April 26, 2024 - Zavalatica to Lumbarda - A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Tour 25) - 2024 🇭🇷

April 26, 2024

April 26, 2024 - Zavalatica to Lumbarda

A Little One adopts us

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The area has lots of vineyards and every second house has a sign indicating they sell wine, though we did not see people around to get any. -- Zavalatica, Croatia

Same view as yesterday but now with some serious cloud cover which ended up bringing heavy enough rain. -- Korčula, Croatia

Pretty nice views out to sea from our apartment. -- Lumbarda, Croatia

I'm not sure if we 'adopted' this Little One or vice-versa, but she was so darned cute that her cuteness earned her some cat food from the Studenac supermarket. -- Lumbarda, Croatia

Strong winds bringing through lots of cloud and cold. Hopefully warmer tomorrow. -- Lumbarda, Croatia

Not that I'm a pushover for cute little cats... after closing the window she sat on the ledge looking in so i let her in. She wouldn't let me pick her up but she soon hopped up beside me, gradually slithered onto my legs, purring the whole time until she fell asleep. After an hour or so she wanted back out and didn't come back in the night. When I opened my eyes at 6 am there she was looking in at me - so I obliged and let the purring little soul in for some much appreciated breakfast. -- Lumbarda, Croatia

FORECAST change. Now there was going to be more rain and it was going to be coming sooner. I was up at 6 am to get the morning started and all the while though the sky was blue, I could see storm clouds with falling rain out to sea and moving closer.

We were rolling by 730 or 8 am and went with our plan from yesterday to walk the stone path up the ravine until it ended. It was only a few hundred metres long but the forest canopy was beautiful.

On the other end of the walk, the terrain flattened enough to cycle for the next ten or so kilometres. But in this time, the rain caught up with us. It seemed to be only the edge of the storm so we got a bit wet and cool but the climb where we walk-cycled kept us warm.

Our initial plan was to cycle a different route back to Korčula, but the cyclists we met yesterday said they had tried to cycle the route only to find it was not passable for some reason. This meant we had to re-trace our route exactly all the way back to town. The incline was not as steep as the other side so we were able to cycle a good part of the way up to Pupnat and then to the top of the pass. Descending, though, was a little hairy because it was SO darned steep. We braked the whole way down so I'm thinking our brake pads are running on empty. Where yesterday the climb seemed to take a long time, today's climb seemed to go fairly quickly and before we knew it, we were back in Korčula. We only had a bit to go to our apartment but it is funny that the pre-planned route went right past the place we stayed in town two nights ago and will again tomorrow.

As we arrived to the Old Town we saw cycle tourist who said he was looking for the ferry to Dubrovnik. I told him that if it was with Krilo then it was just 'over there'; otherwise, it was a long way to go. We continued on our way, heading the last few kilometres to Lumbarda.

A roadside picnic area had a cycle repair station so we stopped so I could tighten a loose bolt then we decided to have a quick snack. This was bad timing because when we just got going again it started to rain quite a bit so though not soaked, we wee wet and cold.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, our apartment was just out of Lumbarda but on the Korčula side so we headed to where the gps was sending us. And the rain continued. Then a bit of fun ensued. The number we were given did not match up with the photo on the booking site. I went up and looked but it appeared semi-abandoned. The place in the photo was a few more doors down. Oh oh, we thought, have we been scammed?

There was a couple spraying trees in the area so they came up with me and sure enough I found the key where the host had said and were into our apartment after carrying our bikes and gear up the several tens of steps. And entered into a two bedroom, two bathroom, living room, and kitchen apartment and best of all... a young cat on a stone wall greeted us and started meowing at us and purring.

After fussing over our cat for a while we headed over to the next bay to Old Lumbarda where we went up to the big Studenac supermarket where we picked up food for tonight's supper and tomorrow's breakfast. The bags were heavy so we headed right back to the apartment as we admired the incredible views across the water to Pelješac Peninsula. Some of the peaks quickly clouded over and looked rainy and those clouds were approaching so we wanted to be back before any rain came.

I have to admit that we were bad at the grocery store. We may or may not have picked up a few packages of young cat food, And when we got back we may or may not have brought out a dish to feed the young cat. She may or may not have gobbled everything down, purring the whole time. It just might be difficult to leave her behind tomorrow (of course we will, but it won't be fun).

This apartment also has a washing machine, so a few days' worth of cycling grime is being laundered out as I type.

We ate a simple dinner in the apartment while our purring sweetie watched us as she wandered in and out through the open window. Her skittishness started to lessen when I sat down on the floor to fuss over her when she climbed up on to my legs and stretched out to relax. And I was happy.

When the window was closed she seemed a little edgy. Though she curled up on me and fell asleep on me when I was on the sofa, she ended up running to the window at one point, wanted out and stayed out til morning. It has been great having her here.

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 243 km (151 miles)

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