Journey to myself

I woke up this morning at my beautiful tranquil campsite, unzipped the tent, lied back down and watched the Mediterranean Sea and the colours of the sky change.

Then I got up dismantled the tent half way, so people wouldn’t see, the red colour of the tent, from the street above me. I continued my slow relaxing morning with some yoga – while watching the rising sun, I practiced my sun salutations. Afterwards I meditated, sitting above the sea.

I felt calm and centred and was grateful for this beautiful secluded campsite, between the pines. I packed up my belongings and started cycling, towards the south of the island, where the ferry wharf was located. I was not rushing. I will get there, when I will get there. The island was beautiful, not much inhabited and covered in olive trees.

Since I was out of water, I stopped in a village, where I saw two women in front of a house. I asked for voda- they smiled, filled my water bottle up and asked me to wait. One woman picked grapes from their garden, the other one came back with mandarins. They passed me the bag and wished me good luck. I smiled and said hvala.

I stopped to brew myself a coffee at the sea. Then I headed towards the wharf – 30mins until the next ferry. Time to get more water, I thought and headed towards the nearest cafe. Here I spoke to a Croatian man, Vedran, he offered to host me on the island, however I had already purchased my ferry ticket and was ready to leave the island behind.

After a short ferry ride, I continued my journey south. For the first time in Croatia, actually since Zadar, there were signs for the eurovelo 8, which simplified navigating. The route lead me partially through Vransko Jezero national park, the view was mesmerising a lake with mountains in the distance to my left, pine trees and olive orchard surrounding me.

Eventually I needed to realise, that another screw of one of my bike bags got loose. I stopped on the side of the road to fix the problem. Shortly after and old Croatian man on his small tractor stopped, asking me in Croatian, what the problem was. I pointed to the bag, while I unscrewed the screw with my fork. He walked back to his tractor and came back with — a beer. I laughed and we shared the beer. He then passed me his Swiss knife, to fix the screw. Afterwards I went to his farm, where he showed me his animals. Two adorable dogs, an abundance of kittens and many many sheep and goats. I watched the animals filled with joy. A German couple, from Dortmund, stopped to look at the goats – we chatted about my journey. Shortly after I said my farewells to Ante, the Croatian man and continued my journey.

Riding was pleasant today, few cars and fairly uncomplicated terrain. At around 5pm I started looking for my campsite and was lucky to find one after bushbashing through some tracks. I drank a beer at the water in solitude. Afterwards I built my tent, cooked rice, vegetables and tofu for dinner and made a campfire. Having a fire is wonderful, I love sitting at the fire under the stars journaling, hearing the fire whisper.

So long – dovidenja from close to Srima!

Photos, as always will be updated with wifi! Xo