Or, a back injury, backpacking, three Belgians, a boat and some bicycles.
As a foreword on this section of the trip, our activities were largely influenced by the fact that Tom had suffered a back injury at the end of the last leg while swimming on Dugi Otok. As a reward, we spent a fair amount of time in Zadar visiting the hospital for x-rays, Tom got to wear a super cool looking back brace and I got to carry our backpacks. Also, our excursions were limited (i) to activities that did not require cycling for a couple of weeks; and (once we were allowed to cycle again) (ii) by the requirement that we undertake only very short rides coupled with lots of rest.
Happily for us, Bernard and Inge, a Belgian couple we had met on the road back in France and cycled with for a sum total of an afternoon turned up in Zadar at exactly the right moment and suggested we join them sailing for a week – they were going to hire a yacht with a friend who had the appropriate licensing to skipper the thing and would fly in from France for the outing. So, somewhat spontaneously, we decided it would be an excellent idea to hop on a 44-foot sail-boat and live in close confines with people we barely knew in order to jaunt around the Croatian islands (probably rather surprising them that we decided to accept the invite). This turned out to be one of our better spontaneous decisions.
The Backpacks
In order to pass some time and get south to Trogir for the start of the sailing outing, we decided to return to our backpacking roots. We stored the bikes in Zadar, loaded the stuff we would need into a couple of bags and took off by bus to Trogir via Šibenik. Due to Tom not being in a position to carry luggage, I received the questionable honour of hauling both our packs along with various ancillary items on and off said buses and while trekking through town to our accommodation.
Both Trogir and Šibenik were worth the stops and they were towns with which we would become very familiar (due to spending time there prior to sailing, needing to come back through by bus following sailing in order to revisit Zadar and pick up the bikes and then, finally, in order to cycle down the coast and retrace our prior steps southward).
Šibenik is a fantastic fortified town with no less than 5 forts built at different times during its history. My favourite part of this was that Šibenik was the only major fortified town in the Adriatic that was initially populated by Croats (rather than being established by the Venetians that controlled the coast for most of the Renaissance and set up lots of bases here). This (in my opinion) made for some fun history. Apparently, the locals of Šibenik were renowned pirates. So, even though the Venetians eventually did conquer Šibenik, they were never quite comfortable with the population, which they considered rather uncouth, dangerous, and untrustworthy – shocking really that the locals would not be super keen on imposed Venetian rule (or it seemed to shock the Venetians at any rate). In order to deal with living amongst a population that was no doubt largely ungrateful for being unceremoniously conquered by their Venetian neighbours, the Venetians built a double wall from the main fortress in town down to the sea so that they could access supplies or make a hasty exit if things with the local populace ever got too hairy for their refined tastes. This is the first time in our various perusals of historic forts over the years where we have seen this sort of construction. Otherwise, Šibenik is really a jewel of a town with the fortresses looking out over the water and various islands, tiny pedestrianized alleys, cute restaurants and bars and very few tourists around. They also produce some excellent wine from the Babić grape in the region, in which we happily indulged.
Trogir is just up the coast from Split and is a very cute touristy town set on a small walled island. We enjoyed wandering about the alleyways, checking out the local market and climbing the bell tower for some excellent views. This was also the jumping off point for our sailing excursion, so a necessary stop.
The Boat
So, notwithstanding the broken back, we managed to lug ourselves and the backpacks to Trogir, meet up with our friends, shop for supplies and get loaded up onto our boat – the Miss Elva. Our skipper (Ward) managed to fly in from Paris and land amid gale force winds (lovely). Happily, the next day, the weather largely cleared and we were ready to hit the seas. We visited Brac (Milna Town), Vis (Kut Town), Hvar (Hvar Town and Stari Grad) and a lot of small bays and coves in between.
As this was not a tour, we actually sailed a fair bit (i.e., rather than lounge around or motor between the islands). Both Bernard and Ward are pilots by profession and love to fly/sail/drive (read: play with) any large mechanical item. I remain not entirely sure whether my general edginess over flying has been reduced or drastically heightened by making the acquaintance of these very experienced pilots. On one hand, they are both incredibly competent and I would be more than happy to take a flight in any plane either of them was captaining. On the other, they (no doubt due to their knowledge on the subject) seemed a whole lot more relaxed about a lot of stuff than I would have preferred. For example, I got to spend a week hearing about hairy landings, bad weather, cockpit chats and selfies and all the rumours (probably quite true) about dodgy airlines (not the ones for which they flew, obviously) and unlicensed pilots flying about in our skies. None of this did a whole lot for my general anxiety in this regard.
That said, as we were not flying, I got to experience their sailing expertise instead. Tom had actually been a member of a sailing club as a kid and had a fair idea about what we were doing. I had none. Suffice to say, after the first 3 hours of tacking upwind into choppy water and (what I understand was) a fairly sedate heel, I determined that my days may be best started with the consumption of a sea sickness tablet and followed up with a large glass of wine at lunch. Having figured this out, the trip proceeded rather smoothly and we jaunted between the various islands, drank wine, lounged at, and swam in, idyllic coves and (occasionally) battled the swell and wind for a bit of excitement.
Of particular note in terms of stops, was Hvar Town, which is justifiably famous for its picturesque nature. Apparently it was also at various times a playground for the rich and famous, but when we passed through at the end of the season, it was very quiet and we enjoyed a lovely evening of cocktails and seafood before things entirely closed up for the winter. Stari Grad was also rather lovely (a lot less done up than Hvar) and Kut on Vis Island was similarly rather spectacular.
