Goldilocks: Day 55 - Zagreb to Bosiljevo - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

October 1, 2017

Goldilocks: Day 55 - Zagreb to Bosiljevo

Some of our ride today was on roads that were too narrow and too steep. Some was on roads that were too wide and with a little too much traffic. However, most of our ride was just right.

What a great start to October. A crisp clear morning and it was Sunday so traffic was very light leaving Zagreb. We were quickly out of town heading west … towards the hills. There is a national bike route (on roads) leading towards the coast marked on Pocket Earth. However when I put in our starting point, and our destination for the day (a hotel in the middle of nowhere, except for being halfway between Zagreb and Rejika) it put together a different bike route that joined together a few (regional?) routes and skirted along the Slovenia border. The route that Pocket Earth showed us yesterday was excellent so we decided we would give today’s suggested route a try.

The first 20 km out of Zagreb were flat and, once out of the city, along quiet country roads. The route then started climbing up a ridge at Sveta Nedelja. We started pushing when the grade got to about 20% (the Garmin quit registering at 16%). Fortunately, the initial hill was only about ¾ of a km. then it started going down at an even steeper grade. And the pavement stopped.

We wanted hills. We got them.

As I sit here at night with the benefit of hindsight, and more detailed view of the route, I see that Pocket Earth had put us on a bike route. However, it was a mountain bike route. With unloaded bikes (even a cross bike) it would have been fine. But with a loaded touring bike it was an eye (and thigh) opener! As I said though, it was only for a few km’s and then we were back on a road bike route.

Just as we were finishing the ‘extreme’ section, Kirsten ran into a guy that was out running on some of the real hiking / mtb trails. Turned out he was ‘local’, but from England. We had a good chat with him and he was surprised that we came down the road we did with loaded bikes. However, he said that the rest of our route was fantastic riding. He was a little understated in fact. The ride was fabulous for the next 30 km. We were riding along a ridge, nice sweeping ups and downs, perfect grades on both, looking out on an incredibly beautiful landscape. Oh, it was sunny and we had a tailwind too.

We had the too wide part for about 20 km after this fantastic morning ride. A larger highway, but the road surface was excellent and the traffic was light. We hit this right around lunch time and as we’ve noticed so far in Croatia, the traffic drops right off between 12 and 2 pm (everybody goes home to eat and have a nap? God knows they don’t go out to restaurants because there aren’t any!).

Then we hit the Goldilocks zone again for the final 20 km as we rode along the Dobra river and then the Klopra river that marks the border of Slovenia and Croatia.

The hotel we’re in tonight fits into the ‘interesting’ category. It’s nice enough and clean, the restaurant serves the standard ‘mixed salads’ and ‘huge plates of meat’. What makes it interesting (at least to us at least) is trying to figure out why it’s here? We are at least 8 km from the nearest town (which is pretty small) and there are no obvious tourist attractions or destinations in the immediate area. But at least it’s here, and that means we could stop here and then have another 100 km day to hit the sea tomorrow.

Looking west, the hills are turning into proper mountains and the roads on the maps are taking on an intestine shape. That means hills! We will be net downhill tomorrow but it looks like another day of great riding ahead.

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Song of the day …

Dirty Old Town by The Pouges …

As K and I were sitting in the restaurant tonight, chowing down yet another schnitzel, she stops and asks me if I hear what she’s hearing …. Yes, Dirty Old Town being covered in Croatian, and were pretty sure there were accordions involved.

We’ll stick with the Pouges version … great song!

Loading up and heading out of Zagreb .. simple apartment we stayed at ... nothing fancy but the price was right for a place to sleep

Contemplating the ride down ... it's much steeper than it looks ... and this had pavement. The next section was steeper and rutted gravel! Luckily this was only a couple of km

Early morning looking back east towards Zagreb

... and looking west to what lies ahead ... incredible ridge top riding

this is 180 degrees from the same spot looking south

This guy was excited to see us ... not happy ... excited. Good thing he was on a leash

We rode along the beautiful Dobra river for a while

K in her famous 'Mom Spanish Inquisition" pose ... I'm not sure what I was doing, but it was causing some concern ... Probably standing in the middle of the road taking a picture! Or maybe she's pissed because she's not riding on a flat rutted flood dyke in Romania right now!

Fall colours are creeping in .. looking west ... it's a bit hazy with the sun starting to set, but there are real mountains out there between us and the Adriatic coast ... that's tomorrows ride

Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 3,974 km (2,468 miles)

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