Knin, Croatia: Island Escape to the Hinterlands

The ride into Dubrovnik rattled us enough to have John rethink our planned route up the Croatia coast.  Too many buses, too many trucks, not enough shoulder.  We weren't alone in our thinking.  We met a couple of French girls bike touring north, and they fashioned a cardboard sign asking for a hitch to the city of Split.  A solo Australian cyclist had the same idea as us -- go island hopping.  Look at a map of Croatia, and you will see long islands, hundreds of them paralleling the coast like furrows in a plowed field. Ferries service many of them, so we decided to hop to the island of Mljet, stay overnight, bike the length the next day and catch the ferry to the Peljesac Peninsula.  Then bike north a couple of days and catch a ferry back to the mainland, with just a day and a half ride until we get to the gap in the coastal mountains to head east into the hinterlands.

It turned out to be great decision.  We had a stretch of wonderful weather, the scenery was fantastic, and next to no traffic to spook us.  Here are the best pictures from that adventure (and beyond).

The ferry arrived late to Mljet Island, so we rented an AirBnB for one night.  Oh, had we wished we had time to stay a day to explore!  There were lakes on the island with good swimming and forest trails,  The apartment was located in the tiniest village -- just a handful of houses, and a beautiful terrace overlooking the forest.

We biked about 35 kilometers along the island to get to the ferry dock.  Only us, a few cars, and sleepy coves along the way.

From Mljet Island we took the ferry to Peljesac Peninsula.  It is long and narrow and connected to the mainland, but gets very little traffic because once you get to the northern tip, you need to either turn around and drive back or take a ferry.  It was very rural with lots of vineyards and wine tasting opportunities (which we passed on --- we generally don't "drink and bike"!)

We spent the night in a campground in the tiny village Zudljana, where we were the only campers.  And with view of the Adriatic Sea, just steps away.

The water of the Adriatic is so, so clear.  We had the gravelly beach to ourselves when we went for a swim, and be assured we were glad for that.  No one needs to see our mid-thigh bike shorts tan lines.

It was a non-trivial grind the next morning from sea level to a high point, and then back down to the port of Trpanj to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

The last of our three ferry rides arriving back on the mainland at Ploce.

We pedaled from Ploce for a few hours, camped in an overpriced campground, and then the next morning did a short stretch to the pass to take us inland.  The morning light highlights how impenetrable the coastal mountains can seem.

But lucky us, the coastal road stayed high and we just had a couple of switchbacks to climb to pop over the mountains,  See those distinctive bands on the tilted beds of the headland? 

Here are those same bands from the backside.  It was like we entered a different world when we got on the east side of the coastal mountains.  Very rural and very quiet roads.

The big surprise of this part of Croatia was finding this spring pouring out of the limestone here at the base of Croatia's highest peak, Dinara (1831 meters), seen here in the distance.  The spring is the source of the Krka river, and there was a sign with a map showing a 15 km bike trail that goes down the canyon along the river.  It was a dirt trail, but well-graded, so we followed it to the town of Knin.

Along the way were abandoned mill sites like this one.

Before the paved road was built this used to be the only way between Knin and the towns to the south.  Note the stone guard rails.

The canyon was narrow in places, and the water clear as glass.

The major highlight was the last of a series of waterfalls, called the Topoljski slap, 22 meters in height. Click on the photo to bring it up to full-frame size, and see if you can see the person standing to the left of the high cascades.

We found a little dirt road near the top of the falls and made camp, thinking we would be undiscovered.  But apparently it is a hangout for the kids of Knin, and we had just crawled into bed when a quad-runner came down our road.  They turned right around, and we had no other excitement overnight.  The roar of the falls was our lullabye.