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Croatia 2013 (#1)

Part 1: August 1st – 4th

By Watracz Is Traveling

After our expedition to the Romania and Transylvania, it was time for the Croatian seaside.

We have eight days for the journey, and we plan to travel mainly through the north and central part of the country (not including Istria), hopping on some of the larger islands, and hitting the Plitvice Lakes on our way back.

Day 1: Cieszyn, Mikulov, Vienna

August 1st, 2013

View day 1 route on Google Maps

Paweł leaves Rzeszów in the morning, and we meet around 10:30 am, a couple kilometers outside of Krakow, near Skawina, by the highway exit; and we get on the road. We bypass the Krakow-Katowice strip of the highway, to avoid unnecessary tolls, and ride through Wadowice towards Cieszyn, where we take a lunch break. We order two large pizzas at the market square, but what we get exceeds our expectations. The pizzas are huge. We barely manage to eat one, and we pack the other one for the road.

Mikulov (Czech Republic)

It’s extremely hot. A couple of kilometers before the border with Austria we rest a while in a small Czech town. There’s an interesting castle sitting at the top of the hill, but unfortunately we don’t have the time to take a tour. It’s after 6 pm, but it’s still over 30 °C. We’re hiding away in the shade, opposite the castle, to have some respite from the sun.

Vienna

We reach Vienna around 9 pm. The city is sprawling and crowded. Paweł’s prepared ahead of time: he has a screenshot with the camp site marked. We stop at a gas station by the Danube and try to locate the camping on a map with the GPS. The route is a bit complicated, but in the end we manage to get there. We spend the night at the Neue Dona campsite. Next to us, some other bikers put up camp – their machines are more the all-terrain type. It looks like they’re looking at a long trip, since they’ve even taken spare tires. There’s also a ton of cyclists. We shower, put up our tent, and go to sleep.

Day 2: Maribor, Karlovac, Krk island

August 2nd, 2013

View day 2 route on Google Maps

We wake up around 8, to what looks like a beautiful day in the making. There’s not a cloud in the sky, and it’s hot. After a quick breakfast we leave Vienna. Despite the early hours, the city is almost jammed. As I’m riding on the city center’s main street, I try to change lanes to the left, but the car that was far away in the rear mirror just a moment ago is now right behind me, so I jump back to the right lane; the car drives by really fast in the left lane and honks. Some Austrians drive really fast and you need to take care.

We pass through Slovenia very quickly. There’s a giant traffic jam at the border crossing to Croatia. Luckily, the jam is in the other direction. It’s over a dozen kilometers long, and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of cars and trucks stuck. We’re a bit afraid of going back the same way, since something like this could add hours to our return trip.

Krk Island

The closer we get to the sea, the warmer it gets. It’s hard to endure in our biking clothes, so we take off whatever we don’t need at the moment. Finally, our eyes get to feast on the sight of the sea. We pass the bridge (the toll’s about 35 kuna) to the island of Krk, we look for a place for the night, and jump in the water. We spend the night at the Autocamp Pušća campsite.

One’s first ever swim in a sea comes as a shock: the water is so salty! When I swallow some of it, I almost get sick. Walking barefoot on the rocky beach is not a great idea, either. Paweł is better prepared, Ewa, his wife, bought him a pair of swimming shoes. I tie my shoelaces around the flip-flops, so they can stay on in the water, and pretend that works just as well. The water is very clear, you can see the bottom more than a dozen meters below. We get in the water every half hour, on average, all the way until dusk. We cool our beers – we brought them all the way from Poland – in the rocks by the shore. At night, we don’t bother putting up a tent: we sleep under the stars, on a mattress two meters from sea. The good life.

There are many ships and sailboats sailing in the bay. On the other side of the bay, you can see the lights of Rijeka and the nearby towns. As we walk around the campsite area, we see a side entrance, that a couple of cars uses to get to the beach bypassing the entrance fee. We’ve paid about 150 kuna per person for the night, which isn’t that high once you consider it’s the middle of high season.

Day 3: Glavotok, Baška, Senj, Jablanac

August 3rd, 2013

View day 3 route on Google Maps

We wake up quite late, around 9, and hop in the water before breakfast. It’s so hot, that as soon as we pack for the road, we need to cool down in the water again. We check out of the campsite around 11, and we take a ride around the island.

Glavotok

Streets in the small Croatian towns we pass on our way are very narrow. In some places, a single car can barely fit in between the buildings, and usually you really can’t see if there’s anything coming from behind a bend. In the town of Brzac, I’m nearly rammed by a bus driving from the opposite side – it comes out from behind a turn and takes up the width of the road. Luckily, I manage to ride to the side and avoid a collision.

We stop by the bay, where I take some photos, and Paweł hides from the sun in the shade.

Krk

Less than twenty kilometers later, we take another swimming break. We leave our bikes at the parking lot and find some cool rocks to jump in the water from. The temperature is so exhausting that Paweł can’t even muster a smile for the photos anymore. The bottom of the bay and the rocks by the shore are plastered over with black sea urchins. We cool off in the water, and move on.

Punat

The center of the bay is occupied by the small island of Kosljun. Supposedly, a long time ago the island was inhabited by the Franciscans from the nearby monastery. Now it’s just one of the many tourist attractions in the area.

Draga Bašćanska

The heat makes it hard to ride. The asphalt is 45°C, and yet it doesn’t melt. Not a cloud in sight on the sky. Paweł wraps his left leg in fabric, because the hot air coming out from the engine burns. We put our heavy, non-breathable motorbike wear in the trunks, but that doesn’t help a whole lot. The wind sweeps over uncovered body parts, and we can’t even feel the sun burning.

