Croatian Backroads

Here are some more rides from Croatia. Few weekends ago my friend Linza organized a little party near Udbina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udbina

I still have few days of my holidays left, so I decided to team up with Lolo next morning and went to explore backroads in Dalmatian Zagora http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagora_(Croatia) and Velebit Mountain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velebit

Day one, Saturday

We managed to get lost while searching for party location, but we had nice time on gravel roads in the area.





Few pictures from the afternoon.









Next morning Linza and I went to explore the area.










After some time I received call from Lolo, he was waiting for me in Udbina, so it was time to say goodbye to Linza and rest of the crew and move on.

First thing we planned to do is to visit Zrmanja River spring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zrmanja

After gravel road and riding trough the fields, we had to left our bikes and walk to the spring. It was terribly hot and walking in the motorcycle boots on quite a rough terrain was no fun at all, but views were magnificent.






















Next objective was Krupa River spring. We decided to go there taking as much gravel as possible.













We met this Dutch fellow in village called Ervenik, so I helped him with orientation. Some of the gravel roads would be too much for his car. There was lot of loose sand and some climbs, I had hard time on my heavy bike. Did I say it was hot?



Late afternoon we reached the spring.












We still had some time and Mali Alan road, described in first post of the thread was near. Here are few pictures in fading daylight.










Lolo’s family was vacating nearby, so we crashed in apartment for dinner and few beers. We made plans for next day and went to sleep.

To be continued...

Thanks!

Thanks for the report very much..

"Go Johnny go, GO!!"

I like the viking sticker

Me too!

SWEET MOTHER OF JEEZUS, did you see the size of those burgers?! I guess you know where my priorities lie.... what with all the great scenery pics and all, which by the way were equally fantastic.

My wife is a second generation Croat in the US, her mother's maiden name is Zejavic; I'll have to do some research on their roots, and make that my excuse to visit your country. So incredibly beautiful and diverse!

Thanks Damir. Your RR's and pics are, as always, par excelance!

Beautiful!

I remember driving right through Korenica a little more than a month ago ( http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=368410 )! Thanks for the report - next time I'll have to check out the radar station...

Subscribed, keep it coming.

If day before was river spring day, this day can be called history day.

We started with visit to the Nin. A small town near Zadar, Nin has a very rich and tumultuous history. Nin is the first Croatian royal town, and the glorious period was between the 7th and 13th centuries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nin,_Croatia

Statue of Grgur Ninski in Nin, rubbing the statue's toe is said to bring good luck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nin



Some more photos from the city.













Next stop was Novigrad. Novigrad is a picturesque historical town located on the southern shores of the Novigrad Sea, at the foot of the Velebit massif, in a deep cove whose steep sides are covered in dense pinewood.

Some info about the place: http://www.novigrad-dalmacija.hr/en/novigrad_dalmatinski.html















Then we went towards Asseria.
Info from http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6335359

Started 6th century BCE by iron age native Liburnian Illyrians and then developed under Hellenistic influence with massive blocks.

After Roman conquest, Asseria was renovated as municipium and eventually received a monumental gate commemorating visit by Hadrian in 113 CE, which is now lost. There is a secondary entrance at north for goods, animals etc. In the south there are the remains of a forum, now a cemetery and church.

The site is about 450 Meters by 150 meters and at 243 Meters altitude. You must drive through war ravaged villages to get to this site, but it appears safe. Croatian Air Force training aircraft from a nearby airbase tend to practice overhead.

We had quite hard time finding the location, there are traces of some excavation and restoration works.



























Next ancient Roman stop was Burnum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnum It looks that restoration is in full swing, so site will probably be put in some kind of touristic use soon.

















To be continued with some nice gravel roads and views from Velebit Mountain.

Really terrific photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you all for your kind comments.


2 a1fa:
There are some general rules how to behave in landmine suspected area. The most basic rule is to never leave the road, walking on grass can end in tragedy. All suspected areas are very well marked and if you follow the rules you will be OK.

Hi there Damir!

I'm glad to see the really nice pictures but also sad to see what I've been missing!

It's nice to see that at least you are keeping up with the ridin' Seem's I won't be on track before next spring.... :dog


Thanks!

Hi!

I hope we will be able to ride together next year.

Damir, little question for you :
I'm curious to know how do you pronounce this ?
Crkva is probably church
Sv. is probably a shortcut for holly (santo)
Kriza is probably cross

cheers,
/thierry

Hi Thierry,

You are right Crkva is Curch, Sv. is shortcut for Sveti which means Holly and Križ is Cross.

Here you can hear how letter “ž” in pronounced in Croatian.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Croatian_pronunciation

cheers.
So I heard something like tsurkwa or tsurkva. So I guess the Cr is heard as tsur.
and the winged z is a like the j.
A bit tricky as greek can be. Foreigners have 2 levels of difficulty.
reading/deciphering. understanding.
thank you for the quick lesson, Damir.

About the GS, I had the same as yours...but as I was doing some offroad as u do, I changed my wheels for GSA spoke wheels and bought some ohlins shocks. Brand new bike !

/thierry

Panos.

We crossed Mali Alan Pass and arrived in Gospic. Our goal is to reach Panos peak, it is said that from there you can enjoy fantastic view of Northern Adriatic.

Lolo was there once, but peak was in clouds, and this was first time for me. There was some kind of military installation on the top, probably radio surveillance station, but it is abandoned since 1997. Landmine situation is not clear, you can see that there is lot of signs, but area was not frontline during the war, maybe some mines were planted for perimeter defense but as long as you stay on beaten path you should be OK.

Gravel starts after little village named Rizvanusa, and road gets worse as you go further. You must look for sign on the tree which is pointing towards Panos.





















Graffiti means fu** you on Croatian.



This is first view of the top.

























Views are magnificent, but there was some haze in the air, it was hot and there was no rain for weeks so pictures can’t capture all the beauty.























OK, this is it for this time, thanks for reading!

I was thinking about buying spoke wheels set, but it is quite expensive. Did you buy your set from the dealer or you managed to find second hand one?

For Ohlins I don’t doubt for the moment that it makes bike quite different beast. I am waiting for your F800 GS test ride, I also have 04 R1100S and maybe I will try to “change” it for 800.

Yummy pictures (not only talking about the bbq ones there ).
Thanks for the RR, really makes me want to visit it "on the way" to Italy next year.
Advrider is better than any tourism office