ride and you're loving what you're hearing and you want to support the podcast out, the easiest way that you can do so is actually something that you can do free of charge, and that is to follow Seek Travel Ride on your podcast player app. It's the best way to support me, it helps more people discover the podcast, and it also ensures that you don't ever miss out on listening to these inspiring bike adventure stories. So hit pause on the podcast now, go into your podcast player, hit follow on your app, and help me to grow this community. Okay, today's episode, like I said, we're going to hear from Madeline Hoffman, who's going to take us to one day of her trip, a day of unexpected happenings in Bosnia. Take it away, Madeline.
SPEAKER_01
Hi, my name is Madeline Hoffman, and I cycle from Germany to Australia. And I want to tell you about one day of my trip. And that one day takes me back to a day in Bosnia. I just took off from Mostar to cycle the Jiro Trail, which is a remote trail in Bosnia and follows the old rail line. And I had my bike serviced in Mostar to get it all ready for this remote countryside. As I got more and more into remote territory, I had a problem with my bike. My bike didn't want to shift gears anymore. And at this stage, I was still not that experienced with a drop bar, as you call the bar my bicycle has. So I got stuck there and I wanted to investigate the problem. And in this moment, I was close to a small village. The village probably had four houses. So I was very lucky that I wasn't in completely remote territory. And I leaned my bike against the fence and tried to figure out what was happening before I then go into more remote areas. And in this moment, a man came out of the house and he said something in Croatian to me. And I looked at him and I was like, oh, I'm sorry. Can you speak English? I don't speak Croatian. And he looked at me and he replied with the most Western Sydney accent you can imagine. Yeah, what's the problem? And I just looked at him and I had the biggest grin on my face, as I myself am living in Sydney. So I was so lucky to run in this remote village into a person that spoke English and was actually living for the last 15 years in Sydney, Australia. I was so lucky because this man, Nikitza was his name, he was just visiting his parents. He arrived literally two days before I got stuck there to visit his parents in this tiny village called Sierkose. I told him about the problem with my bike, and I was in distress because I had no idea what was going on. I was uncertain when I could carry on with my journey. And he tried to calm me down, he gave me food, he gave me water, and as there was no bike shop close by, we tried to fix the problem ourselves. However, we weren't unable to fix the problem. And yeah, I got more and more worried about the state of my bike. But his parents were so warm, and they took me in like their own daughter. The mom literally made food for me, and in the evening, we watched some TV and she was knitting, and I showed her how I could knit. And I slept over at the family's house. And eventually we were able to fix the problem of my bike with a crazy dude. They say he's a bike freak. So the bike freak came, looked at my bike, we fixed the problem. And all up, it was such a heartwarming experience as these strangers took me into their house and they treated me like their own daughter. And his parents actually have visited Sydney a couple of times, so they knew about Australia. And even though we didn't share the same language, we were able to communicate with smiles and gestures, and we had a really lovely time and grew very close in this short time frame. And the next day, when it was time for my departure, we were hugging and the parents were almost crying at my departure. From then on, I carried on my journey. And while I was reflecting on this stay, and people always asked me, What is the name of your bike? You need a name for your bike, and I did have none. I thought my name for my bike is Sieker. So I named it after this Bosnian village where this guardian angel came to my help. And yeah, this is one day of my trip.
SPEAKER_00
Thank you so much, Madeline, for sharing that incredible day from your journey and the little insight into how you came to calling your bike Siekose. Something that I especially love about this story is just what were the chances? Like, seriously, listeners, what were the chances that you'd have a mechanical like this in rural Bosnia be at your wind's end wondering how am I going to fix this? And then all of a sudden there's a stranger who happens to be from the country that you live in, who speaks your language, who then happens to have a friend that is into bikes and can get you sorted. I just love how this turned out and also loved how this also included a heartwarming overnight stay with this family that Madeline struck up a connection with. It has such great insights. I like your first question about the guest's first bike. I don't remember my bike, but I do remember my first successful ride. How glorious. For us touring nerds, it would also be great to get guest ideas about their bike choice, favourite gear, food tips, route planning tips, etc. Thanks, Paul. Well Paul, I'm all there with you. Firstly, thanks for supporting me on the show, and I'm glad that it triggered you to think about what your first bike memory was. I often wonder how many listeners have done that after hearing that first question. And listeners, if you have, please get in touch with me and let me know. And Paul, all I can say is keep your eyes peeled, I've got some exciting ideas to come for future episodes, which will probably cover off on much of what you've been asking for. Thanks again for supporting me on the podcast. And listeners, if you would also like to do what the legends Mike and Paul have done and support the show by buying me a virtual coffee, I've included a link in the show notes. It keeps me caffeinated, and these lovely accompanying messages also keep me energized to keep producing these episodes for you week in, week out. Again, I'm super excited for episode 100. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening.