We stop every so often to get a sip of cold Nestea. We got it straight from the fridge, but after just 30 minutes in the trunk it’s not potable anymore, so we buy a bottle every time we make a longer stop. We really regret we have no brightly-colored clothes, because our dark clothes are like a magnet for the heat. Still, the amazing views make up for everything.

Baška

One of the most beautiful and most picturesque locations on our route. Paweł says that if he were to go to just a single spot in Croatia for a week, Baška is the spot he’d pick.

We take a winding road to the hill beyond the town, which is the location of a church of St. John the Baptist (Croatian: Sveti Ivan). We park our bikes in the shadow of trees. Paweł doesn’t walk out of the shadow even for a second. We have a good view of the town and the bay, which is spotted with motorboats and jet skis. In the distance, you can see the islands of Otok Prvić and Otok Sveti Grgur.

Šilo

We stop near the beach and jump in the water. Without cooling ourselves at least 3 times every day, we just couldn’t go on. We meet some Poles who are surprised that we were able to ride this far in this heat. It’s the first sandy beach we’ve stayed on. It’s a relief for the feet, but it also makes the water less transparent than it is elsewhere.

Voz

A good spot where you can put up a tent for free. It’s only 3 km away from the campsite where we had spent the night before, so we’re a bit sorry we didn’t find it earlier. Croatian prices are a little over the top in the summer season. This summer, a stay in a room by the sea was on average about 300–350 kuna per person.

Senj

We stop to fill up the bikes. The sun is setting, and so far, we’ve only made some 180 km. On the hill above the town is Fortress Nehaj (Croatian: Tvrđava Nehaj). The fortress is 18 meters tall and 23 meters long. Its walls are almost 3 meters thick. Once upon a time a defensive bastion, it now serves as a museum.

Sveti Juraj

Another stop, and we take a couple of photos with the town and the bay, with the tiny island of Lisac. It’s 8 pm, and finally the temperature drops a little, making it easier to ride our bikes.

Klada

And now we have a dilemma – should we watch the wonderful sunset, or look for a place for the night? We divide the tasks: I stay to take photos, and Paweł rides on to find a spot for putting up the tent for the night. The bad news is he can’t find anything, so we keep going.

We reach the next town after dark, and we look for some accommodation. We get to a campsite, but unfortunately it’s full. We find a pier where we could set up the tent, but it’s too crowded and there are no spots left. We ask at the motel, but the prices for staying in a room are too steep, so we ride on.

Jablanac

After hours of fruitless search, very tired, we set our mattress by the lighthouse near the town of Jablanac. The town looks beautiful at night, but I can’t muster the strength to fiddle with the camera at this point. We park our bikes on the steep mountainside and put rocks under the wheels, to secure them. We pop open some Croatian beer and decide what we’re going to do the next day.

Day 4: Stinica, Palit, Lopar, Starigrad

August 4th, 2013

View day 4 route on Google Maps

In the morning, we’re woken up by tourists who are walking to the town to do some shopping. We notice the first ferry to the island of Rab as early as 7 am. We have a quick breakfast, pack the bikes, and set off for Stinica at 9 am.

Stinica

The queue for the ferry is several kilometers long. At first, we politely wait at the end of the line, but once the sun starts to ramp up its heat, we decide to speed things up a bit, and go around the cars standing in the jammed-up line. This turns out to be a good call, since there’s a separate motorbike line for the ferry; after all, bikes can fit in between other vehicles. We buy our tickets and get on board.

Our bikes are parked between other vehicles, but I’m a bit concerned that they might fall over when the ferry makes a turn. Aboard the ferry we meet a group of Poles; we chat with them the rest of the way. In the distance, you can see the white lighthouse where we camped, at the side of the mountain. When the ferry starts to turn to land at the pier, we walk down to our bikes, to hold them in place during the landing.

Palit

It’s very hot, and after a mere hour of driving in the sun we take a break to have a dip – and second breakfast. We swim around like three times, then ride on.

Lopar

After two more hours on the bikes, we jump in the cool water again. I decide to rent a jet ski and have some fun; Paweł stays to take photos. Unfortunately I can’t take the jet ski close enough for a good shot, because the designated jet ski area is too far from the shore. Jet skis are awesome, the experience is completely different from riding a motorbike. A couple of times, I manage to speed up and jump up on a wave. I try to convince Paweł to give it a shot, but he’s consistently resistant.

Supetarska Draga

We go back to the Stinica ferry, taking photos along the way.

Lukovo Sugarje

A short break to have a sip of cold Nestea and to take some pictures of the bay.

Starigrad

We stay the night at the Bluesun Camp Paklenica site. We barely manage to find any free spots, because there are so many tourists – almost everything is occupied. We hop in the water and try to cool down our beer, which was nearly at boiling point and bouncing around in the trunk all day. We jump in the water from the pier, swim around on a mattress, and compete to see who can dive the deepest.

The sun sets beyond the mountains, far over the horizon, around 8:30 pm. The colors of the sky are incredibly vivid. One of the beer cans we put away in the rocks under the water breaks; it’s good that we have more in store. We haven’t put up a tent for the night even once – it’s that warm.

Time to do our laundry. We take the line that Paweł uses to secure his luggage on the bike, and use it as the laundry rope. One end goes around a tree, the other on the bike’s handlebars – works well enough. We snap some photos and go to sleep. During the night, we wake to hear a group of Poles talking about our bikes. One of them likes the Aprilia – he says he’s hunting for one just like that, but it’s hard to find one in good shape. We made a mere 150 kilometers through the entire day.