6 hours 6 mins
1,675m elevation gain
This was a long day for us and was also full of change, we crossed into Montenegro, the scenery and weather changed all day and my front inner tube was changed - flat tyre number 2. We did a lot of cycling and by the time we reached Budva it was dark, so we were glad to have arrived in town and we were pretty tired. We also saw two snakes today, one as we were leaving Dubrovnik and then other was further along the Ciro Trail in Croatia!
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| Our bikes were hanging out on the steps in Dubrovnik |
Croatia
We had been warned about the busy coastal road coming out of Dubrovnik, as it's the main road leading to the airport. I found with some searching online that the "old road" is still there but they have put up a barrier at the new road. So we headed up that route and saved ourselves 4km on the busy road and we just about managed to lift our bikes over the barrier. The road was busy and fast, but as it was Sunday morning I think there may have been fewer lorries than usual and the worst thing we found was the wind which was blowing hard against us and making the bikes unstable. We took a few breaks and carried on the 12km doing fine, we then took a left before the airport and joined the Ciro Trail route which weirdly has an extra bit here. It had different signs, but we did see one map with our signs on it, we carried on through many vineyards on a lovely clear road until it brought us back to the main road at Gruda.
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| Vineyards and winery's along the Ciro Trail |
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| Nice scenery along this route |
Flat tyre no. 2 and the border
Just as we were approaching the border I got another flat tyre! This time on the front wheel and it was a thorn that went straight in and pierced the inner tube. We are more skilled now at fixing tyres and we did the job a lot quicker and the bike still rides fine as the front wheel doesn't carry as much weight. We then arrived at the border crossing which has a long stretch in the middle of the Croatian and Montenegrin passport controls, I'm not sure what's in the middle there. Funnily enough, in the middle area we saw a man on foot with a large suitcase heading for the border too. We joined the "bus" lane as there were a few other cars and he came behind us soon after, so it was a bunch of odd-jobs in the lane. We all got through and then we cruised into Montenegro.
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| The culprit - a thorn |
Sights of note
- A man crossing the border on foot with a huge suitcase
- The fortress in Herceg Novi
- Lots of excitement in the evening for a basketball game
- We spotted the Hungarian guy walking again - but at the side of the road having a rest (from the wind probably)
- A line up of spotty minis
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| Herceg Novi fortress and bay |
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| The line-up of spotty minis |
The car ferry
After a lovely lunch in Herceg Novi we cycled through some of the Bay of Kotor and a huge rain shower. It had been dripping rain on us all day, we had the covers on but stuck with our t-shirts as the air was very warm and the light showers were a bit of relief. However, when we were approaching the car ferry the heavens opened and we had to take shelter. It was a huge rain shower and there was a lot of water on the roads after - the cars were splashing us after that. We got to the car ferry a bit wet but we jumped on with 3 minutes to spare, only to watch them cram on an extra bus which barely fit - they couldn't even fully pull up the back runway as the bus was hanging off the end. They didn't seem to mind though and we carried on across the bay. It was beautiful and nice to see the ocean and beaches along the way. The sun was setting as we rode and it lit up a cloud across the sky in a crazy way.
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| The car ferry and cloudy sky |
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