Croatia 1.1: Between Highway and Gravel Road

No, of course we didn't have to drive on the highway, but if you replace the word highway with Bundesstraße the title sounds less eloquent. But the correct way would be the other way around and it describes cycling in Croatia quite well.

On May 19th, we drove from Montenegro into Croatia through the mountains. We both went swimming for the first time and also enjoyed beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea beyond the border, thanks to some challenging mountain stages. But the following days held some dampeners alongside beautiful experiences like this.

In the evening, we headed to a vineyard that was designated as a parking space for motorhomes. After waiting for over an hour, we had to leave this place towards Dubrovnik because the owner explained emphatically that camping was not legally allowed, but motorhomes and vans were - presumably according to Croatian law. So we drove on into the dusk until we reached the nearest campsite, full of mostly German campers, after a total of 68km and 980 meters of elevation gain.

The next day we continued directly towards Dubrovnik. This relatively short journey (14km and 250 meters of elevation gain) can be summarized as follows: Full highway, very careless and fast-driving car drivers, and extremely bad mood after a few kilometers. People in Albania had already warned us about these driving situations, so we decided to go directly to the ferry port and take the next ferry to any island. This was not so easy either, because there are not many car ferries, especially in the off-season, and the passenger ferries officially do not allow bicycles, but unofficially accept them with a fairly high tip in our opinion. After some waiting, we were able to take a ferry to the island of Mljet. The island is very unspoilt and not too touristy overall. We cycled another 17km and 400 meters of elevation gain to a campsite in a small village, where we camped under olive trees all alone under the supervision of the very motherly owner, very affordably. In the evening, we sat alone on the rocks of the village's small bay and I was very enthusiastic about the Croatian Adriatic coast.

The next day we started quite late. 16km and 330 meters of elevation gain took us through the botanical diverse national park to the north of the island. From there, we took the ferry to Hvar on the island of Hvar. On the journey, Lucas got to know an American family who were incredibly polite and nice and apparently so fascinated by cycling that they invited us to dinner. We met them after checking in very curiously at our apartment and spent a nice evening with many questions. Apartment? Yes, because in Croatia, it is sometimes cheaper to book a whole apartment including a bathroom and kitchen than to camp with two people and two bikes at a campsite in the off-season.

The next day, actually an off-day because I had to work all day, we rode over a quite high mountain, according to my legs, 21km and 520 meters of elevation gain to the oldest city in Croatia, Stari Grad (translated old city). A., the hostess of our first Warm Shower accommodation, was waiting for us in a nearby village. Warm Shower is a platform on which cyclists from all over the world offer and take sleeping spaces for other cyclists. A. lived in a very old house on a small hill and was a very exciting, quite extraordinary person. We stayed there for two nights, did yoga in the morning, ate stolen artichokes and banana peel bread, and talked about God and the world. Lucas and I spent our long-awaited off-day in the beautiful, relatively isolated bays of a small peninsula a few kilometers away from A.'s house. We enjoyed the sea, the sun, and our book that we brought for reading aloud.

The next day we headed back to the mainland, hoping for better roads. We took the ferry from Strai Grad to Split and from there 30km and 190 meters of elevation gain to a relatively expensive, mediocrely beautiful, so typically Croatian campsite just behind Trogir in our opinion. Our goal had been for a while to leave Croatia as quickly as possible, so the next day we rode 62km and 760 meters of elevation gain to an affordable campsite recommended to us near Śibenik. Following the advice of a cyclist we had met, we rode quite hilly through the interior on small gravel paths before returning to the sea. We enjoyed the tranquility and the beautiful green landscape full of flowers, which make every mountain ride in Croatia half as exhausting for me. The view of the mouth of the Krka River from the Sibenik bridge was also very beautiful.

The campsite was really affordable, thanks to the compassion of the person at the reception. And the price also included the experience of a Croatian campsite boule tournament with an afterparty playing Schlager music.

Nevertheless, we had the energy the next day to ride 86km and 470 meters of elevation gain to reach our next stage destination, Zadar, preferably on the same day. We initially rode on small gravel roads past the insanely blue Lake Vransko Jezero before reaching Zadar via the two islands Pašman and Ugljan, both of which did not convince us to stay. A spontaneously booked accommodation, which was again significantly cheaper than a possible campsite, gave us the opportunity to stroll through the narrow streets of Zadar's Old Town in the late evening and have dinner in a restaurant. After having an ice cream on the city wall with a view of the harbor at midnight, we quickly went to bed to reach a small, nice campsite near Nin the next day after a good 18km and 100 meters of elevation gain. There, at precisely 13:15, we paused our trekking outdoor vacation, put two beers and the iPad on a white plastic table, and in the 6th minute of stoppage time, we heard the VfL Osnabrück phenomenally and, above all, emotionally (but everyone was happy for us) ascend on May 27th, 2023, audibly to the whole campsite. At that moment, we really missed our home for the first time.

Even though Dortmund couldn't fulfill our wishes afterwards, the next day we rode a bit hungover to the island of Pag, where I had a momentary weakness at 27 degrees, almost 40km and 340 meters of elevation gain, and we spent the night at the most expensive campsite of our trip so far for €30. But this way we could enjoy the peace by the sea and Lucas could mourn for the (still) unascended HSV. But that's it for now. More about our last trips through the islands in the north of Croatia later.