After Dubrovnik we decided to head up the Pelješac peninsula. We camped out at a place near a marina, our first night trying out our new tarp. We took a walk to the marina for a drink and in the course of about 5 minutes it was suddenly the craziest wind storm we have seen, with large 60 foot sailboats on their side and people running all over the place trying to batten everything down. We knew when we returned to camp it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. And it wasn’t…. the tent was basically upside down and the tarp totally wrapped around a tree. But luckily our stuff survived and we moved on the next day a  little windblown and damp but feeling good.

We moved on to our next campsite near a town called Ston, which we had no idea was another walled fortress (there have been a lot of those on our travels), with what the info sheets said was the longest wall after the wall of China. We took a bike break to walk a ways up the wall but gave up after our buns were burning, given that we had a little more to bike. It was a neat town though, and we wish we could have spent more time there.

After camping near Ston we had an awesome downhill, Javi reckons our best so far, right into a town called Orebic. From there we took a ferry right away to the island of Korcula. We spent one night in the old town of Korcula, happily checking out the sights, including a Marco Polo museum (apparently he is from there). We also experienced a crazy two hour blackout on the whole island! It was surreal, tourists finishing their dinners by candlelight, and the only major artificial lights coming from the yachts in the harbor. The stars were beautiful. The next two nights on Korcula were spent camping and biking around exploring local vineyards and rock beaches with crystal clear water.

We left Korcula and took another ferry to the island of Hvar. Another day, another amazing old town. Hvar old town seemed like a more hip scene with more cocktail bars and a younger crowd. We stayed at a hostel and were by far the oldest people there, a jarring change from our Camino hostel days. But since we are still young and carefree at heart, we decided to drink our age insecurities away with the party crowd. We had a great time hanging out at what was surely the only late night dance party, drinking beers well past our usual 10:30 – 11 pm bedtime. It was well worth it, a fun scene indeed and much needed after a party drought in our lives.

After Hvar old town, we spent the next few nights in a little town on the other side of the island called Ivan Dolac. Basically we chose it because it was the cheapest Airbnb we could find, but turned out to be a cute town and awesome apartment. It was tough getting there on bikes, but quite an adventure on a crazy rocky coastal road seemingly still under construction. We caught up on some cooking, reading, and internetting there. After that we rode to Stari Grad and took another ferry to Split.

We had been talking about going to Split since the beginning of all of this, so it was so fun to finally arrive. It was a much bigger city than we knew, and had not only the typical old town, but huge block housing and mixed architectural areas way up into the hills. We stayed in someone’s apartment in the block housing area near the university so we experienced a whole range of city areas, not just the touristy parts.  We had a blast exploring Diocletian’s palace and different museums. Most exciting of all, we got to meet up with some San Francisco pals who were doing a bike tour of their own. It was fun to hang with not only other cyclists but folks we knew from back home. Getting to be social with people other than ourselves is always a treat.

After three nights it was time to move on, but we would be returning in a week for our final Croatian goodbye. To be continued….

Croatia Part 1