Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 23.49km
Average speed / 平均速度: 10.8km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 2h 10m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 24.19km (plus 9700km)
Ascent / 上り: +600m (average ascent speed 8 metres per minute)
Descent / 下り: -600m (average descent speed 18 metres per minute)
Look Mum! I’m in the news!
Well, the plan was to carry on to Split yesterday. However, there were other forces at play, it seems, and I ended up spending the night last night in the Makarska Bicycle Club club rooms.
As I was about to leave Makarska, I stopped at a kiosk to buy bananas. A gentleman riding his bike stopped, and asked where I was from and where I was going, and was generally interested in my bike. This gentleman was Nenad Zidic, the president of the Makarska Bicycle Club (http://bk.makarska.8m.com/). He invited me for a coffee, and being in no particular rush, I accepted. He speaks good English, and we chatted for a while, before he pulled out his mobile phone and called the local newspaper, the Makarska Kronika (www.kronika.hr).
The reporter and photographer arrived in 5 minutes, and proceeded to take photos and notes on my trip. The resulting article came out today in the once a week publication of the Makarska Kronika. Good fun.
So today the plan was to catch a ferry across to Brac Island, cycle the 60kms to the other side of the island, then catch another ferry to Split. But the weather looked iffy, and who can refuse an offer of staying in dry, warm clubrooms for as long as I want. So I decided to stay the day in Makarska, and leave tomorrow if the weather has started behaving itself again.
I spent some time an internet cafe that actually had reasonable prices. Only 1.20 Euro an hour.
In the afternoon I met up with Roko, a younger member of the bicycle club, for a blat up the mountain behind Makarska. The area is called the Biokovo Nature Park, and a sealed road goes all the way up to the top of Mount Jana (1750m). We didn’t have time to go all the way, but had some fun along some back roads on the way.
On a good day I can imagine that the ride to the top would be fantastic. The road up to the summit was originally built by Napoleon apparently. Makes you feel small…
So yeah, Makarska is all good. Great place with great friendly people. And a town square that looks like the one out of the movie Chocolat.
元気で何よりです。良い人にめぐり会えてよかったね。友達もクロアチアにホリデーハウスを持っていてそこの生活にとても満足しています。
スイスは何と冬が舞い戻ってきて今年一番の降雪です。折角咲いた花がかわいそう！でも、来週はまた春めいて来るそうです。私達は３月２６日から南スペインに１週間行きます。まだ、スイスイには到達しないでしょう？スイスに近づいたら早めに連絡してください。身体に気をつけて、楽しい旅を続けて下さい。
千恵子 フスマン
