Day 26 – 137km 2142m – Cavle to Novalja

Double Day

Today’s distance was weather dependent. Get rained on and I figured I would stop at around 80km. Stay dry and I could go an extra 55km. There was no accommodation in between so it was one or the other.

It turned out dry so on reaching Senj at 80km around lunchtime, I decided to push on.

I’d taken off road tracks to get there. There was a lot of climbing over steep rocky ground, real strength sapping stuff. Luckily whenever I was cursing the route, I’d round a corner to a mind bending view of the sparkling Adriatic coastline to shut my inner monologue up.

Senj provided me with the worst burek I’ve had. Two euros should have been a warning sign. It was old, hardened, and not very pleasant. Still ate it though. Very hungry.

After Senj it was around the coast road. I’d previously decided to avoid this, too much traffic likely. But outside of the holiday season I thought maybe it would be better and thankfully that proved to be the case. Who can resist the draw of a coast road?

Although it did have the single longest climb I’ve taken on. Over an hour of straight uphill.

I reached the ferry port to Pag just in time, and once over the water tackled the last hill of the day. Overall I’ve done more climbing today than it took me to cross the Alps – and I took two days to do that.

So I rewarded myself with another, better burek on arrival!