The last couple of days have been really rather warm… hot enough that even the locals are complaining… the heat has a particularly soporific effect on the locals… particularly the males (this will not come as a suprise to any women reading this….). A side effect of the heat is the adoption of a peculiarly laid back way of walking in flip flops… I’ll call it the Hrvatska Schlep for now. I am well on my way to mastering it… particularly this evening after almost 180km on the bike… a most sweaty affair :-)
I took just one pannier with my camera gear, pump and snacks to make a day trip from Trogir to Krka National Park (read about it here…).. my outbound journey took me inland from Trogir across the mountains with the return following the coastline back from Šibenik. It was a great day….
I set off under cloudy skies at about 9am this morning, pretty warm and humid though. The road climbs pretty much straight away for about 12km, the first 6 or 7 being the steepest along a series of switchbacks up the mountainside. I passed a bunch of girls in their early twenties I guess on bikes struggling up the climb… I figured they must have been on an activity holiday.. I went past very quickly not just because I am a good climber and a show off (lol) but also it might have been a bit obvious if I’d kind of hung around… they weren’t wearing very much at all you see… this is no bad thing of course from my perspective, being a typical male, and I could not help wondering a few km further on just what effect the rather sudden and relatively chilly rainstorm was having…. The thing I could not figure out was what a bunch of girls was doing grovelling up that climb on their own.. then all became clear when I reached the top and met a bunch of young blokes on bikes sitting on a wall eating and drinking waiting for their respective other halves I guess. So much for being supportive, lol!
It took about 2 1/2hours of riding across a pretty empty mountain landscape to reach the pretty little town of Skradin. There was one ugly bit of new highway to deal with near Šibenik but it was only for a few km… which reminds me, just as an aside, if you’re reading this and bringing a bike out here a tail light for the road tunnels here and in BiH particularly where they are not lit might be useful… in my case I just went through as quick as I could and kept my ears open for heavy stuff coming from behind.
I don’t know if it was general fatigue or an inadequate breakfast but my legs just felt empty all the way to Skradin… it hurt. Still, a really good Čevapi and copious quantities of coffee on the waterfront in Skradin seemed to sort my legs out.. just as well really, it is a stiff climb back out of the valley! Now, I still don’t have a card reader that will work with SDHC cards so instead I’m going to borrow some pics from the public domain to show you places till I get home. Here is Skradin from the road down… it is very pretty, very friendly, very quiet and popular with fat germans with yachts… or at least it was today.
and here is a pic of the falls in the park… very nice
From the park I had to backtrack to Šibenik… but at least this way the ugly bit of highway was downhill so over much quicker.. legs feeling good now too.
The coastal road from Šibenik was fabulous, not much climbing, light winds and a good surface. Lovely views as it wound its way around the tortuous coastline. Some very pretty little islands with towns on that look like they are growing from the sea.. the tiny tidal range in the Adriatic means folk build their houses about 3 inches above sea level. Krapanj is a good example… I had lovely views from a road bridge about 20km from Šibenik…
I stopped a bit further on in Primošten.. another story book kind of place growing from a spit of land in the ocean… it was baking hot there, I wanted beer but thought maybe not a good idea so instead opted for filling my bottles with iced water and a large coffee to keep me going… riding big distances on tour with none of the energy/electrolyte drinks available at home really makes you appreciate how well they work.. I fuel my riding here with a mix of dried fruit, iced tea, salted pretzels, fig rolls and jaffa cakes.. doesn’t half make you fart.. or maybe that is the copious quantities of cherries I have been buying at the market… dunno.. anyway, I digress… Primošten is really pretty, here I passed two Aussie cyclotourists (we didn’t speak, they were carrying big aussie flags on their bikes…) I felt quite smug, the amount of gear they were carrying was phenomenal… even when I’m camping and kitted for wilderness I take maybe a third of what they had on each bike… perhaps they brought their own beer from home… I know from first hand experience how proud each state is of it’s local brew…. and maybe they worried that all you could get in Croatia was Budweiser, haha. If that was truly the case I think I’d bring my own too…. anyway, a pic of the place…
So, on from Primošten.. I was in roadie heaven.. good road, good views, good legs and a quick bike… it was hot out there though. I didn’t stop again until I arrived back in Trogir. That was 161km of riding… then after some food I rode the 16km round trip to my favourite swimming spot at Slatine… the harbour wall is particularly good for diving off and being straight into deep water only the fish to bother with the sight of lycra bibshorts…
