Probably worth mentioning at this point that camping in Croatia, especially if travelling alone, ain’t really going to save you any money. The going rate for a room or bed in my experience was between 100 and 200 kuna/night.. for which you get linen and towels as a minimum… sometimes use of a kitchen and more often than not a terrace and a fridge. According to the girls they were being charged between 100 and 200 kuna per night for a camping pitch.. for which you get to bed down with loads of Dutch and German folk in their RVs :-) Having said that though there were a couple of terrific spots for camping.. quiet and right by the water. If I was to do this trip again I’d leave behind my off-bike shoes (just flipflops instead) and take a summer weight sleeping bag and mat for the odd bivy… All this leads nicely in to the morning of the 15th June when at about 8am , after breakfast and multiple coffees in Ston, I rode over south over another big hill to D & N’s campsite at Prapratno.. where I found them breakfasting outside their tent amongst large numbers of Dutch and German folk in their RVs :-) The plan for the day was to catch the 10am car ferry across to Sobra on MIjet island and pedal west to the MIjet National Park which is very beautiful and has some terrific swimming in a couple of saltwater lagoons. There was time for coffee on the quay before the ferry however so that is exactly what we did.
There is not so much to say really about MIjet except it was a truly fab day… and probably the slowest 90km I ever rode! Some terrific views, brilliant swimming spots with diving straight into deep, blue, impossibly clear water, icecream, beer, sun etc etc. Definitely a day to remember.
(super swimming spots…)
We arrived back in Sobra about an hour before the 7pm ferry. The light wind had dropped to nothing and it was turning into a stunning evening. A cold beer and some pretzels (magicked from my back pretzel pocket…) passed the time before riding onto the ferry absolutely exhausted. The water at the ferry harbour in Sobra was the clearest I have ever seen… with a depth of about 10 meters I could see the bottom with perfect clarity and it was if the fish were simply suspended in crystal. Amazing. The crossing of about 45 minutes back to Prapratno was absolutely magic – the ocean was mirror smooth as the sun dropped towards the horizon in the warmth of a mellow evening.The comedy was provided by an Austrian couple who asked Daniela if her hair was real, lol, not so many folk with dreads in Austria I guess… I was tempted to ask if the walking carpet that was their dog was real…
It was a sprint for me back over the hill to Ston where I went straight back to the same restaurant as the night before (good grub..) where, despite dripping with sweat and looking slightly the worse for wear in my cycling kit, I was warmly welcomed with a handshake and an ice cold natural lemonade (for a change!). One wag said “Tour de France, haha!” as I parked my bike… <sigh> there is always one…
Oh yes, lots of Mk1 VW Golfs all over Croatia… none quite so amusingly gruesome as this one however….
