Day 36 - Jelsa to Podaca

I woke up around 6am aready and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought I just get up already. I made myself some porridge on the stove and slowly started packing up my stuff. In the meantime, the woman I asked about the pitches the night before (journalist from Slovenia) was also up already and we shared a nice conversation about bikepacking. :) I was the first one at the camping ground reception when it opened and left the camp shortly past 7am already. I went into Jelsa and got some croissant and cheese burek in a Pekara (bakery). Once I left Jelsa, the road was winding up for aproximately 9km to around 300m elevation and a doable but exhausting slope of 5-12%. 😬 There were some amazing views on the mainland during that first climb though and the road wasn't busy at all, which was nice for a change. :) Around 9am, I took a turn to Humac when just before reaching the first peak. It's a little village with a few stone houses from the 13th century, no one lives there though. I had a look around and heard a bell ringing in the bush but couldn't really see what it was. Something was moving around and I assumed it was sheep.🐑 It was a little creepy though so I left again. On the road to Humac I found some wild rucola, which was a great snack with the tomatoes I had left. 😁👌

I continued cycling through little villages, sometimes even just a few houses on the side of the road. Around 2pm I finally found a supermarket to get some snacks. Just after Gdinj on top of the hill I had two obvious punctures in the front tyres, the thornes were still stuck in the tyre. 🥴 So I unpacked my fixing gear and started repairing the inner tube, when a Danish couple (Brigitte and Daniel) passed me asking whether I needed help, which I luckily didn't. Just 15 min later another British couple (Ian and Maz) stopped who also offered help. I was almost done fixing it, so they went on. Annoyingly, one of the patches was still leaking air (turned out later that it was actually gour puncures and the other two were leaking air, the pstches were fine). 🤔😒 I didn't want to waste more time on it so I just put a new one in. I think I lost about 1.5h due to that. When I arrived in Sućuraj at the tip of Hvar island, I had a quick look around but eent almost straight to the ferry. At the harbour, I met both couples again and we shared a booth on the ferry, having some nice conversation. 😊 Turned out that Ian and Maz were planning on going to the same campground than me so we rode there together for another 6km once arriving in Drvenik. The campground was really nice and cheap. While I was having a swim, Ian and Maz went for a 30min run. 😂 I wasn't able to move anymore, so I just went for a swim. The campground had a nice common sitting area and some sort of kitchen with an electric stove on which the three of us cooked some pasta that night. It was a fun evening and I enjoyed their company a lot. They are on a two-years bikepacking trip, starting in the UK and going tk Greece, from there flying to Abu Dabi and cyxling Oman, next Southeast Asia. Crazy people out there. 😅👌Read more