I toyed with the idea of staying an extra day in Pula, but the hostel was booked out due to a conference. So I said goodbye to Greg, the 75 year old legend and headed into town for some breakfast.
I had a nice ride along the coast to look forward to, so I took my time over coffee and omelette. Komoot told me that I had 520 vertical metres to do and that’s a nice standard day. After the ride and feeling exhausted, Komoot told me that I’d done exactly double that and that’s a hard day for an old bloke on a loaded bike.
On the way out of town, I stopped at the magnificent Roman Amphitheatre. It’s one of the largest I’ve seen outside of the Coliseum in Rome. There were plenty of tourists, but it was pretty relaxed.
There were some shared footpaths that helped me avoid the traffic getting out of town but it was laid back traffic anyway. I met a Swiss couple riding back home and had a brief chat, and only saw a few other tourers in the rest of the day.
Today there were quite a few sections of dirt road, and again, they were fun but some of them were a bit technical and uphill, so quite tiring. It was pretty hot in the middle of the day, and as I neared Rovinj, I stopped near some camping grounds and had lunch under a tree by the sea. The area was fairly busy with young families on holiday, but I assume this will all change in a couple of weeks.
I rode into Rovinj and got some pastries to finish off my lunch and ate them by the nice harbour. There was no shade so I didn’t stay long.
It was uphill out of town and I was quickly onto a busy road with no shoulder. I was on a designated bike route but it felt like it was the busiest road north. I spent about ten uncomfortable kilometres on this road before turning off onto some great quiet roads and then more dirt roads for the highest part of the day.
Th next part was fun – a steep downhill on a good road surface with very little traffic which was surprisingly well behaved (coming at me). At the bottom was a police car which explains the lack of crazy driving. Generally, the Croatian drivers have been terrible – aggressive, impatient and even a little abusive which always makes me homesick. 😁
The fun ended abruptly and I had a steep climb up the other side with plenty of idiots in a hurry and quite a few squeezing past me just centimetres away. These guys have been the worst in Europe so far.
I turned off the busy road just after the top and stopped in a small village for a quick rest before continuing. The remainder was downhill on an interesting dirt road which brought me to some massive campgrounds just south of Vrsar.
I’m staying two nights at Porto Sole Campground which is expensive and overrated but with a nice concrete beach and an easy path into town and all the facilities you could ever want. It’s just not my kind of place but it’ll certainly do for a rest day.
