Greetings from Dubrovnik

At 09:57 on Friday 27th May 2016, Mr. Graham Burfoot finally entered the digital age. After previous encouragement by his daughter, who explained that social media was an effective way to communicate with the world, Graham had been assiduously posting updates on Facebook for many months. Graham admits to having started wondering who might be reading his pithy insights into the management of grounds maintenance businesses in Wiltshire or listening to his appeals for the return of a dog kennel he had lent out to someone many years previously until, on this particular morning, Jeremy explained that to get the most out of Facebook, you actually need to connect with one or two ‘Friends’, a concept which up until this particular moment was completely unfamiliar to Graham. We fear that this epiphany will change Graham’s life forever and of greater concern, the lives of everyone he has ever met.

A ferry trip that changed Graham's life

This watershed moment happened on the ferry between Korcula and Orebic, a 20 minute trip that took us back to the mainland and heralded the beginning of the final day of our Croatian tour. As with so many mornings on this trip, our route took us away from the coast and back up into the mountains, a stiff 1000 meter climb up good roads to get things going. On the ferry crossing we had met a party of Americans on a cycle tour of Croatia. All their bicycles were neatly installed on the top of a mini-bus; “we don’t really do hills” they explained. We ventured to suggest that they had perhaps come to the wrong country but they didn't seem to get the point; anyway we had a cherry reunion at the top of the first climb.

More than one way to get up a hill with a bicycle

The plan was to more or less follow the coast down to Dubrovnik but Chris who had planned this truly spectacular tour for us, had a few surprises yet in store. The morning was spent on wonderful sweeping coast roads, warm sunshine and spectacular views of the sea. After a good pasta lunch in Ston, an old fortified town with town walls that almost impossibly reached up from the coast into the high mountains, the climbing once again started in earnest. We turned onto small roads that took us up to about 400 meters in the hills around Osojnik. These roads were not nicely engineered with Alpine hairpins to manage the gradient, they were straight up and over, and with gears and thighs straining, Dubrovnik eventually came into view on the coast below. Down from the mountains, across the Franjo Tudman Bridge and on into Dubrovink where we got to the rather excellent Grand Villa Argentina at about 6. It has to be said, that we were expecting a bit of a heroes welcome from our wives who had travelled out to meet us but needless to say there was no sign of them, they were off in some bar chatting up the local talent no doubt.

Dubrovnik is everything it's cracked up to be. The fascinating walled city, beautifully re-built and as far as one could see with every single roof replaced after the place had been heavily shelled during the 1990s conflict. Wonderfully warm and hospitable people, excellent food, just the place to relax with friends after 900km on a bicycle saddle!

Dubrovnik - beautifully rebuilt

An so the 5th tour comes to a close. Less novel than Land’s End to John O’Groats, less familiar than Oxford to Venice, less challenging than Venice to Sicily, less wet than Lisbon to Valencia but as always, the company and the cycling were just excellent and a welcome break from the busy and complicated lives that everyone seems to lead these days. Thank you Harley, Graham, Chris, Jeremy and the wonderfully hospitable people of Slovenia and Croatia for an excellent and memorable few days.

Overall stats for the trip.

537 miles (865km)
12,592 meters of climbing

GPX file of today's route Korcula to Dubrovnik