The heat was often a bit too much to ride in, so opting to spend four or so hours in the middle of the day lazing about in the shade somewhere, and only riding morning and late afternoon was great. The time off can easily be wasted on delicious gelato, beer, and enjoying the seaside towns.
Krk as a town was a highlight - beautiful, but small and relatively quiet. For cycling the highlight was probably the twin islands of Cres and Losinj.
Although the big cities are great in themselves, as a cyclist it's difficult to like them. Dubrovnik in particular is a very beautiful city, but is more suited to the normal tourist than cyclists. On another cycling trip I would gladly skip the big cities and spend the entire time on the islands, then visit Montenegro via Trebinje. The inland route via Bosnia seems it would be much more pleasant and easy than the coastal road.
Finding campgrounds in Croatia was easier than in Slovenia, but they were usually rocky and hard ground, and we got a few bent pegs. In some cases we used rocks more than pegs to anchor the tent.
We didn't cycle as much distance as we intended. In Slovenia we were limited mostly by bad weather, and in Croatia it was our ferry options and our unwillingness to ride the main coastal highway. What we did was very enjoyable though. We also improved quite a lot as cyclists over the three weeks, and were in pretty good shape by the end.
Apart from the rainfall, Slovenia was probably a better country for cycling. Less touristy and more bike friendly than Croatia, and there were areas that sound great for cycling that we didn't visit.
Anyway, it was a great trip. I think our only mistake was to try to fit in too many places, meaning we had to cover quite a lot of distance on other forms of transport in order to fit them in. Catching trains, buses and planes is so much less fun and rewarding than cycling, and considerably more expensive. It would be better to cover less distance and be cycling nearly all of the time, even if it means missing a lot of the big drawcards of a region. There are so many small things which will make up for it.
Croatia and trip audio wrapup
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Distance: N/A
Plane Dubrovnik to Tallinn
6th and 7th June 2008
Our last day in Dubrovnik before heading home was spent looking for bike boxes. As there are a total of zero specialist bike shops in the city and a similar number of helpful people in the sports shops that did sell bikes, this turned out to be not possible. Estonian Air's policy is that all bikes must be in a box. When we called them they said they would accept them bagged, just not take responsibility for any damage. Eventually we found some huge sheets of plastic from a gardening shop to wrap them up in. This is far easier and more practical than a box anyway.
We had a mid morning flight, but because of our previous difficulties with catching the buses we took a stupidly early bus. It all worked out well though, and it was worth the effort to skip riding that busy road.
June 6th audio update
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Distance: 75km
Cycled Dubrovnik to Trebinje and back
5th June 2008
We took a day off from our lazing about in Dubrovnik to make a side trip to nearby Trebinje in Bosnia. Since it was just a day trip we didn't have much weight so it was to be a relatively easy ride. Leaving Dubrovnik wasn't so easy because it was quite a long steep hill, and a very busy road. There was a shoulder which made it, although still a little frightening, at least managable.
About 4km out of Dubrovnik we turned off the main highway onto a small road which led to Trebinje. At first we thought we were lost because the road was completely empty, and we thought it was a major road into a different country and so should be busy. There were a couple of quarries around but little else. We were able to confirm we were on the right track though and continued on our merry way up the winding road. The views back to Croatia and the Adriatic were quite spectacular.
Because of the history of unfriendliness between Croatia and Bosnia I was expecting the border security to be quite tough, but it was the most relaxed I've ever seen. The Croatian border waved us out, then when we got to the Bosnian security I was taking too long to find Millerine's passport, so they sent us through without checking. Obviously two non-slavs on bicycles don't pose much of a threat.
The rest of the trip to Trebinje was uneventful. The road continued winding up to the top of the hill, then it was a gradually graded 15km ride down into Trebinje. In between there was very little other than abandoned and destroyed buildings, road kill, and only about four or five cars. It was very stark. It looked as though it had been hit hard by the war and never recovered. The view of Bosnia was nothing but mountains. If I were to ride to Montenegro I would go via Bosnia though. It's a much more pleasant ride than along the busy coastal road.
