OK, I’m time boxing myself this morning (the day after). I’ve got fifteen minutes before we have to leave to catch the ferry, so let’s see if I can throw in enough narrative to call it good.
The ride to Rab is a two ferry day - one to get off of Pag, followed by a twelve mile climb and descent on the mainland, and then a ferry to Rab. Both ferries are short, and run about a dozen times a day. No problem making them, but we start out planning to make the 10:30 ferry to the mainland. If we miss it, the next one is an hour later, but this is the one we want.
It’s sixteen miles to the ferry, mostly on a flat road along the shore. We allow for plenty of time, but the ride is different than we expect - the coast road is unpaved for much of its length, and at times unbikable by us - gravelly, sandy. We can’t really bike too fast and be safe. No point risking a spill to save an hour.
Gravelly or not, the coast road is really beautiful. No one is on it but a few other bicyclists - all the cars are up on top, crossing a significant climb that we’re avoiding. If you come to Pag, definitely look at our route.
When we hit gravel, we started becoming resigned to missing our targets ferry. And, not knowing how far the road would go on like this, I started even wondering about making the next one. We kept a reasonable pace though, maybe 10k/hr, and once we reached pavement again it seemed possible that we might just make it still.
Race! By he time we came to the bottom of the last climb before the port, I became a believer. If I could keep my pace up on the climb, I calculated that I would arrive at the ferry with about two minutes to spare - just enough time to pick up tickets while Rachael caught up.
And so it went down. There was still a long line of cars queued up to load when I arrived at the ticket office. I paid our fare, rode to the front of the line, and waited anxiously for Rachael to come into view. When she rounded the last bend I waved at her, and she basically just rolled straight on to the ferry. Awesome!
Pag has a complicated outline, with long peninsulas and bays. It has an amazing amount of shoreline for a fairly small piece of land. Here, we’re biking next to the shore on the main part of the island, looking across to another barren leg. Behind that rise the Velebit Mountains on the mainland.
Pag is scarred by ancient stone walls, often in a neat rectilinear pattern. They must predate the Venetian rule and deforestation, I’d think. It’s hard to see why anyone would wall off a plot of this land now.
Well, so much for catching the 10:30 ferry! Our route along the coast unexpectedly includes a five mile stretch of sand and gravel. Rachael experiments with a new riding position, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
We start seeing a few spots where oaks have taken hold. Maybe in another seven hundred years the island will be green again, if it isn’t submerged by then.
More of those parallel stone walls. We’re biking north along the spine of the island now, a few mile south of Novalija. The ferry is still over seven miles off and there’s a five hundred foot climb in the way. Doesn’t seem too promising.
I feel torn. I doubt that we’ll make it, so why not slow down and take more photos of this astonishing land? On the other hand, I don’t want to be the cause of missing it either. I compromise, taking a few quick shots here and there and then racing t9 catch up to Rachael again.
I think we might make it! We got a bit of help from the wind, and the grade on the climb was modest enough that I could keep up a good pace. I’m racing ahead, planning to buy tickets while Rachael catches up at the end. I’ve managed to pull far enough ahead of here here that I think I have time for one photo. She’s well behind me, as you can zoom in and see.
The Fridays have been burning up with envy ever since they saw that photo of Rodriguez cozying up to a Ferrari last month. When they saw a chance to hang with the thoroughbreds on the ferry, they went for it.
Off the ferry and on the mainland, we stare at a thousand foot climb in the next four miles to get up to the coast highway. Steep at first, about 9%, but then backing off after about a mile. Not a hard climb, often shaded by cliffs and trees, and beautiful - both close up, with views up into the mountains, and across the strait to Pag, Rab, and in the distance Krk. On the main highway, we roll over a few modest ridges through unbroken terrific views. At the end we come to the turnoff for the ferry to Rab and enjoy an exhilarating three mile descent.
The entire day has been splendid, the most scenic day of the tour so far. If I were to rate our biking days on scenery on a one-to-ten scale, I’d give today almost a perfect ten.
From the ferry, we face a thousand foot zigzag up the Velebit Mountains. It starts out a bit steep, but most of the way it’s only 6-7 percent. It helps that we find some shade on the road.
Arriving on Rab, we face a short, easy eight miles to Rab Town, our destination for the night. After a modest two hundred foot climb away from the ferry up to the spine of the island we have a basically flat ride until reaching Rab Town and dropping to the waterfront again. For most of the way we have the road to ourselves - we’re starting at the south end of the island, and few come down this way except to access the ferry.
We arrive in Rab not long after two - well before the 4 PM arrival time we announced in advance (one of the disadvantages of booking into private apartments as we have most nights here is arranging a time to meet the host, who often lives elsewhere). We stop at a waterfront bar with WiFi to pass the time, and Rachael calls our host, Jana, to see if we can check in early. Jana is happy to hear from us and wants us to come right over - she needs to leave to take her son for a doctor’s appointment and then they plan to hang out at the beach for the afternoon, so this works wonderfully for everyone.
Jana’s place is one of the best we’ve stayed at here - spacious and comfortable, with a layout we could live in, plus a fine view of the harbor and old town below.
After cleaning up and resting up a bit, we walk down to the old town for a look around, and of course a meal. Rab is great little place, one of our favorites of the tour so far, but I’m out of time today so you’ll have to wait for photos of it. I’ll come back and break it out as a photo gallery later. In the meantime though, here’s the meal. If I remember accurately, this is only the third food photo in the tour so far. Once per week, on average - not too over indulgent, don’t you think?
On Rab, waiting for the cars to unload so that the road clears out. We had a nice chat with this woman from Bern on the ride across, trading touring experiences. She and her husband are quite adventurous, and have cycled through Chile as well as throughout Europe. They’re campers, but carrying an amazingly compact load.
There go our new Swiss friends. We kept with them on the climb away from the ferry, but once we crested they flew off. We’re just not fast on the descent, and don’t aspire to be.
