Day 16 - Zagreb to Lopar, Rab Island

We are now over halfway through the tour. Ginny has clocked over 31k in the last day and together we have coverd over 2,000 miles since leaving Sittingbourne.

Wildlife Watch - yesterday we saw some camels and an elephant, belonging to a Hungarian circus. Today, I  ran over a fox! Fear not, neither the fox, nor Ginny were hurt in the incident. The fox, was already dead. Lying right across my lane, it appeared from under a van, leaving me no time to react. Bump! I also saw some Storks atop a tall street light. Their nests are something to behold.

The day started dry and warm. It was going to get hotter but not necessarily better. We had our first separation. I nipped up a lane with tram lines rather than wait in a queue, Grizzly stayed put in the queue of traffic. Luckily, we were re-united minutes later.

First stop, fuel stop. Shortly after, we were separated again. Dr Jeykell was on the Shadslow today! A couple of twisty bends and he dropped back sufficiently to miss me make a right turn and with his Garmin (feckin Garmin) telling him to go straight on, l watched him sail past the end of the road in my mirrors! With so many mismatches between Tomtom and Garmin, there was no point in waiting or way of knowing which way he would go, so I carried on my way. And an enjoyable ride it was too, full of nice twisty bends, allowing Ginny to swing from side to side.

After about an hour, I pulled into a LIDL to buy some water. I parked by the road so IF Jeykell or Hyde came past, they would see me. I was just at the door, when I heard that unmistakable burble of the Shadslow,  and watched it sail by! Well, at least I now knew he was in front of me. Next stop, Valbiska ferry port.

Not our ferry

As I suspected, Grizzly was waiting when I arrived. With our ferry not until 16:00, we had about 3.5 hours to kill. Luckily there's a cafe, with a canopy, just as well, as it was 28 degrees and sun blazing down. Grabbing a table, we waited it out, in the shade.

Grizzly couldn't sit still though. Whether it was the 3 coffees he had in about 30 minutes, I don't know. When you want him to walk, he wants to sit down. When all we could do was sit and wait in the shade, he was walking about in the sun! That, J & H thing again?

That's our ferry

Eventually, we took our place in a small queue, 20 vehicles in all, and boarded. It was so hot, we elected to sit inside, in air-conditioned heaven. 

In the queue

Grizzly had already had a cat nap (the amount he sleeps, you'd think he was Moggy, not Grizzly) but when I returned from a spell on deck, his eyes were shut again.

Grizzly napping at the cafe

The trip across the water should take 1h20m, though I think it actually took about 10 minutes longer. We were quick to dis-enbark though and probably within 10 minutes, I was in the foyer of the Hotel Sahara, checking in.

This is a holiday resort, comprising about 4 hotels. I opted for inclusive dinner, to save us having to find a restaurant elsewhere. Before dinner though, we took a walk down to the bay and beach, a 5 minute walk away. We were surprised at how shallow the bay was. Adults a good 75 metres from the shore, were only up to their waists! It's the perfect place to take young kids. They can go out a long way, with no danger of getting into trouble.

The beach

At one side of the bay, there's a small harbour, with fishing boats and boats for hire. The boats are separated from the shallow swimming area by a barrier of some kind, so once again safe for bathers, kids, especially.

The harbour with mainland Croatia in the background

Our 'sightseeing' done, it was time to enter the melee that was the buffet dinner. First rule, find a table first, which we did. It's no use walking around with a huge plateful of grub, if you can't find anywhere to sit. We took it in turns to get our food. We also discovered that beer/wine was on tap, so unlimited food AND beer! Happy days. To be fair we didn'rt go overboard. Grizzly had less beer than on a normal night, as they were only 0.3 litre glasses.

Tomorrow we'll start by riding the length of the island, before getting a ferry back to the mainland. We have one POI to visit tomorrow but you can read about that in the next post. 

Bye for now.