4 August 2025 (sunny and warm) 78km
Woke to a clear morning after some light rain during the night. I had to lean out and close up the tent as I'd left it open for ventilation.
We'd joined the sleeping bags last night as it was supposed to go to ten degrees. Julia was hot, I was cold.
So..awake at 5.30am but back to sleep until 6.50am. Packed up before the Frenchies were awake and into town to pick up breakfast.
On the road and not too far on we spied a bench and table, once again outside a fire station.
We hadn't seen a fire station until a couple of weeks ago and suddenly we've had breakfast and lunch at them.
Cycling on and the weather was perfect. Even the road surface was playing the game. Got into a steady rhythm and ate through the kms.
Have to say that photographs today are on the slim side, as the scenery all day were low lying mountains with grassland in the foreground.
Not unattractive, but really doesn't show much in photos.
I was feeling tired today and with Julia pushing on, at times I was struggling.
At one point we had to make a decision which way to go.
We'd already done plenty of short, sharp climbs but Julia then tells me that the way we are going doesn't have a supermarket for 56km.
Since we'd already done 34km, there was no way I wanted to do 90km.
However, she informed me that the options were limited and the only other choice was 40km, but going down into a gorge at river level and then climbing another five or six hundred metres.
I was less than impressed. We found a little shop simply by seeing locals pull up outside a bar and going in with bags. We thought we'd better investigate with the limited shopping options. Turned out they were a cafe/bar at the front (empty), with a busy little shop in the room behind. No advertising out the front for strangers in town to know about this. However, not much on there for us so we grabbed a coke and two ice creams.
Pete pulled in to offer up a quick prayer before the descent at the village of Stari trg ob Kolpi
Dreading the gorge to come, we started the long descent down to the river that separates Slovenia from Croatia and then began a bloody horrible ascent.
The main part of the climb began right after the bridge and we were having to take breathers on the way up.
Nothing to see either as loads of trees blocking any view of the river or mountains.
It really was just plodding it out.
Like I said, Julia was on fire today and after yesterday when she was drilling it, I was amazed.
Lukovdol couldn't have come at a more appropriate time.
In their desolate village square, which looked like it hadn't seen visitors forever, we sat and ate.
Julia had chips, cashews and oat biscuits.
I had a bun with chips and a pastry, which I'd bought earlier.
Ju here: Our little lunch stop was just what we needed and we sat on a bench in the shade. By the time we'd eaten our meagre supplies, I'd cooled down enough to make a coffee and that always makes a meal seem like a meal, especially when that meal has been nuts, chips and biscuits!
We had decided last minute to change our route to bigger roads as Mapy has a tendency to take us down gravel paths of varying quality. We knew we had some kms to do to get to a campground tonight so didn't want any pfaffing about.
Unfortunately I didn't notice there were no supermarkets on our new route, so our eating options were limited.
I had seen the gorge with the river Kupa going through and wanted to avoid going down to it and the big climb out. However, it forms the border between Slovenia and Croatia, so there was no getting round it in the end. It's very demoralizing speeding downhill through hairpins and switchbacks and knowing you'll be climbing the same meterage on the other side.
Once we got through that seemingly never ending hill, (bonus though, no traffic!), we joined a busy road with cars and trucks flying past. It was only for about five kms thankfully but made us realize how good we'd had it all day.
We were approaching the motorway so had to be careful with navigation as we didn't want to end up on the onramp, but managed to find ourselves on a small deserted village road which passed under the motorway. Obviously this involved another hill.
Then we cycled through a very nice leafy road with no villages and no roads deviating off it for about 13km. It seemed like a national park and was mercifully mostly flat.
We were relieved to finally see some signs of civilization though and looking forward to stocking up at a supermarket. Especially Pete. I know he places a great deal of importance on food but seeing the wind go out of his sails as soon as I told him how far to the next supermarket was quite something. It was as if his throat had been cut there and then and never again would he get to taste all the things he enjoys eating. And believe me, that is a looong list. I imagined him cycling along behind me, dreaming about when he'd get his next roast dinner, his next ham sandwich even. Anything really. Back to Pete.
To say the final session was a grind, was an understatement.
I seemed to have no power in my legs, whilst Ju was powering along.
Although the climbs were not like the effort out of the gorge earlier, they still had their moments.
Around 4pm, we reached our destination of Ogulin, where we shopped for dinner, before cycling another 5kms to our campground.
Ju here again: now we'd only been in Croatia a few hours but it was impossible to ignore the many Croatian flags on display outside many houses. And some of these flags were grand affairs with gold tassels all around the edges. I said to Pete, “I wonder if there's a big game on today?”
“No, no”, he assured me, “the Croatians have always been big on flag waving.”
The follow up story to this comment will be in tomorrow's blog.
We have also noticed all the fruit trees seem to be apple and olive? We think? And the apples are pretty small.
Lots of corn fields as well and a lot of people seem to have their own vegetable garden.
Back to Pete.
The young guy on reception gave both Julia and I a welcome drink( a shot of Croatian whiskey) and said it was a tradition his father started years ago.
Nice touch.
Dried off the tent from last night and both showered.
Did a bit of washing too, which is struggling to dry as I write this at 8pm.
Light cloud, but may get some rain during the night.
Ate a delicious dinner we'd picked up from the deli section of the supermarket. A whole chicken, (which we couldn't finish), buns for me, salad and red cabbage.
Met a family of two lads and their dad from Germany.
Yuri and Piet were the boys and they have been talking about travelling over to the Cook Islands and NZ when they've finished school, so we gave them our information.
As I sit writing, the main road is alive with those whiny two stroke 50cc nightmares, which will probably target me tonight after I close my eyes.
So, on that note, I'm off to wash the dishes and crawl into my bag.
We loved Croatia, the people were always so friendly and helpful. The air BnB would always cook us breakfast and dinners always followed by shots 😆.
ReplyDeleteAre you going out to any of the islands there are some stunning ones
Too crowded at mo from all accounts, but we might do later. Still figuring out plans.
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