Tour de (Western) Balkans 2023

So into Croatia we roll – and there’s a whole gear shift. Unbelievably slick tourism just about sums it up. A massive change from Bosnia (that both Jon and I really really liked, even if at times uncomfortable/poignant).

Croatia suddenly feels like a country geared up to perfect the equation of preserving stunning natural landscape + facilitating mass tourism. It definitely loses out on Bosnian charm and the ubiquitous friendliness of the Balkans dwindles as the sight of two nutters on bikes becomes much more commonplace. People don’t wave back if you wave at them. Also, we start to encounter increasingly awful drivers. It’s a toss up whether Croats or Slovenians win the prize of Worst Drivers. I freak Jon out with the violence of my swearing so I resort to silent gestures. It’s oddly a more zen approach to it all and curbs my road rage.

Quality of burek goes down as quality of ice cream goes up. We both start to miss the muezzin calls to prayer. It does just feel very different.

Touristic Highlight 1: Plitvice National Park – it must be hell on earth in the height of the summer, but on a chilly April morning the waterfalls are utterly stunning. We walk the long way round through very beautiful beechwoods and so escape most of the crowds. There’s some wading through crystal clear water on a submerged walk way half way round. We join the tourist hoards for a lovely boat ride for part of the way back.

We stay in a friendly small campsite nearby that has an excellent set up for cyclists complete with a hay loft if you don’t like your tent anymore. French Julien joins us for supper and we have good cycle touring chitchat. Then it’s on back up into mountains aiming for North Velebit National Park. Cold night, we are cosy indoors but not as cosy as our bikes with their companion hams in the shed.

Touristic Highlight 2: Cres. Again, it must be hell on earth in high season but it was lovely when we were there. Too much snow over Velebit – impassable. So instead we cycled to the coast, and along the coast (campervans, motorbikes and amazing views) and snuck in several ferry rides including a 22 km time trial to make the evening ferry off one of the islands.

Cres is lovely once you’ve got past the prat drivers. We eat the freshest seafood. We swim multiple times. We camp in a lovely spot. We see dolphins, a golden eagle, griffon vultures, and lots of marine life. We eat ice creams. It’s all very lovely.

We catch the foot passenger catamaran to Pula in Istria from Mali Losinj and chat to Columbian tourists about Nairo, Rigoberto and Esteban. Vladimir, a musician who reminds us both of my dad, tells us about the other islands as we stay out on the deck to catch our final glimpses of the Balkans from the ferry in the setting sun. It feels like the end of the main bit of our trip as the views of the Velebit – our last bit of Balkan cycling – gradually fade into the distance.

All high on the lovely stakes. But both feel that the adventure bit is slowly ebbing as we get back in to big tourism land.