Week 6 – Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia

Monday 29th to Sunday 5th May

Mon 29th – Urbino to Ancona – 160k

It’s looking like a very pleasant day as we head towards the coast and our overnight ferry to Croatia.

First stop was 12th century Castello di Montegridolfo which is what you’d have to call ‘quaint’, as it’s not much bigger than a rugby field.
We stopped for breakfast. That ramp up to the gate is seriously steep and I’m praying nothing decides to come the other way.

It was then on to Tavullia, which is where Valentino Rossi comes from. Now, for those of you who need educating, in the motorcycle racing world, Vale is more famous than the Pope. Read about him. There’s a mural, and his private motorcycle racing school sits in a valley nearby.

We then headed for the coast at Pesaro and followed it all the way to Ancona.
With one stop at the 14th century Rocca Roveresca in Senigallia.

We had a few hours to kill so headed south to Sirolo where we had a late lunch and watched the world go by.

Sirolo city gate. Our last of Italy.

Our ferry left for Split on time. There were more bikers on board than other passengers I think. Croatia, here we come.

Tues 30th – Slano – 205k

Our ferry is on time and we disembark at Split at 7am on a lovely balmy Adriatic spring morning. We head south. Traffic is pretty heavy, so at Omis we take to the hills – which was a questionable decision as it’s not the best of roads.

Heading for the rugged rocky hills – Omis.

We re-joined the traffic at Dubci

Then did a quick ‘drive thru’ of Baška Voda

Before stopping at Makarska for breakfast.

If you’ve followed our blog over the years you’ll know that this is our 3rd visit to Makarska. 2016, 2019 and now in 2024. The reason for this is that my maternal grandfather, my Dida, was born and raised in the unforgiving hills behind Makarska before emigrating to NZ in the early 1900s. So it’s a bit of a pilgrimage back to my Dalmatian roots.

We left Makarska and headed up to Sosic, which isn’t even on the map but is just behind Gornje Igrane on the above route map.
It’s just rocks up here and the old village is now quite neglected and the old dwellings are more and more derelict as the years go by. I don’t exactly know which of the stone cottages my Dida lived in but over the years I’ve taken a few pictures of the same dwelling that show the slide into oblivion of what was once someone’s home. Mind you, this place could be over 200 years old.

2016

2024

I can’t say there was any huge regrets as we left Sosic but there is certainly a huge amount of respect for those men and women who eked out a merger and even miserable existence here before making such a huge contribution to New Zealand’s North Auckland, which is where I was proudly raised.

We moved on. To the Pelješac Bridge which provides a fixed link from the south-eastern Croatian semi-exclave to the rest of the country while bypassing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s short coastal strip at Neum.

Neum in the distance.

And so to wonderful Slano. We’d stopped here for a coffee in 2016 and loved it’s quietness so close to so much other hussle and bustle of this area. So we took the opportunity to spend the night here.

Wed  May 1st – Kotor – 125k

It was overcast as we headed SE toward famous Dubrovnik. But first it was the 520mt Dr. Franjo Tuđman Bridge that sits like a sentinel across Rijeka Dubrovačka.

Before joining the mass of tourists that crowd the narrows of Fortress Dubrovnik. We’d spent a day here in 2016 so this time endured the crush for an hour before leaving. There is one great thing about travelling by motorcycle; you can usually park ‘right there’ within a short walk of the city gates – so we did of course.

There was a lot of traffic about and especially bikes. Also quite a few motorhomes holding up the traffic, unless you were on a bike of course. We pulled into the wayside of Odmorište Duboka Ljuta and had our lunch of bread, tomatoes, salami and red onion with Italy’s finest virgin olive oil, while overlooking this. That’s a life.

The border crossing into Montenegro was the usual issue over here with our Australian system of ‘registration certificate’ and not ‘ownership papers’. But we got there in the end much to frustration of those vehicles behind who’d picked the wrong queue. Don’t you hate that.

And so on to Kotor which is hidden away in the depths of the Bay of Kotor, more like a fiord than a bay. It is rugged country with the coast road clinging to a narrow strip directly under forbidding sheer mountains.

Kotor is hidden away top right hand corner. With it’s ‘daily turnaround’ cruise ships docked and anchored in close.

We’re here for 3 nights. So Thursday 2nd May we did a little loop ride south to Petrovac.

Budva Citadel which was packed with people.
The reason there are so many people about is that May 1st and 2nd are public holidays in Montenegro and of course everyone is on the road and out and about. Which is OK, except that there are NO shops open, but the restaurants are making a killing.

Then overlooking Sveti Stefan.

To quiet peaceful Petrovac where we sat on the beachfront sipping our coffee and watching families playing and old fishermen hoping.

That evening we took our dinner down to the little jetty outside our apartment and spent some time chatting to an old fisherman who plied us with his own grappa and cooked delights. He was proud of his 50% proof and I remember a near lethal encounter with the same poison metered out by an old Daly from Ruawai about 55 years ago.
Another old bloke ran his net across the small inlet to no avail.

Friday 3rd May we did our own tourist thing through the old walled city of Kotor.

Nice

Sat 4th May – Zabljak – 230k

It’s a decent days ride up into northern reaches of Montenegro and all to be able to say to those who have been there, that, yes we did get to see the Tara River Canyon and Viaduct.
But first it’s a series of hairpins just getting out of Kotor. The views from up here are magnificent.

The Kotor Serpentine

It’s a great ride through here and all the way to the Tara Canyon, which isn’t actually all that easy to see from the road, and the one decent pic that I did get didn’t get got. So here’s one from Google Images.

Tara Viaduct

The Zipline just on the other side of the Tara Viaduct claims to be the longest and the highest, but doesn’t say of what. But you can stand on the Viaduct and watch the brave and the restless zip past as they pays their money and enjoys their thrills.

Our accommodation was in a back street of Zabljak and it being another public holiday, Orthodox Easter weekend, nothing was open except a tiny local eating house where we enjoyed hearty goulash and boiled potatoes and our hostess was overjoyed at our appreciation, and the local men all appeared to be drunk which encouraged them to engage in long gesticulated conversations in whatever language it was that we couldn’t understand a word of nor they us, but we had a great time nonetheless.

Sun 5th May – Mostar – 240k

It was a gorgeous crisp morning as we headed south and down forever down from Zabljak then north west to cross the border without any fuss.

To Blagaj Tekke, or Vrelo Bune, where we stopped for a coffee and the largest and best ever piece of baklava with ice cream while overlooking the clear and fast flowing Bune River.

And so to famous Mostar to mingle with hordes of visitors on this most Holy of Orthodox Holy Days, and the Imam from their high towers competing in their calls to worship.
To walk over the reconstructed Old Bridge and pose for that pic while obstructing the rest of us. Then to wander through the bizarre like stalls and marvel at what we humans will sell to make a living, and buy as mementos because that obstructing pic isn’t enough.

Then a lovely evening together at a river side restaurant discussing our tomorrows and enjoying the life that we have.

Next week is all Croatia. See you then and then.