The quality of the hotels and restaurants included in this tour has surprised us and delighted us throughout but our evening meal was the best yet. Right outside our hotel we boarded a small boat and had a 40 min trip around the coast as the sun set. The restaurant we were dropped at was something else. We were welcomed with some flavoured Grappa which they distil themselves and then had a wonderful meal of fresh fish and a squid which the owner said he had caught himself that very day. We were joined for dinner by a Croatian motorcycle journalist and photographer who sometimes works for the tour company and happened to be in Hvar on another job. We spent all evening talking about bikes and bike racing before having one last Grappa and heading back to the hotel in taxis laid on by the tour company. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yesterday was Day 6, and a rest day in Hvar. We still managed a couple of hours on the bike exploring the island including a bunch of tight hairpins up the mountain to the highest point on the island where there is a Napoleonic fort which the locals call Spagnola. The views from the top were breathtaking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you think that section of the Magistrale was good, you have a real treat in store when you get further up, especially from Pag to Rijeka. It will blow your mind... wow, breathtaking indeed
The Mrs and I have been using these Interphone F3MC headsets throughout this tour after I saw them in Ride magazine. I've had similar sets years ago but they have obviously come on a long way, and this model has a very useful feature of voice assistance which gives you audible instructions of what buttons to press for what functions as you are actually using it. This is a great feature if you aren't going to use the system often enough to remember how to use it every time. Recommended Product detail - Interphone Product Reviews - Interphone F3MC Dual Bluetooth Intercom Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Day 7 was spent island hopping. We went from Hvar Island, back to the mainland and then onto Pag Island. Here we are leaving the hotel on Hvar. Our guide Tilen, followed by Brett and Becky from Salt Lake City on a R1200GS, then their friend Ken from Las Vegas on the Africa Twin, then Todd and Lesley from Canada on a R1200RT, Stuart and Thelma from Ipswich on a 650 V-Strom, then Dennis from Montana on another F700GS, then me on a R1200GS and finally Wayne on the F700GS. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We had a fairly late start on Day 7 with the usual briefing and a short ride to the ferry port where we had a cup of coffee before boarding. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The ferry crossing took two hours so we had a picnic lunch on board as we passed some lovely coastline and islands. On arrival we got out of the noise and traffic of Split as quickly as possible and found a petrol station to fill up. Unfortunately about 100 Austrian dirt bikers on some kind of event had beaten us to it so we decided to head on down the road to the next garage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We stopped at the side of the road to take a look at Primosten, and decided to head down for a mid-afternoon ice cream stop Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As we approached Pag Island the landscape changed. The Bora wind means that nothing grows. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We crossed the bridge onto Pag and rode up to our hotel in Novalje where we were greeted with a glass of wine and nibbles of the famous Pag sheeps cheese. The wine went down particularly well with Thelma, Becky and Lesley. In the evening we walked down to the sea front to watch the sunset and have dinner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Primosten is really pretty Looks like you bypassed the Krk falls and Zadar, which is a shame but I guess you only have so much time available. Pag is quite manificent in its own, barren way. The Pagski Sir, or Pag cheese is very salty because the sheep graze on salty vegetation. Tomorrow, the twisty section of the Magistrale awaits. Perhaps you will stop in the small town of Senj. This is pronounced 'sane', so you have lots of opportunities for puns about being insane...
Day 8 - last day of riding ... back to Ljubjana. It started with a short 20 min ferry ride from Zilgen on Pag back to Prizna on the mainland. Here's Todd and Lesley as we waited for the ferry. He was no slouch on that big RT, but needed a few helpers when he dropped it in the hotel car park ... if you look carefully you can see a mark on the right hand cylinder head protector ;-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The Magistrale coast road from Prizna to Senj was indeed awesome @Old rider and obviously a bit of a bikers Mecca especially at the weekend for the locals I guess. The bikes far outnumbered the cars on the road, mainly BMW GSs but lots of others as well. Our group was going along at a fair old lick but had a couple of sports bikes come past us knee down round a bend before wheeleing off into the distance. We stopped for coffee and a quick snooze at Senj ... ... before heading inland and crossing the border for the last time for the final ride up through the forests of southern Slovenia. The last afternoon of the tour ended in rain, just as it had begun for the first two days. We had a couple of heavy bursts but it was mainly quite light until just after we arrived back at the garage in Ljubana to drop the bikes when a full on thunder storm started. We were welcomed back with a glass of fizz and taxis to take us back to the hotel. Our luggage had already been unloaded from the van into our rooms by Mitja, just as they were throughout the tour. Then we had a brief walk into the old town for a final traditional Slovenian meal for dinner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So today was our last day. We had the morning in Ljubana with our four new American friends, buying souvenirs from the shops and taking a boat trip up and down the river before a long relaxing lunch and finally going to the airport. They have a few more days before they go home. Slovenia and Croatia are fantastic - I can't recommend this part of the world highly enough. The people are very friendly, the variety of scenery is spectacular and the biking roads are some of the very best I've done. This trip had also opened my eyes to the advantages of doing an organised tour. Having a van to take all your gear, and a local guide makes for a fantastic experience but the really nice thing is the different folk you meet in your tour group. I also think Mrs H may be up for a bit more pillion-ing so maybe it's time to get the ST4s back on the road ... But I think if she has her way then maybe a visit to a BMW dealer will be on the cards ;-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sounds like you had a great trip. I'm very impressed by your sanguine attitude towards the rain ... very cool, if I may say so. I went down to Hvar with the wife and a tent in the car a few years ago. We would have liked to go to Dubrovnik but the car insurance people had a sense of humour failure about driving in Bosnia so we settled on only driving as far south as Split. Did have a look round Zagreb on the way down, stayed in a brilliantly 50s (and cheap, of course) "workers' paradise" hotel on the edge of town with a receptionist who appeared to be Rosa Kleb's older sister. All very exotic and Cold War. Highlight of the trip, as far as I was concerned, was the road we took out of Split on the way home. Fancied seeing a bit more of the non-tourist (ie inland) bit of the country so picked a small-ish road on the map that headed over the coastal hills to join the old main road that runs up the eastern side of Croatia. It turned into quite a long (25 miles or so) dirt road over the mountain bordered by minefields and dotted with little shrines to various fallen patriots (or otherwise, I suppose) of the recent fighting. Very exciting, I thought ..... especially in our old 206 estate with lowered suspension.
I'm well used to riding in torrential rain on tour ... usually on the homeward slog to Somerset from Germany, Scotland or the IOM ... in leathers with a rain suit over ... on my D16 ... with full soft luggage on board ... Not a recipe for a very enjoyable ride! By comparison this was a. breeze ... the GS is a pussycat in the rain ... I had full goretex on ... heated grips ... my luggage was in a van ... the route was scenic rather than miserable motorway ... I was heading to a nice hotel ... and I didn't have to worry about cleaning or lubing the bike at the end of it! Sounds like you had a good trip when you went ... and I love the photos Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I quite enjoy riding my Despatch Donkeys in the rain (or should I say Liked ..... so little work at the moment I'm wondering if my phone's broken) but they've got PR3s and I don't mind dropping them. Oddly enough my ST4s feels nice on wet roads (BT30s) although I've barely ridden it at all yet, let alone in proper rain ..... and I'd cry if I fell off it. But on holiday ....??? Thanks for being nice about my photos. Cheap pocket camera but as my mate Alan always points out it's the Gunfighter effect ...... doesn't matter how good the gun is, if it's not in your pocket when you get in a fight you're ****ed.
