“THIS LADDER IS THE ONLY PART OF THE TRAIL THAT WASN’T RIDABLE – UNTIL ELLIOTT HEAP SHOWED UP. THAT CRAZY GUY JUST RODE STRAIGHT DOWN IT!”
Anej recounts, laughing at the British enduro racer’s exploits. “I’ll give you a rope to tie around your seatpost. You climb down first, then lower the bikes down to me,” he tells us, and disappears into the ground. We try to follow him with our helmet lights, while standing in the narrow mining shaft. The hole is about two metres across, with a ladder on the right side and an almost vertical rock ramp on the left. We can’t discern where exactly it ends or whether it has a run-out. Someone rode down that? I take a step back, deeply impressed. Franziska slowly lowers her bike into the depths.
This is the Bomb
We’re in the middle of what’s known as Slovenian Carinthia, a region called Koroška, in the north of the country. This wooded, mountainous area is a picturesque idyll where time
