…said Philip Ryan upon our arrival at Medjugorje.  Our friend Lucy from SPUC Scotland told us to look Philip up when we arrived, that he’d point us in the right direction.  And he certainly did!  He immediately sorted us with a really nice hotel for just 15 Euros each per night, including breakfast!  He invited us up the mountain with him too, but we slept past the 5.30am start.. to 9.30 – what a lie in!

The heat of Croatia and Bosnia really hit us both, Phil in particular.  (What a pansy!)  With highs of 40 degrees celsius (104 F) and mountains much bigger than we’d experienced in Italy, we didn’t make as much distance per day as we’d hoped.  We stopped half way from Split to Medjugorje in Gradac, and we found a campsite where you can stay in a caravan for just €5/night!  Fantastic, we thought – it even looked nice inside.  However, someone was waiting for us in there – with a ridiculous number of legs.  It was huge!  Phil to the rescue, although his scream was girlish enough when he realised that even after knocking one of his legs off, it kept running across my bed – that is, the leg, on its own!

We continued our cycle and met a lady who’d been cycling for two months all the way from Finland.  She told us her average mileage per day, we were put to shame.

We got to Medjugorje on Wednesday evening, in time to shower, go to Mass, have an amazing meal on Phil (thanks Phil!) – spaghetti, steak, and an ice cream.  Our second day, Thursday, we went to morning Mass, had a nice day relaxing, reading, washing clothes, and finally getting some rest.  In the evening, we went to confession, walked up Apparition Hill, saw the Statue of the Risen Christ, and had another good meal!  (Pizza this time – good pizza too!)  We met a man, John Codey/Cotey/? who’d fought in ‘Nam and every war since.  Many stories to tell, and better still, he bought us two pints of Guinness!  What a friendly man.  Another man who’d appreciate your prayers, I’m sure.

This morning – Friday – we were up at 5am for a walk up Mount Krizevac.  Hustling with tourists already – everyone knows to start so early to try to avoid the sun.  We were back down by 8am, and by 9am we were showered and fed and at the local radio station for an interview about our bike trip.  We did our best to advertise the sponsor page and the Youth 2000 website – hopefully we’ll reach out to a few more people!  (I’ve no idea how to find the interview on the internet, I’ll try next time.  Running out of internet time..)

Today we hope to get a bus back up to Split, to catch the ferry back to Italy and then start cycling again.  We can’t face those mountains again in this heat!

Finally, apologies for the lack of photos!  I (Dom) foolishly left my camera cable in the last internet cafe, so it’ll be a little while ’til we find another one.

3 minutes left, I’d better get this posted.  Thank you so much to everyone who has commented, emailed and texted – it’s great to hear from you all and feel your support.  Our prayers are with you all.

With best wishes, God bless,

Dom & Phil

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