Split – Tromilja (Krka National Park) 79.16km 🚴♀️ 4.44.09 ⏱ 16.7km/hr ⬆️ 680m ⬇️ 580m 🌡 37C
We made an official request to the city government to change Split into Shit 💩. We will keep you informed about the progress. So we woke up at 5.30 to make good use of the early hours getting out of a big city with less traffic 🚙🚌🚛 and less heat ☀️🌡. Well that went into the pooper.
We were pretty fast and ready to go when Mas noticed her tire pump was gone. No worries heart pump still working, breast pump.. well don’t need that one, it’s only a bike pump. Really essential when cycling though. Kind of a huge risk not to bring one. Anyway, the dude 🧔🏻 of the apartment, let’s call him ‘no problem, no problem’, told us yesterday the bikes were perfectly safe. No one would steal them from the building courtyard. Well he was right, our bikes were still there, but Mas’s fancy barometer tire pump was not. So bye bye to leaving early, we had to wait till eight o’clock for the Decathlon to open.
Getting to the Decathlon on the other side of Split was also a bit of a shit 💩show. Roads we wanted to take did not exist. Roads we really did not want to take we had to cycle on cause there was just nothing else. This was not our lucky day. At least we found something that looks like a pump at the Decathlon so that will have to do for now.
We were kind of scared for the second part out of the city, but we soon discovered a foot path running along the highway so we got out alright. We made another stop at the Lidl and got our second croissant 🥐 of the day, at least Mas did, Suuz had pizza 🍕.
After doing groceries we cycled on along the coast road without really seeing it. 25 kilometres later we made a right turn to go inland and the climbing started. We saw seven or eight tour cyclists going in the other direction. One girl even brought her guitar 🎸 on the back of her bike. The climb was not too bad, but it was busy and because of our delay it was also getting really hot. We shared the road with cars 🚙, busses 🚌 and trucks 🚛 going to the main highway 🛣 towards Zagreb for the entire 11 kilometer climb.
Finally we reached the end and stopped for a cold drink 🍹 in Progomet. Due to our unlucky start, the delay, and the heat we were seriously debating whether we should keep going or just call it a day. Sometimes you just shouldn’t push your luck. But we decided to just take it one little town at a time and see how far we’d get.
There were no other markets or cafes on the road so the next stretch was actually another 44 kilometres in full sun, but at least the biggest climb was already behind us. During the whole trip, when we pass bushes or high grass we keep hearing things jump away real fast, but we never see what it is. Mas thinks it’s a tiger 🐅 grrrr and since we haven’t seen it yet she could be right!
Our next stop was Unesic, or ‘Uilenzeik’ 🦉💧 if you like. We had another cold drink under a tree 🌳 on a little bench 🛋 in front of a bar filled with old men. Lunch featured our Lidl bread 🍞 called ‘Weltmeister Brot‘, wie geil ist das! We topped it with some liquid tuna salad that was stuffed inside Suuz’s bag all day, finished the whole thing and it tasted good. From our roadside picknick it was 20km to our final destination. According to Google it was all downhill with only 2m climbing. Well Mas counted it, of course, and it was 36m so we might sue 👨🏽⚖️them as well as the Split city government 😉.
They were right about the downhill though. We got there fast, but not before we passed Konjevrate, or ‘Kom je vreten’ if you like. We have no clue about the Croatian 🇭🇷 language and sometimes we get bored on the bike, so we just give all the places names that sound ‘the same’ but better 👌🏻.
It was a long, long day with sometimes, according to Suuz, boring mainland roads, cycling in full sun ☀️, gulping water 💧 by the bottle. Around 15:00pm we made it to the pool of our apartment in Tromilja, near the Krka National Park. We don’t have to tell you what the rest of our day looked like 🏊♂️ .
Our host recommended a local Stube to us (they were German), famous for their spit-roasted pork 🐷. Mas had pizza 🍕, but Suuz ordered the pork and got meat sweats after the first bite. Our air-conditioned room was a welcome retreat.
Tomorrow we cycle to Gornji Karin a.k.a. Horny Karin b.k.a. Geile Karin. Once we get there we’ll decide if we take a rest day 😴 or cycle on to our next island 🌴. So yes it is decided! We will do a bit of island hopping instead of going inland, in an effort to avoid ‘boring’ roads and mostly to stay close to our friends ocean breeze 💨 and cold blue water 🌊.
