Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding!

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Brač is the largest of the Dalmatian islands

It takes less than an hour for us to arrive at Brač. The passengers on the ferry crowd the railings to get a glimpse of Supetar, the port town we are docking in. After riding off the ferry, we stop at the side of the road and let all the cars go ahead of us. We're in no rush.


Neda reaches up and picks something off of the branches (Bračs?) overhead


"What is it?", I asked. Neda replied, "I don't know the name in English, but we call it murva"

Then she popped it in her mouth. Neda continues her habit of picking stuff off the ground, in trees, out of the sea and eating it. Nature's Buffet! She knows everything there is to know about living off the land. She should totally be on Survivor or something.

I looked up "murva". It's a mulberry!


Okay, enough free food, let's ride!

[Sport-Touring]

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The road leads up and out of Supetar, we can see the town below us as we ride away


The coastal road is so twisty as it clings to the jagged edges of the island (see map above)!


We pass by small villages and farms and vineyards. Absolutely beautiful!


Looking over the town of Postira as we ride the northern coastal route

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The road dives south inland for a bit and we ride gentle switchbacks to climb higher up the shelf of land


Then back down to end up in the town of Pučišća, where Neda plans out our next stop


Wanna go dancing?


We climb up, up, up inland through more twisty roads and forests to the highest spot in Brač, Vidova Gora

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Vidova Gora is also the highest peak in all of the Dalmatian Islands. From here you can get a great view of the south coast of the island

That little cape of sand down there is called Zlatni Rat, or "Golden Horn". We'll be riding all the way down there later on this afternoon.


Close-up of Zlatni Rat. Looks like a lot of suntanning going on down there


We pass lots of vineyards as we head down and around to the southern coast looking for a campsite

Brač is expensive. There is no finding any cheap AirBnB in a far away town here because every place on the island is a holiday destination. The only economical option is to pitch our tent while we're here.


While searching for a campsite, I make a friend.


Our site for the evening

This is the first time we've broken out our tent this year. I think it's been over 7 months since we camped! I stare at the mess of poles, groundsheet, and tabs and clips on the tent and struggle to remember how to assemble it all together. Neda is loving being outdoors in nature again and I'm so thankful the weather is holding out and that we don't have to pitch the tent in the rain.

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Our campsite is just up the hill from Zlatni Rat, so after we eat a quick meal of sandwiches and soup outside our tent, we take a stroll down to the beach.


And then we come across a cheeky Croatian man skinny-dipping in the waters


Outside a restaurant near Zlatni Rat.


Ahhh, the beach! Turns out the golden colour isn't sand at all. It's a pebble beach! How unusual that it should look like sand from a distance!

We reach Zlatni Rat just before the sun disappears behind the mountains so all the sunbathers have left for the day. We have the entire beach to ourselves, so we stroll lazily around the small cape while Neda finds flat rocks and teaches me how to skip them on the waters of the sea. Yes, I am such a city boy... Skip rocks? Pick berries? I can code my own blogging software from scratch, is that cool enough for you?


What a totally relaxing tour of the Dalmatian Islands! So chill.

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We walk further past the cape and look out to the sea to all the ships anchored off the coast

Less than 2kms from Zlatni Rat is the town of Bol. It's the most ritzy place on Brač.


The marina at Bol

As we stroll the boardwalk in Bol, we peer at the menus posted outside the very frou-frou restaurants lining the harbour front. Everything is priced well out of our budget. It's a good thing we made our own dinner tonight. And walking around is free, so that's what we do.


"Where is your motorcycle, Neda? I would like to claim dominion over its seat. With my pee..."

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More of Bol

The buildings here are made from a white stone that has been excavated from local quarries here on the island. The white stone from Brač is world-famous and was used to build Diocletian's Palace in Split, and also the White House in Washington, DC!


Peering into a church


We just continue to be Bol-ed over at the beauty of our surroundings


Having an awesome time in the Dalmatian Islands!

[jp]

Cats, dogs, naked man... all in a place called Zlatni Rat... and no pun?

[kver]

Cats, dogs, naked man... all in a place called Zlatni Rat... and no pun?

hey wait a minute Bol elicited a slam dunk with Bol-ed over, and did you miss the "cheeky" skinny-dipper?  hate to spleet hares and rat Gene out..  

