Along the Coast of Croatia

27 October -Neum to Dubrovnik 75km

After our lovely ride down to the coast from Mostar we crossed the borders of Bosnia and Croatia a couple of times in a couple of days. Two interesting things happened on the ride. One involved a Croatian border guard who told Ais something about his family tree when he saw her Irish passport (the power of Irish passports, they are just so much better!). The Guard told Ais that his Grandmother was from Derry - the town close to where Ais grew up. He continued by saying, "And after Collins betrayed Ireland and De Velera, her family who were all Republican, went to America, where she met my Grandfather.' Pugz and Ais are sure that they met at Mass! Ais's history is a little rusty but she is sure Collins was set up to fail when dealing with the English government, but maybe that was just in the film.

The Guard asked Pugz if he was Irish too and Pugz said no. "Oh you are not Irish anymore!" the guard said to Ais. "I am!" she cried back. "But in this country when the woman is married she becomes the same as her husband" the guard told Ais. We just laughed, waved and rode on but Ais was not impressed! Lucky for Ais she doesn'tl ive in Croatia!

We stopped in a small town for a cafe lunch. We guessed that in the summer the little place would be heaving with tourists but that day it was very quiet. We found a nice place and ordered our food. As we were eating a big old Range Rover pulled in. It was loaded with all kinds of stuff inside and out. It had a scrambler motorbike on the back and it looked quite hard core and road weary. Out jump a young, skinny man and a older man who had an ecentric air about him. We noticed that they were French by their registration plate and of course that they talked French. This might be the best opportunity to get rid of the 500gr gas canister, from France! We worked up the nerve to talk to them. Or rather, Pugz practised his French before going over. When Pugz went over the younger man could speak English and they said they would take the gas canister! HURRAY! Ais has a little less weight and a little more space.

We spent some time talking to them and found out that the older man (Jon) was a well-travelled journalist/photographer and the younger man (Oliver) was his assistant. They were travelling around the coast of the Med, for a book Jon was putting together. Both were a little unkept and definitely a little ecentric. Jon told us how they often wild camp and only go to campsites when they need to shower. We all agreed that campsites were often overpriced. Pugz found it
amusing that the men were eating big lunches with wine etc. whilst complaining about the price of campsites. But Ais and Pugz agree that we too prefer food over accomodation.
The men said that they were heading towards Istanbul and were trying to decide to take a detour to Sarjevo. We recomended that they should go to Sarajevo, even for the drive through the gorge. We said our goodbyes and as they drove off, we saw the gas canister on the table! Luckily, they came back for it after a few minutes and Ais happily waved 'bye' to that gas canisiter.

So we headed on to Dubrovnik after lunch and as we approached the town the coast road became very narrow in places but the traffic was getting busier. Many vehicles did not give us space and finally a bus tried to overtake us as the car coming coming towards us tried to overtake a parked car. The bus just tipped Ais's rear bags and knocked her off balance,trapping her, in a standing postion between the bus and a crash barrier. Her bike had fallen just by the back wheel. Needless to say everyone was quite shaken up. Ais was shaking more after this crash than the helmet cracking crash in Bosnia. No one could really communicate properly with each other but Ais appreciated that the bus driver could have just driven off but he didn't. And some other nice people stopped to see if she was ok. Pugz, being the knight in shining armour that he is, spent some time explaining to the bus driver through sign language to give bikes space and to slow down.

Once again Ais had a big bruise on her leg and a BIG knock to her road confidence. Over the following few weeks she often had to pull in if she felt at all trapped and crash barriers still make her feel uneasy. However, it is better than falling down the hillside!

At the very expensive Dubrovnik campsite we met a german couple, Derya and Manuel. They were cycling around the world and were on their way to Istanbul too. After living and working like mad things in Bangladesh for a few years, they had saved up enough money and sold most of their belongings to take off for a while. Like many other cyclists that we have met on our trips, they eat less, sleep less and take less days off than us. They are faster and cycle further than us too. We are clearly the soft version of long distance cyclists!

Days off in Dubrovnik

We spent the day with Derya and Manuel, exploring the old walled town. The place is clearly geared up for lots of tourists but as it was the end of October there was only one cruise ship docked up. (Thank God). It is a very pretty town in a picturesque setting but there are prices to match, including the campsite.

When we returned to the campsite the French guys were there. We all had a moan about the price of the campsite and the fact that there were building works going on from 7am, so the campsite was not its usual high standard. Jon, the older French man, suggested that we all go together and complain. It is better than just complaining to each other. So later, Pugz and I, Jon and Oliver all went to the office and I politely told the woman how upset we were that we came to the campsite to relax and no one warned us about the building works etc. Can you believe that this worked? We got 30% off our price and a night free. All thanks to Jon giving us encouragement to believe that sometimes a polite complaint does work!

The next day we explored the everyday parts of town alone as the hunt for bike parts continues. This is an annoying part of our trip, however we always get a good overview of the towns as we cycle around. We can say that the modern part of Dubrovnik is quite pleasant. Yet central Croatia seemed to have quite a bit of poverty to us. There was a marked contrast in the amount of visitors that the coast seemed to get and the wealth it seemed to have when compared to central Croatia.

On to Molunat - 46km

Derya and Manuel had left the previous day. We were hoping to meet up with them in a well advertised campsite about 50 km on.

The climb out of Dubrovnik was a tough little hill and the challenge was increased to Ais getting stressed about going on the narrow coast road with the local buses again. In the end, Pugz offered patience and support by stopping alot and shouting a warning when a bus or other big vehicle came along. Then we were back on our wider main road for a stretch. Pugz suggested taking a little back road which we did. Soon we were surrounded by olive groves and people mantaining them, shrubs and various types of trees. It was warm and although the ride was very hilly, it was really wonderful. We saw a old man and a little boy making rakia. We smelled so many different scents from the plants in the air and had amazing sea views at times. There was little traffic and no scary dogs about. It was Perfect!

We met up with Derya and Manuel in Camp Monika, the well advertised campsite and it was a little disappointing. Rough ground and one hot shower. Luckily we were the only people there so the one hot shower was not really a big deal. Sadly, Manuel and Derya's tent was a little vandlised by some cheeky brats in the village. Fortunately nothing was taken or broken but those kids made a mess.
However, Pugz has done a lot of camping at music festivals and with friends and families. He has rarely heard of this happening, so please don't let this incident put any of you off camping. But do watch out for bratty kids.

After a evening sitting in our tent talking to Manuel and Derya, we all set off the next day to the Montenergo border.