Day 2 - May 7 - Quiet Croatia

 After a nice, better-than-expected breakfast at the hotel, shared with the Croatian paralympic team, I started off for Zagreb on a busy 2-by-2 lane road, not ideal for bikers, but managed to reach the city safe. There, I did some sight-seeing, in the morning hours of the very empty city.

Getting out of that city proved to be a real a challenge- major arteries were leading out south and I got quite a bit lost, returning to the same unattractive block of flats I had been to earlier.

In desperation, I took some dirt road, just to get out of the area - and succeeded. The scenery turned into a nice countryside with low traffic when my friend Google suggested I make a turn. First, it was all fine, it was a slight incline, but then a large forest started - and the pavement ended - and an ascent began. It was tough, treacherous climbing...but then I reached the top and later the pavement even re-appeared - but it did cost quite a lot of energy.

I crossed the river Kupa (at least that is what I think it was called).

Late in the afternoon, I reached the town of Glina. After this, there was a patch of road for some 50 kilometers without any commerce, fuel stations, shops - nothing, absolutely nothing, except for some dormant villages. I later heard that a lot of people have fled this area during the Balkan war and never returned. I was getting quite tired, as the road kept inclining.

As the road was climbing and it was getting dark, I decided to call it a day and find a place for my tent. At a switchback with scenic outlook over a valley, I decided to pitch my tent. As soon as I was done, it started drizzling, then quite a large thunderstorm come down, it literally hovering over me. Luckily, my tent withstood the rain - not like my old tent, a couple of years ago,, in Vietnam, where I got soaking wet.

I rode some 130 km that day - everything was going according to plan.