Day 8: Berane to Dubrovnik.

At this point the planned/unplanned trip was going along nicely. There was the option to ride as far as Kotor and spend the night there with the possibility of riding around the bay of Kotor.

I finally remember to pick up a country sticker.







Dangerous road ahead:




It had started to rain heavily around the time we stopped for lunch. We had a look at our options and decided to push on and get to Dubrovnik for that evening. Kotor is a beautiful place though:




We had the smallest ferry crossing from Lepetane to Kamenari to deal with which cost about €2 (if memory serves me correctly).




After that it was an easy ride to Dubrovnik. The accommodation we found was a simple apartment within walking distance of the old town. It also had a washing machine – why am I getting so excited about this? Well after being on the road for 8 days it was time to have something clean to wear. It had been an unbelievably hot week with temperatures always around 30 Celsius and packing was relatively light.














Day 9: Dubrovnik to Split

I must admit that I was looking forward to this day; a chance to ride the southern part of the Croatian coast rode. I had ridden the northern part in 2013 from Rijeka to Zadar. We had plenty of time as the ferry crossing to Ancona was in the evening. There was another border crossing on the way along the coast – that small section of coastline that belongs to Bosnia, about 10km of it.

This is a shot I took whilst riding through the small coastal section of Bosnia.



I was considering going to Mostar, maybe I should have gone, but I’m thinking that I can always go back next year.

Split – what a chaotic mess just trying to get down to the port area. Too much traffic and it’s baking hot. Find the office for the ferry company and book a crossing to Ancona Italy.

Evening ferry crossing.




Day 10: Ancona to Frosinone

Not sure who the captain of this ferry was but I think he needs to consider a career change. We got into port on time, great you say, but somehow docked the wrong way so most of the trucks and cars on board had to reverse out. We thought we would be first out as we were parked right in front of the door. It was of course like a sauna in the car deck and it was nice to start the day sweating!
First stop on the road was to get a new front tyre for the T�n�r�. The thread was wearing out and I was not certain it would make the trip back to Switzerland. On went a new Tourance for the rest of the trip.



Post pit-stop we ride down along the coast to Civitanova Marche and then start to head inland towards L’Aquila on a route I’ve loosely planned without really knowing what’s ahead. There are some quiet roads on this route. There’s a small village ahead, just on the hill top.



And then we have this sight


And then further on we have a view over the valley below:



It’s all a bit short-lived though as a short time later the heavens opened up and we get soaked through. It was raining so hard we had to find some shelter under some tress as it seemed we had the formation of rain clouds on the inside of the visor too. We arrive at the destination and we spend the next two days being fed by my relatives and we really don’t do much else.

Final day was a 950km motorway ride all the through Italy back to Zurich. The T�n�r� was running at 130km/h (indicated by the GPS) but man was that tough going for me. The bike can do it but fully loaded it becomes a bit tiring.


Would I do another trip like this? Yes, without even thinking about it. I loved every minute of this trip and I would jump at the chance to go on an even longer trip. Wanderlust, you’re a disease.


Hope you’ve enjoyed the read and get out there and ride your bike. Explore the places that are not on the tourist trail.


If you want any information on the trip, information on the route the bike or whatever please let me know and I’ll try and answer it for you.

Gio