Day 16: Sveti Juraj-Gospic (77 km, 1410 m ↑)

After one night in Sveti Juraj in probably the nices apartment we’ve stayed at so far, we continued this morning into the moutains. The Dinaric Alps stretch over more than 600 kilometres from Italy in the northwest through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo to Albania in the southeast. Our planned route for today was not too long, but it had a very challenging climb right in the beginning with 1020 metres elevation gain. As a comparison, this is almost the same as the Tour de France climb to Alpe d’Huez with 1090 metres. I still had good power from yesterday’s Cevapcici, so Udo and I mastered this challenge, surprisingly, with relative ease. We were also rewarded by amazing views, both during the ascent and at the top.

Once, we reached the top, the terrain got more wavy. It was never flat, but the most challenging part was behind us. We stopped for one coffee break right after the first descent. And then we stopped for a schnitzel and burger break twenty kilometres before Gospic.

When we arrived in Gospic, the owner of the apartment, Danko, and his wife met us. Danko did not speak much English, but he had a lot on his heart to tell us. He was retired, but used to be a music teacher in Gospic. After a quick shower, we went to the supermarket to buy some supplies for tomorrow. And we went to the sports café because it had good Google reviews. And would you believe that the waitress Antonia used to be Danko’s student? I guess Gospic is a small town really.