Passo Sella, Vršič Pass & The Adriatic Coastal Road

ItalySloveniaCroatiaSouthwest LanesThe Trafalgar WayAlpe d'Huez & Colle delle FinestreLondon-Edinburgh-LondonSa Colabra

16 Jun

Bike

16 June 2017

This was set to be a casual two-week tour, joining my friend Ian as he crossed Europe. He was loaded up with his life on the bike, had already been to Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland, and was heading generally speaking, wherever he wanted. I was glad to be able to find the time to join him for this leg through the mountains down to Croatia and to be following a small section of his long journey.

I was travelling light, I just took a bivvy bag, one set of cycling and one set of casual clothes, plus a few other camping and cold-weather pieces of kit. If the weather really turned, I planned to jump in Ian’s tent.

I packed my bike into a cardboard box, headed to Bristol airport, and flew out to Venice where I met Ian. We stayed in Venice for two nights before setting off, catching up on his trip so far and prepping our route. From Venice, we moved north up through the Dolomites, then turning east to head towards the border of Slovenia. We cut down through the center of Slovenia, crossed into Croatia, then followed the coastal road all the way down to Split, where I left Ian to continue his trip. He headed on to Bosnia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Germany, eventually finishing back to Utecht in The Netherlands where he was settling for two years.

We navigated old-school with maps, wild camping most nights, and enjoyed needing to eat huge amounts of food. In Italy, when the weather was good we rode multiple passes in one day, others we hung around in mountain towns relaxing. In Slovenia, we tackled some very steep climbs and spent a lot of time sheltering from torrential rain. In Croatia we took hot some days super easy with sunbathing, beers and post-lunch naps, midday swims and ate a lot of Burek. This was an incredible trip with no agenda or itinerary, just a return flight booked and a lot of ground to cover. I had no idea what to expect but was raring to go.

Venice island from the plane

Two very different setups

Moody mountains

Climbing out of Venice

Valley roads

Corvara for lunch

Part 1: Italy - Passo Sella - Venice to Ampezzo.

Ian met me at Venice airport, thankfully my bike came out in one piece, although the box was ripped so I was initially worried. We put my bike together in the car park and strapped on my kit, and rode over to the Airbnb we’d booked for a couple of nights.

We spent the next day walking around the island and caught up as we hadn’t seen each other in a while. Ian had some interesting stories to tell from his travels thus far. I put my bike together and everything seemed fine. Ian thought he’d use the time to swap out his chain as it was well-worn. This didn’t go exactly to plan and caused some initial drama, but we managed in the end.

The next day we set off. I needed to get used to the heat and riding on the right-hand side as we headed north into the mountains, but after a few hours we were approaching the mountains and I was super excited. I was eager to try and ride some of the big mountain passes I’d spent the previous years seeing on TV and reading about. This would be my first proper experience of cycling over a mountain pass.

The weather was moody and clammy, there was mist and steam rising through the valley. We stayed dry initially but two days of very heavy rain followed. We took refuge in a mountain restaurant several times, wrapping our hands around coffee and soup bowls to regain feeling.

We had a sketchy descent in the rain and camped on a mountainside in a field with views of a sheer face and waterfall. One upside of the bad weather is there was no-one else around, we saw very few people all day.

We had a long lunch in Corvara, a smart resort town. It was dry and hot for a change and we sat out with a supermarket picnic, watching e-bikes whizz around and the slabs of Dolomite mountains above. We were passed by a couple of pro road riders with a moped driving alongside them pacing them and support a car behind.

From Ampezzo we pushed over the border to Bovec. We left the rocky Dolomiti mountains behind and continued east where the scenery turned to lush, green forest.

All in all, we cycled a good variety of Italian mountain passes - Sella, Gardena, Campolongo, Sen Pelegrin and the Falzarego.

From Italy to Slovenia

Bivvy near Bovec

Through Bovec

Over the Vrsic Pass

The locals!

Clear mountain water

Sunny Ljubljana

Part 2: Slovenia - Vršič Pass - Triglav National Park to Bled & Ljubljana.

We crossed the border casually from Italy and bivvy’d behind an abandoned house in Bovec. There wasn’t much more at the border than the signpost to let us know we were officially in Slovenia.

Rolling in and out of Bovec in one day left me wanting to return to check this place out properly. The people seemed cool, there was a lot to do, but we stuck to our ride plans for the day and headed on, we had a big climb to get over today and wanted to make it through Triglav National Park and over to Bled on the other side.

We moved on up the road and soon got on to a super steep climb. This took us both by surprise and it was so hot and so steep I was on the brink of being sick. Looking back at the maps I’m pretty sure this was the Monte Briccaua climb, a short and steep brute.

