WORLD TOUR SPLIT TO MIKULICI (CROATIA)
21ST NOVEMBER 2020 – 13TH DECEMBER 2020
After a night on the ferry from Ancona, we arrived in Split at seven o’clock in the morning. Border control was still an easy one to go through, they checked our passports and asked for our telephone number and that was it - we were in the fourth country of our trip. We visited the city and got lost a lot, so we ended up in really interesting parts of the city. Probably not the touristic places but more like the ones where locals would warn you not to go. People were very nice and friendly and didn’t hesitate to indicate the right direction to follow. As we were leaving the city, we cycled next to a beautiful beach and as the weather was nice and warm, we stopped there for a little rest. When we were back on the road following the coast down south, the wind started to blow and became stronger and stronger. The sun started to disappear, and it was time to look for a place to sleep. We found a football ground in a village and asked someone who was in the office there if we could stay there for the night. He was not particularly cheerful, but he accepted and that’s all that mattered at the time. The wind was so strong, the tent would fly away if we were not standing inside. It was one of our worst nights since the beginning of our trip.
The next morning, the wind stopped, and we decided to leave the coast to go further inland. After nearly a month on flat ground in Italy, Croatia was another story. The hills and mountains were steep, but the scenery was still stunning. As we were approaching the top of a pass, we’ve met a couple cycling in the opposite direction with their dog in a trailer. We stopped to have a nice chat with them, he was from France, and she was from Poland, and they were travelling through Europe in a campervan and with bicycles. Every time they stopped in an area,
they discovered it by bicycle. We left them after probably an hour and a half, finished our climb and when we arrived at the bottom of the other side of the hill, we spotted a place by the river where we set up our tent and started a fire as the night was going to be really cold. It was only our second day in Croatia, but it was already feeling like a real adventure.
When we woke up in the morning, the tent was completely frozen, as was the water we had with us to prepare our breakfast. We decided then to get out of the mountain and re-join the coast to find better temperatures. We visited the lovely city of Makarska and cycled to Tučepi by the sea, and we found a beautiful beach to stay on for the night with a water supply nearby. The spot was so great, we stayed there for one more night just chilling and fishing.
After a nice day of rest, we were heading to Ploče, still following the coast. We went through a nice little village, met interesting people, like Emile, who was doing his daily ten-kilometre walk to keep him fit after he had heart problems. From Ploče we had to catch a ferry to go to Trpanj on the semi-island. The night before, we came across some beautiful lakes and thought it would be a great place to camp. As we were ready to pitch the tent, an unusual thing happened. A guy came with his car, and without speaking to us, grabbed his rifle, his dog stole our bread and ate it. There were no apologies from the man as he was on his way to hunt. He came back ten minutes later, and we understood we were on his land. We asked him if we could sleep there, and he accepted and suddenly he became really friendly. He told us we could start a fire if it was too cold, he also explained to us he was hunting
wild ducks and then he left as quickly as he arrived earlier.
The next day, we were at the ferry port, and we met a French family travelling by van - a couple with three kids. They were going on the ferry, so we spent the crossing chatting. On the ferry, we also met a Croatian couple who offered us some homemade Raki to keep us warm and away from Covid-19 as they said.
After an hour on the boat, we reached Trpanj and started our way down to Dubrovnik. At the end of the day, we met a winemaker in his vineyard, and he offered that we could put our tent on his land. The night was going to be really cold, so we had our dinner early and stayed inside the tent to stay warm. At about midnight, the police woke us up, asking what we were doing there. So, we explained to them we had permission to sleep there from the landowner. They decided to check our passports, called immigration and suddenly they just handed everything over to us, apologised for the inconvenience and wished us a good night’s sleep and that we had nice travels in Croatia. There was a man with them arguing in Croatian, so we asked the policemen why they came in a middle of a vineyard at midnight with freezing temperatures to check on us. They replied they had a few troubles with migrants, and someone called them to tell them some people were sleeping in a field. Just to be a bit cheeky, we asked them if they have seen a lot of migrants travelling by bicycle and if the person who called them was the guy standing next to them. They smiled and decided to go.
The day after, we were back by the sea, going through rocky paths, up and down hills where we
met two cyclists travelling together for nearly a month. Leo from France and Chris from Germany. We cycled a little bit together then we were taking different directions, so we said bye to each other. Then we arrived in the beautiful little town of Ston where the locals came around to have a chat with us. We stayed just outside of the town for the night, and as soon as the night arrived, we could hear the little wolves of Croatia starting to sing.
Two days later, we arrived in Dubrovnik, where we rented a flat for three nights. After two weeks of wild camping, it was nice to stop for a few days and get a proper warm shower. The weather was not great when we were in Dubrovnik but at least we had the whole city to ourselves as there were no tourists around. The city is absolutely amazing, especially the old city with the narrowpaved streets and thousands of stairs to climb all around the city. Our flat was just above the old city and the view at night time was impressive. We also visited the most recent part of the city with its beautiful harbour and the massive, suspended bridge. We really enjoyed our stay in Dubrovnik.
When we left the city, it was still raining. We planned to stay with a Warmshowers host that night, about ten kilometres from the border of Montenegro. We cycled all day under the rain and arrived late afternoon at where we were planning to stay. Our host didn’t reply to our email, but it was stipulated on the description if he was not there, as it was more of a campsite, we could pitch the tent anyway. When we arrived, we couldn’t see anybody, at the entrance of the site, there was a sign saying ring the bell five times, we did that as instructed and still nobody.
As we were unpacking our bikes, an old guy came out shouting at us because he didn’t hear the bell. When Pantxika came into his sight to tell him she did ring the bell as instructed his tone changed and he became really friendly and apologised for his behaviour. He told us we could stay as long as we wished and we could also sleep in the wooden shed on the campsite as there was nobody in, and that in the meantime, we could use the wood stove to keep us warm and cook on it too. We had only to collect wood but there was plenty around. Then he offered us to come to his place as soon as we were ready to get some tea and biscuits with him. Marko (the owner) was an interesting person, he left Croatia by boat when he was seventeen years old to escape the war at the time, migrate to Canada where he spent more than forty years of his life and then came back to Croatia and decided to create a free campsite for travellers. We were supposed to stay there for one night. However, the weather turned out to be very bad and every day, Marko told us we couldn’t go, so we ended up staying for eight nights, helping him cut wood, clean the campsite, go shopping for him (as his car broke down and the nearest shop was seven kilometres away) and cook and eat with him. He had amazing stories to tell, and we were never fed up with listening to him. He was probably more than happy to have some company and we were more than happy not to have to cycle under the rain.
On the day we left, we were all sad to say bye to each other, but we had to continue our journey and we were now on our way to Montenegro. Since the beginning of our trip, we hadn’t had any trouble at borders. But when we arrived at the Croatian border to get out of the country, the officer on duty started to ask us a lot of questions about going back to France. As well as why we were travelling. He
retained our passports, so we had to wait and at a certain point we were ready to ask him why he was so picky as we were about to leave his country. But after a while, he decided to let us go and we were on our way to the Montenegrin border…