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Croatia 2013 (#2)

Part 2: August 5th – 8th

By Watracz Is Traveling

Day 5: Pag island, Vir, Zadar, Pakoštane

August 5th, 2013

View day 5 route on Google Maps

In the morning, we wake to the voices of tourists who have been taking advantage of the sun and the sea from early on. Our laundry dried in the night, so now we have a full set of fresh clothes for the next days. We take a dip a couple of times, we make our breakfast, and set out.

Paklenica National Park

We reach the parking lot in front of the National Park entrance. Unfortunately, you can’t take bikes beyond that spot. It’s too hot for a hike, so we just ride on. On the way, we take some photos of the bikes with the mountains in the back.

We stop by the bridge to the island of Pag and take some pictures. Close to the bridge, on a small peninsula, there are the ruins of an old castle. The island is like a rocky desert: all you can see around you are white hillocks and stones, with just some dry bushes in places. We take a breather in the shade, sipping on cold Nestea.

The further we go into the island’s interior, the hotter it gets. We pass through droughty fields with nothing but shrubs and stones. Still, low stone walls divide them into parts and portions. I’m wondering if any crops could even grow here.

It’s already 1 pm, and the thermometer shows almost 40 °C. We stop at the side of the road, with desert landscapes on all sides, and the sea and mainland Croatia on the horizon.

Port Žigljen

We get to the port on the other side of the island, where the ferries to Prizna launch, take some pictures and go back the same way.

Pag

We stop on a hill with a view of the entire town. The view is amazing, and if not for the temperature we would stay here longer. A moment later we’re approached by some tourists asking if we could take their photos – they later repay the favor. We talk for a bit, then go our own ways.

We pass through the towns of Krneza and Nin and reach a bridge that takes us to the island of Vir. On the way we stop to shop at a mini-mart. The store is air-conditioned, and the chill is so pleasant we really don’t feel like going back outside. We’re envious of all the four-wheeler that have air-con installed.

Vir

We jump in the water. At the bottom, you can see dozens of black sea urchins. I’m swimming barefoot, so I have to be really careful not to step on one. After the swim, we eat our sandwiches, and move on, refreshed.

Zadar

Less than 30 kilometers on, we reach Zadar, one of the larger towns on the route. For a while, we ride around the tourist-filled city and make our way through traffic jams, weaving between cars. We stop in the harbor that’s full of ships and yachts and take a photo break.

Sukošan

Some 10 kilometers outside of Zadar, Paweł wants to take a photo with a palm tree and his bike, so we stop and do a photo shoot. The sun is getting lower, so we start looking for a campsite, as close to the beach and the sea as possible.

Pakoštane

We make our camp, not exactly authorized, at the Autocamp Nordsee camp site. We take a side road to the beach, and park the bikes close to the sea, by the boats and pontoons. The tourists there are a little surprised by the unusual sight.

A moment later, a family from Poland comes over to say hi. There are a lot of Poles, you can hear conversations in Polish every so often.

Day 6: Pirovac, Vodice, Karlobag

August 6th, 2013

View day 6 route on Google Maps

In the morning, we get up from the rough rocks with aching necks. It turns out our mattress is punctured. It didn’t make it through our clowning in the water, which included jumping onto it off a bridge. We talk about what we should do next. We have precious little cash left, and it looks like we’ll have to get back home sooner than we thought. On top of that, there’s the potential cost of a new mattress, since sleeping on the rocks isn’t much fun. The plan was to reach Split then turn back. We’re about 130 km from the city, so in theory, that’s close enough. But in the end we decide to turn back. On the way we’ll try to fix the mattress. Maybe it can make it through the last couple of nights.

We ride out of Pakoštane, and for several dozen kilometers we’re heading in the direction of Šibenik, then we turn back and take the route back to Karlobag.

Karlobag

On the way we find a wild beach and decide to camp there. We can’t find any other route to the beach, so to get there, we maneuver our bikes between the tables of a restaurant’s garden. Paweł jumps in the water, and I make the day’s dinner: fried sausage with bread and onion. The best food on the entire trip. After dinner we dive into the water from the rocks.

We park the bikes literally a meter from the sea. We try to patch the mattress, but end up with an even bigger hole, so we give up on it. Looks like it’s time to sleep on the rocks again. Two couples from Poland come to the beach, too, and set up their tents a few meters away.