Trebinje was a very normal city, not a beautiful town like we were getting used to. There was an old town, but not much of one. It had other things going for it though. We were the only tourists in town, it was very cheap, and everyone we met was helpful and friendly. I got out fifty konvertibilnih maraka after judging it's spending power by looking at cafe beer prices, but it went a very long way. We went to the markets and bought a whole heap of vegetables, then had what for us was a gourmet lunch (the best food for the trip), and still had enough to buy some food and alcohol supplies for a couple of days.
In general there wasn't much to see, but after being in overtouristy, unfriendly Croatia for so long the friendliness of the people of Trebinje was very welcome.
On the way back the border security just waved us through. We enjoyed more of the view of the Adriatic, and were back in time to cook a delicious tea of vegetable soup.
June 5th audio update
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Distance: 25km
Cycled Milna to Stari Grad
Ferry Stari Grad to Dubrovnik
3rd and 4th June 2008
The ride back to the ferry at Stari Grad was fun because once you get through the tunnel at the top of the island it's all downhill, and we knew the road well by now.
Again we shared the ferry with Pat and Ron, although they got off at Korčula and we had decided to go straight through to Dubrovnik. The view of Korčula old town from the ferry was almost enough to cause regret for not stopping off there. The rest of the island didn't look all that exciting as we travelled down it's coastline though, so I settled into reading Kafka's The Castle and drinking beer on deck.
Dubrovnik is a fantastic city. The old town is as beautiful as any I've seen (or more so), is large, and the walls are very well preserved. It also has hundreds of stray cats. The rest of the city outside of the old town has some character and a good vibe as well. The only problem is the hills and the lack of bike shops.
We are staying at Camping Solitudo, which is near the suburb of Lapad, a few kilometres from the city centre. It's a very comfortable place and ideal for settling down for a few days, which is exactly what we intend to do (apart from a day trip tomorrow). Particularly as there is a little market which sells our staple diet these days - bread, vegies, beer and wine.
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Distance: 66km
Cycled Trogir to Split
Ferry Split to Stari Grad
Cycled Stari Grad to Hvar
1st and 2nd June 2008
We got up early to ride to Split in an effort to beat traffic, but we needn't have worried as it was Sunday and even the multilane highway we entered Split on was pretty empty. It was an OK ride and our fastest average speed for any section of the trip. In Split we ran into a Dutch guy who was planning to reach Indonesia sometime before December, and had cycled 4400km in 6 weeks. He was wondering what the roads were like for cycling between Darwin and Sydney, so I told him a little about the difficulties with distances and water.
We met an English couple, Pat and Ron, on the ferry. They were a bit older and doing a similar thing to us. We went together for the ride to Milna where we camped, and they were much more our pace than Matt and Vanessa had been.
Hvar is a long thin island with a 77km road from Hvar at one end to Sucaraj at the other. Stari Grad is less than 20km from Hvar, on the other side of the island. The road to Hvar is good for cycling. You have to ride over a big hill (as with all Croatian islands), but there isn't much traffic. There is a kilometre or so long tunnel at the top which is well lit and worth it for skipping the worst of the hill. It's very steep getting out of Hvar, but only for a short distance.
The town of Hvar itself is very cool. It's very touristy but a nice and lively. There's also an awesome castle with fantastic views of the surrounding islands and of Hvar.
The Milna campground was about 5km from Hvar and wasn't great quality, but was cheap at 100 kune/night. It was in a nice place next to the sea, but the ground was rock hard, resulting in lots of bent pegs and a partially erected tent. There was a very good campground nearer Hvar, but it was more than twice the price.
We still didn't want to ride the mainland coast road, so we opted to ferry out of Stari Grad, leaving us a day to hire a scooter and travel to the other end of the island.
Hvar is probably the most scenic of the islands, with an excellent town and castle. Well worth the visit, but cycling the length of it would be fun.
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