Overall, an excellent way to spend a week and definitely an amazing opportunity to see the Croatian islands in the way it should be done. We definitely owe a big thank you to the three amazing Belgians who included us in their plans and made it possible for us to see it this way! Final team picture of our fantastic crew below.
The Bicycles (and the camping, and the wine…)
After sailing, we needed to retrace our footsteps, but could obviously stop at a lot more small places on the bikes than we could by bus. A couple of highlights of being able to do this were (i) our stop at Primosten (between Šibenik and Trogir) and (ii) the cycle along that coastline. I will leave the pictures below as evidence of why these were worthwhile.
After retracing our steps, we (finally) made it to Split. We enjoyed Split well enough, and the old town was worth a stop, but the weather was not perfect and it was not our favourite Croatian spot. We went to the fortress at Klis for the afternoon though, which we did think was well worth the outing – amazing narrow fortress on a ridge overlooking Split and controlled by the Hungarian empire for a significant period of time while the Venetians ruled in Split. It was rather strange to have a military installation overlooking a major port and each of these being ruled by different empires in such close proximity. It was also used as the set for Mereen in the Game of Thrones – so there is that. Other exciting news about Split includes me finally getting around to eating a Ćevapi sandwich (basically a Croatian meatball sub with ajvar sauce (capsicum and eggplant reduction)) at a local institution, which was quite excellent.
This brings me to possibly one of our favourite areas in Croatia – Korčula Island and the Pelješac Peninsula. We absolutely LOVED our time on each of these and we did some wild camping, saw cute towns, cycled through amazing vineyards and drank an inordinate amount of wine.
We had not bothered to free camp in Croatia up until this point due to (i) the abundance of cheap accommodation; and (ii) the temperatures being hot and us liking a shower at the end of the day. However, on having to limit the distance of our cycling and the temperatures taking a bit of a drop, it seemed the right time to start camping again. From our limited experience, Croatia is absolutely amazing for wild camping. Sparsely populated, there are lots of excellent opportunities. Each of our camping stops on the trip was an advertisement for this form of travel. We spent an evening in an olive grove watching the Milky Way, an evening cliffside next to a wine shop drinking an excellent reserve and watching a spectacular sunset and an evening on a crystal beach just north of Dubrovnik (see below).
Korčula Island is also worth mentioning for its lovely old town (the eponymous Korčula Town) and the production of wine with the Grk grape in Lumbarda, which is pretty much limited to this locale. Grk was a nice surprise – a super dry white that was slightly woodsy with no acidity at all.
We travelled from Korčula to the Pelješac peninsula, which is known for its Plavac Mali (translation: small blue) grapes – particularly from Postup and Dingač. We spent our first night on the peninsula camping on the cliffside mentioned above (and sunset pictured below) and, from there, we had a short cycle into Potomje, where we spent the best part of the day tasting a whole lot of wine. During this time, we ended up buying about 8 bottles of wine (just polite if one is tasting for free), which was truly ridiculous given we had to carry all of these on the bikes. After tasting a whole lot of Dingač wine in Potomje (which is separated from Dingač on the coast by a mountain range and enjoys a VERY cold micro climate), we cycled through a 400m tunnel under the mountains to Dingač, where it was about 10 degrees warmer. The Dingač grapes are considered the premium red wine in Croatia and cover about 7km of incredibly steep coastline. We cycled through the vinyards in brilliant sunshine and it was definitely one of our most spectacular cycles of the trip.
While Potomje, Postup and Dingač were worth mentioning for their sensational wine, similarly, Ston and Mali Ston, further down the peninsula are worth a mention for their insane seafood and spectacular city walls. The walls run between the two towns and were built in order to keep the Ottomans from reaching the Ston salt works. We spent an excellent couple of days walking the city walls, eating oysters and going out for sensational seafood meals. We were also very lucky with the weather during this section of the trip as it was getting colder, but we were treated to consistent autumnal sunshine.
And, finally, Dubrovnik. I had not really held out very high hopes for this town. Largely, this was due to the fact that I could not really imagine how it could live up to all the hype I had heard over the years. Well, I fully retract any scepticism in this regard. Dubrovnik was sensational. We were lucky enough to see it in the spectacular sunshine mentioned above, and (sadly as a result of the COVID situation) without any tourists. I understand that, typically, entry into the old town is limited to 8,000 people at a time, and it is necessary to book a time slot or wait in line for a long time before entering. We wandered straight on in and the place was really basically empty. We stayed in a little apartment up the hill and outside of the old town and had a view that could not be surpassed. As a result, our time in Dubrovnik would best be summed up by two activities – we spent a lot of time wandering about the old town taking way too many photos and, probably, just as much time sitting on our balcony and exclaiming at the view (I probably have 50 pictures of exactly the same view taken at various times of the day from our balcony).
Dubrovnik truly was a perfect end to a fantastic two months in Croatia before some lovely cycling through rather bucolic countryside towns in the direction of Montenegro for the next leg of the trip. Overall, while we both felt that we really spent a bit too long in the country and would have liked to get moving onwards sooner, we also agreed that the activities of the second month in the country were really that excellent that we did not mind the somewhat glacial pace of travel involved.
September / October 2020
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 Croatia is going on my Travel list!