The beer we were lugging around in the top case all day is way too warm and no good for drinking. We put the cans in a helmet bag, tie the whole thing to a rock, and let it rest several meters under the surface of the cool water. An hour later, we take a dive and take a can each – then we take turns bringing up more. After dark it’s tough to find the bag in the water, but luckily, we manage.

Day 7: Gospić, Korenica, Plitvice Lakes

August 7th, 2013

View day 7 route on Google Maps

In the morning, we notice there was an ebb at night – where there was just one meter to the waterline, there are now five. We start to wonder what would happen if there was a tide in the night instead…

Around 10 we set out on our way. We take a steep, winding road through the mountains toward the town of Gospić. On the way, we stop on a hill to take some pictures.

The further from the sea we get, the cooler it is, and the nicer it is to ride a bike. Eventually, the Croatian heat, which we got enough of by the seaside, stops to bother us. We stop at a roadside restaurant Restoran Most in Gospić to eat a normal meal. We’ve survived the past 6 days mostly on salami sandwiches, tomatoes, bananas and apples.

Plitvice Lakes (Croatian: Plitvička Jezera)

The clou of the trip. Once we manage to find parking spots among the other bikes, we move towards the ticket booths. We get our tickets after an hour. They’re expensive, but we expect they’ll be worth it. By the entrance, a guide recommends the route to pick (we take option H, which is supposed to take about 4 hours); we get in the shuttle and go to the Veliko Jezero.

Malo Jezero

There are throngs of tourists in the National Park. The water in the lakes is crystal clear. Fish are swimming right by the surface. We walk on wooden walkways and bridges, passing one water reservoir and waterfall after another. It’s very hot. Paweł cools off by dipping a bandanna in water and wrapping it around his neck.

The Veliki Prštavac waterfall

We pass by an amazing waterfall, where the water is flowing down in over a dozen stream, from almost 30 meters high. The cool, refreshing drops still reach us where we stand, far away from the waterfall.

The Mali Prštavac waterfall

A couple minutes later we reach another picturesque waterfall. The water is turquoise, and you’d like nothing more than to jump in one of the lakes and have a swim.

The Galovački Buk waterfall

Lake Kozjak

We take the boat to the other side of the lake Kozjak. Aboard it, we meet a large groups of Chinese tourists with selfie sticks. We reach the pier on the other side, and get off the boat. We take a brief rest before moving on, and buy some cold Sprite.

Lake Milanovac

The Špilja Šupljara cave

There’s a big line to get to the cave, so we don’t get inside, and just look around on the outside.

Large Waterfall (Croatian: Veliki Slap)

As we’re walking on the narrow walkway around the lake and make a turn, we see the Great Waterfall. It’s 78 meters high, and it’s where the Korana river, 134 km long, starts from.

After a tour around the waterfall we take the winding stairs to the top, and we slowly leave the Plitvice Lakes area. On the way, we stop at a viewpoint, where you can see the waterfall in all its glory.

The Plitvice Lakes didn’t blow our minds. The place is really beautiful, definitely worth seeing, but we felt it was a bit oversold, and definitely too expensive. Maybe if we hadn’t seen that many wonderful sights before, on the way, the lakes would have made a bigger impression?

We move on. In the evening, we manage to find a campsite a bit inland. The prices are half of those right by the sea. I put up the tent, and Paweł goes to buy us some food. It’s also much cooler. It’s the first time we’re putting up a tent during the trip.

Day 8: Vienna, Ostrava, Katowice, Krakow

August 8th, 2013

View day 8 route on Google Maps

After a week of intense holidays, it’s time to get back to our day-to-day. We set out from Croatia and head for Poland. We have almost 900 kilometers to get through. This time, we want to make it in one day, no overnight stops on the way. We take the highway through Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic, and we only stop to fill our bikes or to eat. After about 10 hours of sprinting on the highways like that, we get to the Polish border.

Back in Poland, Paweł is low on fuel, so we look around for a gas station. We do find one, but unfortunately it’s cash-only. We only have PLN 2.70 left in cash, so we pour what we can and then ride looking for an ATM, and then – another gas station. The whole thing takes us about two hours, but in the end, we make it.