Ride and Meet

As you can see I'm pitched and parked, 20 steps from the sea, in a campsite close to Umag. Umag is the western most point of Croatia, close to the Slovenian border; Rijeka and Pula are the other two points that make up a triangle of land (two sides, coast) which is some of the best countryside I have riden through.

But let's rewind before I tell you about the journey north. After a delicious dinner at the konoba in Skradin, Monicka sat with me for coffee. Monicka is 24, married, owns and runs the konoba along with her husband; in the 3 days I was there she did not stop, a dynamo of a woman who does everything, incredible work rate. I asked about the war and how she was effected by it; this is when she got us both a coffee and told me her story. Five years old, with parents, grandmother, one older and one younger sibling, all living in a house in the hills, 2 kms away. It's early 90's and the Serbians are less than 10 kms away and approaching fast; they have no choice but must leave with whatever they can carry. They sleep in caves for the first few nights as they watch villages being burnt to the ground, their own included and eventually find refuge on an island of safety further south although bombs that over-chute the mainland continue to explode in the sea close by. I am summarising the story as parts are too sad but it gladly finishes with nearly all of them back in their government rebuilt house in the hills. I was spell-bound by Monicka's story and her upbeat attitude and find it even more staggering that it took place less than 20 years ago. When will we ever learn.

As I head north initially through the mountains on my way to the coast road, Monicka's story still with me, it becomes very apparent why nearly everything is new, of course most of it is less than 20 years old!
After 100 kms of sparse landscape, somewhat industrial, the road ends and I take a short ferry ride. On the ferry I meet Anton and Karin, beautiful people, young, charming and Swedish, touring on a battered BMW 650 motorcycle. We rode together for another 100kms or so along the coast then stopped for lunch.
"So where have you come from?" I ask.
"South Africa" they say.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
The short story starts with them living 600 kms apart in Sweden and deciding to spend more time with eachother. Late 2009, they sell what little they have, fly to Morocco and buy a 50cc motorcycle which they ride to Tanzania!!! That's the equivalent of mowing your lawn with a pair of scissors. Their money runs out by the summer of 2010 so they go back to Sweden for 6 months to replenish. January this year, they fly to Cape Town, by a more substantial bike for the journey back to Sweden. Outstanding! I could have listened to them for a week, they ask me to join them, believe me I nearly did but feel the need to see more Croatia and want to go more East that North. Even now, I wonder, should I have gone?! But what a story, what journey, what an adventure, fantastic. I didn't take a picture, damn!, but we exchanged details and fondly farewelled ... I am humbled.

Another hour's riding and I enter the 'triangle' I mentioned earlier. Breathtakingly beautiful, winding roads, rushing rivers surrounded by extremely lush, richly green, deciduously clad, rolling hills ...

Ride and meet, this is what this trip is all about .... I'm in nirvana again.



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