Our last day would be more challenging than either of us expected. We needed to get ourselves and the motorcycles across the mountains to Zagreb by the end of the day. Checking Google maps…it looked like about 3 hours to the Moto Franka shop.
I sent Almir a WhatsApp to let him know what time we expected to be there. We rolled out of Zadar around 9:00 to a slightly cool morning. Finding our way out of town was surprisingly easy and we were soon on the highway. We usually don’t ride highways, but it would have taken 5 1/2 hours by secondary roads.
Things were quite nice at first, but as we rose higher into the mountains the wind started to pick up. At times it was really kicking us around so we slowed down a bit. Then we started to see cones in places, reducing the highway to a single lane to slow traffic. Also…signs were showing the speed limit had been dropped to 40 kilometers per hour from 130 kph 😳. Yikes!
Soon the wind really started to batter us…from both directions at times. At one point it pushed me clear into the other lane! I ducked down behind the tiny windshield to make my profile as small as possible, and that seemed to help. I kept checking my mirrors for Denise…and…well…she was still there!
All we could do was to slow down and hang in there, hoping it would improve as we got past the first major peaks. And it did…but by then the temperature had dropped from the high 60’s…down to 52 degrees. We stopped to put our rain-pants on to help keep our legs warm. 20 minutes later it started to rain…shit! We stopped for hot tea a few times just to warm up. On a motorcycle…after a while…your body becomes so cold-soaked that you start shivering uncontrollably and it’s hard to get warmed up again 🥶.
Eventually we broke out on the other side of the mountains and the temperature started to slowly climb and the rain stopped. We pulled in to the motorcycle rental shop around 4:00…7 hours after we left Zadar!
The guys were there and offered us each a cold Heineken to celebrate a great trip. We had some good laughs and soon had the bikes unloaded and our bags packed.
That’s Almir next to me and then Marco. The other two guys are a few of their buddies who stopped by. Really great guys.
Marco gave us a ride to the B&B and afterward we took HOT showers that felt amazing. Tomorrow he picks us up at 11:00 to get us out to the airport for our flight home.
What an amazing trip this was. We covered 2708 kilometers in just over 2 weeks. Croatia and the other countries we travelled through…were more beautiful than we could have imagined.
Not sure where we will travel next. Every trip we do gives us ideas for 2 or 3 other trips! We both know how fortunate we are to be doing this…it’s magical really…and we’ll keep doing it for as long as we can…