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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/318.html



We're going island hopping today! Gonna head to the next island south of Brač, called Hvar. But strangely enough, there is no direct ferry between Brač and Hvar. Which means we've got to take a ferry back to the mainland, ride south a little bit and then take another ferry to Hvar. I guess there's not enough traffic between the two islands to justify a direct ferry. Oh well, more riding for us, we don't mind!


While at the ferry dock in Sumartin (Brač), Neda talks to some sidecar folks from Germany


I got to talking to another German rider, Günter, he is traveling around on his beloved Yamaha Diversion


Last view of Brač from the ferry before departing

We spent the rest of the ferry ride hanging out with Günter. His English was better than our German, and we talked a lot about our trips and motorcycles. We got along really well and he invited us to come visit him in Germany if we were ever in the area. That was very gracious of him, we'd love to hang out more with him again! Just gotta figure out when we'll be around Germany again...

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Thanks to Günter for this pic of us - we don't have many of us together. Enjoying the sunshine!


After only an hour we arrive at Makarska, on mainland Croatia.

Günter is traveling further south, while we are going to stop less than 30kms away in Drvenik to catch the ferry to the next island of Hvar. We say our goodbyes in Makarska and less than 20 minutes later down the coast, we find ourselves waiting for yet another ferry!


Taking a dip in the Adriatic Sea while waiting. Weather is perfect!

It's a couple of hours wait in Drvenik for the next ferry, so we duck into a supermarket to get some cheese and Croatian prosciutto and we sit lazily by the edge of the sea while the blue sky and sun smile down at us. Nice.


Finally our ferry arrives. We park the bikes onboard and this was our entertainment for the next 15 minutes

When I first saw the long tour bus approach the already-loaded ferry, I told Neda, "There's no way he's fitting that thing on here this trip". The ferry operators corraled all the cars to the sides to make a bus-sized hole in the middle. Every single person marvelled at the bus-driver's Tetris skills as he shoe-horned his vehicle onboard with inches to spare on either side!

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35 minutes later, it's time to disembark the ferry again. What a roundabout way to get to the next island!


Motoring around the twisty coastal roads on the island of Hvar


It was getting late in the day, so we headed to the town of Stari Grad

We're now about 10 kms away from where we slept last night, as the crow flies. But we didn't fly. We crossed two islands, took two ferries and rode around 120 kms to get here! Oh well, it's a motorcycle trip!


There was no one in this wine store when we walked in. I went into the washroom and when I came out, Neda was ordering us some wine. Where did this guy come from?


Sipping our glasses of Croatian wine outside the store

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Walking around the marina in Stari Grad


Main square in Stari Grad

For some reason, Neda thought Stari Grad was the main tourist town on Hvar island, but it seemed kind of older and small. Well, it was getting too late to relocate. We had to find a campsite soon before the sun went down.


Church of St Stephen, Stari Grad


Although it wasn't the main town on Hvar, Stari Grad was still very quaint with its typical Croatian narrow streets and pedestrian cobblestone roads

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Sign reads, "Summer working hours: PO-MAaaaa Lo!!!"

This sign made Neda laugh. "Pomalo" literally translated means, "A little bit", but it's slang for "Take it easy. No stress". It's basically the Croatian equivalent of the Jamaican saying "Irie, mon". And it's specifically slang from the coastal regions, like Istria and Dalmatia, where life is more relaxed than the interior. Coastal Croatians are like islanders...

This Pomalo/Irie feeling would not last very long though.

We arrive at a campsite that was advertised online. It looked deserted and the facilities were boarded up. Uh oh. What do we do? We rode back out into town and knocked on a few hotel doors. Holy crap the prices were waaaay expensive. Not pomalo at all...


So we went back to the deserted campsite and set up our tent anyway. Pomalo, pomalo!


Neda catches up on some TV shows while I keep a watchful eye out for anyone that looked like they were going to kick us off the property

We don't really wild-camp much - we prefer having flush toilets and hot running water. But we don't feel like paying high-season hotel prices on the island, so we'll forgo the shower for this one night... I slept with one ear open, worrying that we would be woken up in the middle of the night, reprimanded (or worse) for trespassing and be forced to vacate the premises.