The descent coming down the other side was incredible, not too steep, so not too much breaking was needed, the road flowed with right and left turns and we passed hundreds of sheep on the side of the steep, rural roads, the photo doesn’t nearly show the number there were. There was fast-flowing, noisy turquoise and white water rivers all around, shallow, crystal clear and freezing cold.

We’d done a lot of climbing in Italy, but a big one was to come - the highest road in Slovenia, the Vršič pass. The rain started to come down as we approached, and so we climbed and descended the cobbled Vršič pass in the wet, which was sketchy and my hands were badly aching after. This was a pretty epic climb, sadly due to the rain and difficulty, I didn’t get any decent photos. But it is unique with its cobbles and is steep and long.

An interesting fact - the Vršič pass was the first pass to have the hairpins numbered, all 53 of them. In Slovenia, they count up as you ascend. This was then introduced on Alpe d’Huez and the numbers counted down, so riders knew how many hairpins were left to the top. The corner markers are now on mountain road passes all over Europe.

The descent was a cold one, both of us not being able to feel our hands at the bottom. We pit-stopped in the town at the bottom of the climb for some lunch and cover. We decided to take the more direct road to Bled, rather than the longer but quieter lanes, so we could get to Bled and warm up before dark.

In the town of Bled most places were closed and the roads turned to rivers. During summer most of the town would be overcome with hoards of tourists around the lake, but today it was empty, with just one or two locals swimming, so there was one positive to the weather. Bled is also a classic Interrailing spot for gap year teens travelling, and the hostel and bars were full of them.

We toyed with spending the following day in Bled, but the forecast was just as bad as the previous, so we continued on to Ljubljana, where we chilled out for two nights. The sun did shine for most of the day there, we stayed in an interesting and quirky hostel with sketchy bunk beds four high. We checked out the town, had coffee on a rooftop cafe with great views of the city and hung out in the park, with the most slackliners in one place we’d ever seen. The rain returned on the second evening and we drank beer huddling under a canvas parasol.

The next morning we rolled out of the city and headed south, still with a decent number of Slovenian kilometers to cover before we made it to Croatia.

Croatian evening sunset

Part 3: Croatia - The Adriatic Coastal Road - Delnice to Split.

Heading south into Croatia I was hoping and expecting less rain. Thankfully, it was hot and the sun shone all day every day, with daily temperatures over 30 degrees. We slept on top of our sleeping bags in the open and were woken early by the sunrise each morning. We set off quickly whilst still cool and took long lunch breaks. Despite the heat, this was the most straightforward section of the trip. No mountain passes to ride over and no torrential rain like the previous week or so.

Reaching the coast for the first time, we decided to jump on a ferry over to the island of Rab. We rode around the island, visiting a few small resort towns, one of which seemed exclusively populated by Germans. We slept near the south of the island, so we could get the first ferry in the morning. Whilst sleeping I could hear mosquitos buzzing around my head, but I was so tired I fell straight asleep. Waking up I had a load of bites across my forehead, which ran along my brow where my helmet sat. Take note - wear a head net!

We walked through a park and managed to get down to a beach which we had to ourselves, apart from a local bee’s nest. We decided to pitch the fly net of Ian’s tent and both stay in there to avoid any more bites. The evening swim cooled us off and, as with most nights in Croatia, there was a stunning sunset.

We were initially wary about how busy the coastal road would be with traffic, being the only main road down to the bigger towns and cities. In fact, it was super quiet and a dream, just one or two cars or lorries per day. The asphalt was smooth and shiny, and shops were conveniently scattered along the road. In the evening we had beers outside a shop and then rode on the waterside where we’d set up camp. The highlight of the camp spots was an incredible waterside spot in Starigrad, on a rock platform.

On the way down to Split, one afternoon, our legs were both feeling good and we continued riding into the dark, pushing on so we could have an extra night in Split. We found ourselves in a built-up area when we came to stop, and couldn’t find anywhere secluded to sleep. We eventually found a small field of olive trees, and in the dark, we got changed, ate some food, prepped breakfast, and slept. We slept well but woke to find we’d slept in an ants’ nest, and our kit and food were covered in ants! We pushed on, hoping to find food soon as ours was no longer edible, and a few kilometers down the road found a Croatian bakery, stocked up with Burek which we were now very fond of.

Approaching Split, we adjusted to the busier roads and higher volume of cars, and the afternoon heat intensified. We eventually navigated some chaotic roads to the hostel we’d booked and could breathe a sigh of relief. We made it with a day to spare before my flight home and had covered some incredible riding. I spent the following day sourcing a bike box and packing everything up for the flight home. I bid Ian farewell, he headed over to the island of Hvar for a holiday and a break from cycling for a few days, before continuing on to Bosnia.

My bike survived the flight home in the cardboard box in one piece, phew! I was feeling fit after catching up on sleep and I felt somewhat ready for my next challenge, which would be a big one and very different from this trip.

Ian Thayer’s photos