26/08/2019 – A new friend

Getting the ferry back to the mainland was so much easier on a bike than in a car. A queue nearly 2km long of families trying to get off was no issue for me. Doing the classic ‘annoying cyclist’ and riding past everyone and skipping the queue didn’t make me feel the slightest bit guilty.

It was getting hot quickly so maybe they were the ones winning with their air conditioning. The start of the ride was easy going but just as the big climb of the day got close the temperature rose dramatically.

Often hot days aren’t too bad if you’re going at a decent speed as the wind cools you down. Sadly, this doesn’t work when you’re going up a steep mountain.

Fortunately there was a town at the top to restock on water. Unfortunately there was also a thunderstorm in the distance. Unsure whether to risk it, I pulled into the hostel and had some food.

When the storm passed, I was straight out the door and made the most of the cooler weather at altitude and made good progress towards the Plitvice lakes national park leaving only a short ride in the morning.

After a long queue, I got into the park and it was stunning. A series of lakes interconnected by waterfalls set in a forest.

It’s a fair walk round so after some cheese sandwiches from the cafe, I found a campsite between the lakes and Zadar and hopped on the bike.

It was quite barren compared to the lakes but there was still something quite nice about it.

After a ‘jumbo’ sized pizza which lived up to its name, I got an early night as I wanted to be on Zadar for lunchtime.

The alarm worked and by 7:15, I was on my way.

As fate would have it, the early start was a blessing in disguise as I made a new friend.

Sadly, she wasn’t able to come with me but an hour or so giving her some overdue attention and water meant she left a lasting impression on me. It seems that stray dogs are commonplace in areas like Croatia so I’m sure I’ll meet a couple more, none as cute as this one though.

I reached Zadar just as the heat was becoming unbearable so I pulled into a McDonald’s (the first time in a couple of weeks) and made the most of the McFlurrys.

There was a cheap hostel not too far away which seemed decent so I checked in, put everything on charge and set off with one of the guys to the ‘old town’ area of Zadar.

After seeing the sight, we set off in search of the beach and inadvertently stumbled upon diving platforms.

The 10m board appears so much higher when you’re up there but plucking up the courage, I made a dignified jump off the end.

That night at the hostel after a couple of beers, we decided to go for a midnight swim. The water was remarkably warm so it was an easy decision. The only drawback was that it was a lot harder to see the rocks on the beach in the dark which caused a few cuts on the feet.

The next great decision was to swim across the harbour and slap one of the boats on the other side. It didn’t look that far at the time so a couple of us decided ‘yeah, why not’.

As ever with these kind of things, everything was not as it seemed. It transpired that the boat in question turned out to be over 500m away which as you can imagine, took a while at 1am after a beer or two.

You’d swim for a couple of minutes and it seemed further away than when you started.

After what seemed like an eternity, we made it there and the swim back was just as long. I was definitely ready for bed.

It was great to stay at a hostel for the first time in quite a while and spend some time with people rather than just my own head. It made me really look forward to the South East Asia leg of the trip where I’ll be staying in hostels every night but for now, they are a luxury I can’t afford to do every night.