Tour de (Western) Balkans 2023

So the dogs. There are the ancient shepherd dogs usually asleep on the road guarding their sheep. They often move begrudgingly and arthrtically and rarely say a word at the sight of two cyclists with drying pants and socks flapping in the breeze.

There are the younger sheep dogs. They’re loud and close but probably wouldn’t bite unless you did something moronic. You just have to keep your calm and go slow. One day they’ll remember that cyclists are also probably harmless. Not sure my brainstem has quite learnt that about them yet so I don’t begrudge their barks.

Then there are the motley guard dogs in houses / warehouses / fields. They look vicious and sound vicious and I don’t trust them an inch. Jon gets out the Gadget on them and it works a treat. Best £9.99 we have ever spent. We gave our last one to a lonely, scared-looking Dutch 17 year-old whose dad was sending him out into the wild on his own to make a man of him. This is therefore our second and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Jon’s technique with the really vicious ones it to stop the bike stand tall and fire to show who’s boss. It doesn’t work on packs always as there is usually a leader who says let’s attack anyway. Jon kicking the pack leader works quite well on previous experience.