We awake in our peaceful grove campsite, the cold morning sending shivers through our still-half-asleep bodies. Skradin is up enough into the highlands that it does not benefit from the climate-moderating effect of the sea; it is noticeably colder here than it was by the Adriatic! Fortunately it is not yet time for frost or snow, and we manage to don several layers of clothing before heading down into Skradin itself for the ritual morning coffee.
Šibenik itself is some 20 km away: first we climb out of Skradin's beautiful lake valley abutting Krka, then we bike along the highlands, then we circumcycle a coastal mountain to avoid the autoroute tunnel directly into Šibenik. The town itself is unremarkable; we have been informed that there is a library with free Internet connection there, but the need is not great enough to warrant stopping. There are two roads marked on our map out of Šibenik towards Trogir and Split - one that heads up into the mountains, and one that takes a longer but more gradual route around the coast. Having had our fill of mountains from yesterday's excursion to Krka, we opt for the coastal route...
...which does not disappoint; the road winds around bright blue bays rimmed with minor tourist destinations whose clusters of red-tile roofs are by now a familiar sight. Unlike the often cruel climbs of the Italian coastal roads - especially in Liguria, where the slivers of available space tucked between mountains and sea come always at a premium - the Croatian roads climb slowly but relentlessly, tipped slightly upwards for kilometres before offering the inevitable winding downhills that make every bit of the climb worth it. We continue in this way for 58 km; about two-thirds of the way to Trogir, the road breaks from the coast and heads inland via a mountain valley. This too is incredibly picturesque, though not quite in the same way - and it is somewhat harder to bike through, what with the wind that whips down between the ridges against us. The fig trees are barren, the juicy delicious days of fig season now behind us - and yet ripening pomegranates hang ponderously from their branches in anticipation of harvests yet to come...
We reach Trogir at last! As we have been told, the mainland is unremarkable; rather, the town earns its UNESCO World Heritage designation for the old medieval city which is kept in curiously good form just across the bridge onto a small island. It has the usual assortment of ancient fortifications and cathedrals and such - and, in an anachronistic flourish, offers free wifi to visitors, a fact of which we take full advantage to catch up on our various correspondences with friends and family back home. The old city is rather small, and can be reasonably navigated within the span of an hour or two. The mainland is not completely without attractions, however; there is a sizeable food and trinket market between the bridges, a welcome sight for hungry cyclists...
...and, after making sure to look up suitably cheap accommodations in Split, we ride on. Split is somewhat of a midway point for those heading down through Croatia, situated roughly 300 km down from Rijeka; it hugs the outer midriff of the peninsula opposite Trogir, so that the short-seeming distance between the two is deceptively long once you take into account the circumnavigation of the bay. Arriving from the direction of Rijeka and Zadar, the first thing that you notice is the decent-sized industrial zone next to the train yard; you then have to make a harrowing bridge crossing before braving three lanes of peripheral traffic along the highway. Finally, the main road into the old town is 4-5 km, and although the sidewalks are large enough to run touring bikes through, the paving leaves something to be desired...
...as we make our way down this road, we are treated to views of burnt forest on the mountainside opposite - perhaps resulting from the unusually hot and dry summer that gripped Europe this year. On the way to our hostel, we end up taking a slight detour up a hill by the old town before realizing our error and correcting it with a slight bit of backtracking. Even at this advanced stage of our travels, we are hardly immune from navigational mishaps! Despite the unintentional delay, we make it down into the old town and to Hostell Nikolla - yet more evidence of Croatia's obsession with the mad genius - with daylight to spare. The staff are gracious, and even more so in the off-season when tourist custom is scarce...
...and we are soon on our way around the old town, a 2L bottle of Ožujsko in hand - although the beer itself is sub-par by the standards of the German and Belgian fare we were treated to earlier on in our trip, the consonant-loaded name is so comical that we can hardly put the swill down. After wandering past the city walls, the exterior of Diocletian's Palace, the café-loaded waterfront, the old plaza, and the shopping district with its currently dormant fish market, we happen upon a pizzeria that Valkyrie had previously visited in her travels through Split on the way to Zagreb. They have dark beer on tap - a rarity this far south! - and a passable rendition of pizza that serves to fill us up.
A long day, for even though the distance - some 110 km - does not place it among our longer days, the endless gradual climbs along the Croatian coast are enough to tire out even hardened cyclists. Some much-deserved sleep is in order!