Day 17 - Lopar to Plitvice Jezera

 *** STOP PRESS ***   Grizzly avoids being arrested by Croation Police by the length of the hairs on his head!

But before that, Wildlife Watch. 

Besides the Cicadas, heard but rarely seen, this morning I saw 2 lizards. Then, this afternoon, I rounded a bend in the mountains, to find a deer in the middle of the road, about 50 metres away. I slowed right down but it jumped back into the trees.  

This morning, it was already 25 degrees by the time it came to leave the hotel. Our first destination, was the Misnjak ferry port, for the ferry taking us back to the mainland. It's a 15 minute trip. Once on the other side, we headed south along the coast road. It was hot, so we were somewhat relieved when we turned inland and started to climb into the hills. Along with the expected temperature drop, we also encountered very strong gusty winds, which made it interesting negotiating some of the hairpin bends. We pulled into a planned viewpoint stop, to take a few pictures of the coastline. It is a very rugged coastline but still stunning.

Croatia's Coast, Beautiful

Our one and only POI stop for the day, was at the Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre, Smiljan. I'd only planned for a quick stop to take some photos, of the house he was born in for example, as we didn't really have the time to do a full visit. As it was, we stayed a bit longer but not long enough to benefit from paying for the full experience. It looked quite interesting though. So, photos done, we moved on to our fuel stop, just up the road.

Nikola Tesla Statue, made from Duralumin

NT's Birth place

The fuel stop also served as a coffee and panini stop for Grizzly. From the fuel stop, we had about 95 miles to go to our home for the next 2 nights, Plitvice Jezera.

For about 40 miles we were having a nice ride, smooth roads and a reasonably fast pace. That was until we turned onto road 218. For the next 16.5 miles, we had one of the worst roads, we have ridden on. The surface, where one existed, was so bumpy and potholed, we were riding on the wrong side of the road and weaving to find the smoothest and safest route through. I was sitting their thinking Grizzly will kill me but I hadn't chosen that road particularly, it was just the shortest way between 2 waypoints, so that's where Tomtom took us.We always seem to get an 'adventure' on a tour, or mis-adventure, and this was certainly it. Wild Hogs tours are littered with roads we should never have ventured down. All part of the fun, Grizzly was OK about this one, surprisingly.

We were once again on a decent road surface and unbeknown to us, heading for another 'adventure'. Shortly after my encounter with the deer, I encountered another mammal in the road, a member of the Croation constabulary. He waved we down and asked me for my licence and vehicle registration. I pulled to the side. Grizzly, was some way behind, as usual, so I was already off the bike by the time copper 1 nodded to copper 2, and Grizzly was also pulled over. Meanwhile I had provided my licence and had dug my rego doc out of the pannier. Grizzly was asked for the same. With my docs handed back, I was told I could go but I explained we were together. Grizzly handed over his licence but doesn't carry his registration document, so was desperately trying to open up the insurance docs on his phone that would at least show, his name and bike rego. Grizzly tried to explain that they don't have paper docs in Ireland but the copper said that you need them when you ride in Croatia. Grizzly never did get the insurance doc open but the copper gave him his licence back with a warning that next time in Croatia, he needs paper docs. We were both free to go. The copper was OK. He asked how many kilometres we had done in Croatia, so I was telling him where we had come from and were going. He wished us a good trip and off we went.

Now you've heard that expression, Does a bear shit in the woods? Well, it does if it thinks it's going to get nicked by Croation police! 😂😂😂

We got to our B&B for the next 2 nights, I did a reccy of the walk to the lakes tomorrow, whilst Grizzly had a nap, then on my return, we went into the village to have dinner and liquid refreshment. The dinner gaff doesn't do brekkie and there's no meal option at the B&B, so I'm not too sure what we will do in the morning yet.Maybe get something from the supermarket, IF we can find it.

I'll be back again tomorrow. Will you?