13 August 2025 (sunny and extremely hot) 75km

Air conditioning is a fantastic invention we've decided. It was great to be out of that sweltering heat for the entire night. Pete even pulled the duvet over him, but I'm not that crazy, I just used the duvet cover.

Unfortunately, we had to set the alarm to make an early start so we could get some miles in before the heat got too intense. Usually packing up the tent is all we need to wake us up ready for the road, but we didn't have to do that this morning. So I managed to persuade Pete to linger long enough to have a cup of coffee, which was very welcome and meant we didn't have to leap out of bed and straight on the bikes.

We hit the road at 6.30am and had a lovely hill climb to get us out of Knin, but we did get some nice views of the castle when we glanced backwards.

We were using the main road but at this stage it wasn't too busy. Mapy had suggested another route but it was longer and hillier than the main road (as usual). So we thought we'd stay on the main road unless it got too busy. 

At the top of the hill, the road had a railway line running alongside it, which means….good gradients! And so we enjoyed a pretty flat ride from there, about 20km to the town of Drnis. And we were flying, enjoying our self created breeze.

We stopped on the outskirts when we spied a mini market and grabbed bananas, yoghurt and bread for Pete so we'd be ready for breakfast when we found a good spot.  While I was inside grabbing the goods, Pete watched as a guy walked out of the shop with a cold beer, cracked it and drove off drinking. It was 8.50am.

In Drnis we found a shady seat by the football pitch and settled down to have breakfast.  Thought I'd fire up the gas stove to make a coffee and just as I did this, an old guy came past and told us using sign language and the odd word of English that there was a big wildfire in Split, and also Albania had several wildfires! He was warning us kindly to be careful with the gas stove. Which was funny really as I'd set it up on dry dirt ground with about a hundred cigarette butts laying in the dust.

As we cycled down the streets of Drnis, we saw a lady on the footpath take a tumble. While Pete did his knight in shining armour bit, I cycled after the lady's shopping which was rolling down the hill.

Pete's first thought was “oh poor woman, hope she's alright.”  I'm thinking as I pick up her bag with a 20kg watermelon in it, “I hope she can walk down the hill to get this bloody thing cos I don't want to cycle back up that hill, let alone with this amazingly huge watermelon." Luckily she was fine…..and I didn't have to go back up the hill as she was coming downhill anyway. Phew!

Had another climb out of Drnis and at the top was a lookout with two portaloos.

Pete made the first foray and reported back, “Not too bad. And you get the added bonus of a free sauna.”  So never one to pass up a freebie, I paid a quick visit to the portaloo/sauna as well and then we hit the road, drinking in the fresh air.

We rolled along the flat terrain at a good pace and stopped at the only shop since Drnis at the 36km mark. Got a cold coke to share immediately and a large bottle of cold water to replace the insipid tepid water in our bottles. Cold water in this heat just tastes so much better.

We cracked on to the outskirts of Sibenik, where we visited a supermarket and got more cold water and some lunch supplies. Into the township to find a shaded park bench and eat our salad. The amount of people we've seen in jeans is crazy! Talk about making us hot just looking at them!

Unfortunately it was just too hot to do any exploring so we set off to find a beach as this was the first sight of the ocean for over two months.  We came to the village of Brodarica, which is such a fun name to say, we're thinking of renaming our third born, from Brody, to Brodarica!

Here was a packed beach but we didn't care. We just wanted to be in that water!  Used the changing rooms, which were free (which we weren't expecting), and in that lovely water…which was quite warm actually. But still felt good. So we lazed around for a bit and then went to find the campground I'd earmarked. We had a lovely ride around the coastline on local beach side roads, soaking up the views now that we were suitably cooled down.

Reached the campground and they were full but directed us up the road 200 metres to another camp. This was a small camp, with a small pool and heaps of shade…. perfect!  Set up the tent and then off down the beach for another swim at a quieter venue.

Sat in the shade and blogged and then cycled to a mini market for a couple of drinks and a bag of chips. Found a shady spot to sit and consume our wares before jumping in for another swim.

Pedalled back to camp which was only 300 metres from the beach and made dinner. Had a cold shower to try and cool down, but the effect didn't last too long and we were both sweating buckets before bed time. We wondered how we would get to sleep it was so unbearably hot. Just lay on top of our sleeping bags, covered in insect repellent and hoped that the 75km we'd covered today would soon take us off to the land of nod.