Day 17 19/9 Delnice-Rijeka 52 km

It was fresh and foggy at 2200ft as I went out to find a bakery for some doughnuts for breakfast. We also needed some milk for our morning pint of tea. Fortunately my walk took me through a farmers’ market and a lady was selling some from the back of her van. Proper unadulterated cow juice for a change.

Once again we loaded up the recharged bikes.

Our ground floor ( always a bonus) apartment. The bikes had their own empty garage in which to recharge

The cloud was lifting so we set off along the quiet main road and decided to take another small route through the trees, suggested by our mapping app. as a “popular route“!

We passed lots of empty concrete sheds, which might have been barracks, but after this tree and another gravel mound, we decided we’d had enough of this trail.

This sign showing large wild animals was our final encouragement to find the main road again.
We soon were cycling along a small, pretty route through the woods. We were unsure we’d like to live under this massive dam with a 5 km lake behind🤔

As we stood here admiring the view we both thought a café would have been appreciated. Our prayers were answered and just around the corner, one appeared.

We were in need of energy, as we had a big climb ahead, so we shared a big plateful of fried squid and chips. 👍🏼

We have passed many beautifully stacked wood piles, but this was my favourite, on the climb to the top of the pass.
The wind was whistling up the valley which made cycling a challenge
Nearly at the summit.
928 metres (3044 ft)
Even my phone compass agreed.

From now on, the next 20 km was almost all downhill to the Adriatic coast and our destination of Rijeka

On the descent and looking at the sea for the first time. Not the sea we intended to get to, but it’s still a sea!😁The island of Kirk, just visible above Sue’s head.
The downhill was fun, once again!! I’m definitely getting faster !😁

The scenery had changed dramatically. No more pine trees, but replaced by arid scrubby vegetation and no grass.

We decided to take a more scenic route instead of following a main road into a big city. Another one of Bike Map’s silly ideas!

It seemed, on the map that we’d be following a small tarmac road but is was mostly downhill gravel for 10 kms🥵

The first bit was fine but as it became steeper, the rain had eroded gullies into the surface, and cycling was almost impossible, so plenty of steep bits we had to walk.
Not a happy face🤭

After an hour of slow descent through this scenery, with not another sign of habitation, we came upon this railway at 1500 ft above sea level! The other side of the raised track was a tarmac road; at last. Relief all around!

Finally some smooth tarmac; her mouth expression says it all!!
Our first view of the top of Rijeka, in between the hills.
We followed a twisty downhill route through the town to sea level. This time our Bike map chose well and the traffic was light until we reached the Euro Vélo route 8 along the coast. Disappointingly Rijeka has spent nothing on cycle tracks, so we were on a busy road, dodging articulated buses and boy racers in noisy German cars, getting a kick out of trying to make you wobble by getting very close. 😡

We were hugely relief to find our accommodation, except when we discovered we had to lug all our gear and heavy batteries up 84 stairs to get to it🥵

Fortunately the cycle shop next door was kind and let us park our bikes it his shop overnight.

After a shower and a relax for an hour we felt better. We then found a close by restaurant in which to refuel and mull over our tiring day, but dry day.

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Published by Robkeene

Sue and I are both over 60 and looking to explore the cycle routes in France

1 Comment

  1. cloudsilly5d207e4aa0's avatar cloudsilly5d207e4aa0 says:
    September 20, 2024 at 11:09 am

    Doing a great job both – keep up the good work and hope Sues bruises from getting squashed under the bike the other day are recovering and your backsides arnt too sore from all the gravel tracks you have had to deal with – onwards to the sea – keep calm and keep peddling 🙂 see you both soon xxx Brij

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