Tuesday, September 5, 2023
A very cold night. We got up at 5:15 AM, packed up, and got on our bikes by 6:15 AM. After 20 km of riding, we had breakfast at the cemetery in Jelšane, filled our water bottles, and crossed the Croatian border (which no longer exists). Just after the border, we had to turn right onto a regional road downhill towards Rijeka.
Before Matulji, we took a shortcut (which we knew from before) and encountered a construction site again. By accident, we turned onto an unopened highway entrance, but a kind man directed us through a yard over an unfinished bridge, and we continued our journey.
In Rijeka, we stopped at the Kraš chocolate shop and bought a few things. Once again, we missed an exit and ended up on a fast road through a tunnel where bicycles are strictly prohibited. We had no choice but to carry our bikes up some stairs to a smaller one-way street, where locals shamelessly parked on the right lane next to a “no stopping and parking” sign.
The Bay of Bakar in this direction is a real treat for cyclists, as a long descent awaited us around the entire bay to the village of Bakarac, where we first experienced the wind that had led Croatia to declare a red alert. We took a break there and dipped our bread in pâté, but quickly moved on due to the wind. We decided to shorten the next part of the route, as we didn’t want to pedal against the wind on a long, gentle uphill around the hill. Instead, we pushed our bikes a few hundred meters over the hill and descended on the other side towards the bridge to Krk.
Due to the strong wind, a ban was declared on the bridge for motorcycles, trailers, and vans, but since we were none of those, we ignored it. Thanks to the tailwind, we managed to ride uphill across the bridge at 40 km/h. We arrived at Konzum near Omišalj, where we took a break and bought bread for dinner and the next breakfast. Thanks for the public restroom and drinking water.
Our plan was to swim in the sea that day, and we intended to do so in Njivice. However, when we reached the beginning of Njivice and saw the sea 150 meters below, that desire quickly faded, so we continued riding and turned left onto a rough, rocky path towards Čižići. There, we cooked dinner (mushroom stew) by the roadside and stretched out after a long day of cycling. For such a bad road, there was an incredible amount of traffic; it seemed like everyone with 5 minutes to spare passed by in a car or on a bike.
After setting up the tent, we got an uninvited visit from a beetle named Štef, who didn’t bite but loved to stick to us. After a few attempts, we managed to chase him out of the tent, but we didn’t know he would be waiting for us outside until morning.