Man, just a month ago we were living like kings in palatial apartments for peanuts in Thailand and now we're balking at the cheapest hotel prices in Europe. What a change!

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But in the morning, we haven't been discovered and Neda is making breakfast: Peanut butter and pomalo sandwiches!

We packed up our tent as discreetly as possible, and rode off the deserted property as quietly as we could. As we passed the front gate, a man approached us and Neda engaged him in Croatian. Turns out he was the campsite manager! Uh oh!

We found out that because it was still early in the season, the site was only due to open the next week. He said he saw our tent late last night and told us that if he had known earlier, he would have opened up the facilities for us. I was ready to reach for my wallet when he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to charge you for a patch of grass. Have a nice trip!"

Pomalo!

So we left Stari Grad to find the tourist centre of Hvar island. Which turns out to be the town of Hvar. Duh!


A fortress at the top of a hill greets us as we approach Hvar. The city walls extend all the way up the hillside


Ah, now *this* is the tourist centre!


A lot larger and much more fancier than Stari Grad (Stari Grad means "old town" in Croatian BTW)

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Another beautiful day! Neda bought some strawberries at the farmer's market
and we ate them while hanging out at the edge of the marina. Pomalo pomalo!


Main square in Hvar


Taking a walk along the harbour

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The minute I saw the fort up the hill, I knew Neda would make us hike up it... No Pomalo:(


Along the way, I take a picture of a well from Roman times. Neda yanks me by the shirt, "Stop stalling. We've got a hill to climb!"


As we hike the path up to the fortress, we pass underneath one of the city walls


Along the way, I stop to take picture. Neda taps her foot impatiently...

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Finally, we reach the top outside the fortress. Great view of the city and harbour below

The fort is called Tvrđava Španjola, which means Spanish Fortress, built by Spanish military engineers in the 16th century. It costs money to go into the fort, so we take a pass on that. I'm sure the view is much nicer from the outside than the inside!


Some nice boats moored at the harbour in Hvar. Sailing the Dalmatian islands is a popular bucketlist item.

Having seen Hvar and Hvar island, we hop on the bikes and double back to the same ferry that took us here. The Dalmatian islands are not that big, Hvar is only about 80kms from end-to-end. Soon, we find ourselves back on the mainland heading south again.


And more twisty, coastal roads!


Just before Ploče , we stop to take a look at the Neretva river flowing into the Adriatic

We have to make a decision, do we catch another ferry at Ploče to get to the next Dalmatian island south of Hvar: Pelješac and Korčula? Or continue on southwards down the Dalmatian coast. Hvar and Brač were pretty similar, so I think we've got the jist of the Dalmatian islands at this point.

So we head south.

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Oh but first, Neda does some more shopping

Neda has had peanut butter and jam sandwiches for breakfast pretty much every single day on this trip with little exception. So when she saw a roadside stall selling artisanal Croatian jams and marmalades, we had to stop to take a look. Meh, too overpriced! We'll get some at the grocery store instead.

Most people don't know that you can't travel the entire length of the Dalmatian coastline while staying entirely in Croatia. There's a 9-km piece of land belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina called the Neum Corridor, which interrupts the Croatian coastline:



There's a lot of conflicting information about whether or not you need to purchase Bosnian vehicle insurance if you are crossing the Neum Corridor, especially since Croatia joined the European Union a few years ago and Bosnia & Herzegovina is not in the EU. The minimum coverage period you can purchase for Bosnian insurance is 7 days and it costs $25. That's expensive for a 10-minute ride across the Neum Corridor!

A lot of overlanders play it safe by catching a ferry at Ploče to the peninsula of Pelješac, which bypasses the Neum Corridor and connects back up to the Dalmatian coastline towards Dubrovnik. All the while staying in Croatia. Fortunately the day before, we e-mailed our new German friend, Günter, who had went ahead of us south. He told us they didn't make him purchase Bosnian vehicle insurance at the border...


Which is why we had the option to do this!

The 9-kms we saw of Bosnia & Herzegovina was not very much different from the Dalmatian coast that we had already seen. We will visit Bosnia properly later, but now we're just content to lazily wander around on the Adriatic. We flashed our EU passports again at the Croatian border and continued on our way south.