After Tolmin I escape the traffic and the heat on a lovely small mountain road to Cepovan and somehow end up in the city of Novo Gorica. That city has been erected after WW2 when old Gorica was declared to be Italian. From here I pass through olive groves, wine yards and small villages, slobbering. In the end of the day I finally get to taste the local wine on the small campground in Storje.
The next day, I visit the giant Limestone caves of Skocjance, and make it all the way to Piran where I put my feet in the Adriatic Sea for the first time in my life. It is a charming old town, but the campground is full of mosquitos and lacks simple things like power plugs.
So I move on, zoom through the bustling resort town Piran with its big hotels along the beach promenade. Suddenly I find myself in Croatia on a very busy highway. Instead of cycling down the west coast of the Istrian peninsula, I decide to cross the peninsula on lonesome picturesque roads to Brestova. Near Pazin I stay for a night on the lovely small Vita Mia Campground and enjoy a wonderful energizing massage mix with Shiatsu and Cranio. That is a real gift after 1000 kilometers cycled
The company on the campground would have been just right, the music at the bar too. However, I move on, push through the lush pine forests to Brestova from where ferries depart to the island of Cres. While waiting for the next ferry, I get to talk to the Belgian cyclists Crista and Herman. The two are en route towards Greece on the Eurovelo 8.
The boat ride takes about half an hour to Porozina on Cres. In the heat of the day I climb up 400 meters on the bike, just to roll em down again into the city of Cres. A huge sailing ship just departs. The campground is huge, and overcrowded with camper vans. I decide to spoil myself with a hotel for a night instead. The narrow alleys smell like a flowerpot at night for the locals hang up laundry. A German couple gives me some advice on the Croatia and its islands. They urge me to avoid the coastal highway down South to Dubrovnik on the bicycle, yet the island hoping seems to be a logistic challenge since some ferries will take on bicycles, others won't and the websites won't tell...
On the following day I move on to Mali Losinj where I expect to fetch a ferry to Zadar in the afternoon. On the road, I meet cyclist who told me that he just gave up on the island hoping after a long detour. A little later, I am invited for a drink by an elderly Austrian cyclist who spends his holidays in his camper on another campground. He could have given me a lot of advice on Cres and Mali Losinj yet in my mind I am already on the ferry to Zadar. In town I suddenly realize the ferry will only depart three days later. I surrender myself to stay on another huge luxurious campground until that. Time to wash my stuff, time to enjoy the beach and chats with some nice campers.
I save the visit of the city of Zadar for another time and move on small roads towards Skradin to visit the Krka National Park. In an older travel guidebook it was written that is was possible to swim in the rivers and pools down there. However, meanwhile the rules had changed and so I was about the only one walking through the fairy tale landscape in sim trousers.
Later in the evening I meet Michael, a cyclist from Switzerland. Michael is a fun guy and we share the same ideas about bike touring and avoiding the traffic on main roads. So we team up for a couple of adventurous days, cycle to Split and from there hop on a ferry to the lovely laid back island of Korcula. A few days later, after a brief visit to Bosnia we reach Dubrovnik and visit the famous ancient old city center.
Michael is going to Italy by ferry, and I push on further down the Adriatic coast. Actually, on the way out of Dubrovnik I am lucky enough to finally meet and talk with a young Croatian man who is not involved in tourist business at all.
