23 May 2022
This is our last full day in Croatia!! (..that is the border in the top right corner…only 40km riding away!)
A bit sad really…for almost all of it has been fantastic!! Weather nigh perfect….The cycling…and the places visited just awesome!
And today was no different!! Our biggest ‘climbing’ day so far! And a new speed record….hahahahaha!
(…..no idea how they come up with these numbers…for I might have touched 55kmph today..but no more!)
To begin of course..we had to manhandle the bikes down some of the steps!! Quite tricky….!!
The first part of the day turned into certainly the hardest bit of cycling of the trip so far. Very steep uphills…and very rough/gravelly and steep downhills.
It was extraordinary…but at the 500m high point…and accessible only on these tracks…we came across what we thought was a cafe. The old man there greeted us like long lost friends (like he has not had a customer for years…quite possibly!)….but no, no coffee. Wine…dessert wine….schnapps even….all free of charge!! But no…no coffee!! So we loved and left him…to wait until the season really starts!!
The scenery was spectacular…..it really is a very hilly island!!
But the rough terrain was slow going (we had to walk some bits)…so we had no chance of catching our intended ferry.
But no worries, as it gave us some time to have a well-earned beer at the delightful port Sucuraj.
We had been expecting a fair amount of traffic when we joined the ‘main road’ to the port…but it was all but deserted…despite the fact that this crossing (Hvar to the mainland) is only 20 minutes or so!…compared to the 2 hour crossing from Split. Lovely riding!
And the ferry then took us over to our overnight stop here at Drvenik. A spectacular setting…and given we are heading inland tomorrow…we were left wondering where our road might be!!!
Drvenik itself is delightfully laid back. And our accommodation is on top of the bar I am sitting at…right next to the beach! And a great beach it is too…..small pebbles, falling steeply into the sea…so you can practically dive in off the beach…perfect!
A very nice last stop in Croatia…with beers back to normal prices!!
Great photos Neil, and great daily updates. The whole of this part of Croatia looks really beautiful – and best seen on two wheels (plus, of course, iron leg muscles, tough backsides, and plenty of determination going up those slopes….).