Day 18 - Zadar to Pag - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

April 28, 2025

Day 18 - Zadar to Pag

Fly me to the moon

Pag, where botanists go to get away from it all.

Yes, this was our destination today.

I was born in Sudbury Ontario which had the ignoble distinction in the 1960’s as the place NASA sent astronauts for ‘moon training’.

Had they never heard of Pag????

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Quite a fascinating place actually and there are various theories and urban myths as to what gave rise to this incredibly mostly barren rocky landscape, but the most likely explanation is that it’s a result of the very high Bura winds and the associated saline wind spray that occur here. More on the wind later.

But let’s start at the start, Zadar.

We really like this place. It’s quite a mixture of some of the very old like Split and Šibenik and post war concrete block brutalism. While that doesn’t sound all that compelling, it works here and what makes it work is the human elements that more than overcome the recent architectural elements. We’d like to spend more time here, but we can’t. Morning came and it was time to move on.

But let’s have some breakfast first.This was a very nice place directly across from our apartment.

The view from our table. That’s the window of our apartment directly above our bikes, and the aforementioned brutal Soviet Block architecture (with due note that the Soviets didn’t have much influence in post war Yugoslavia)

Croatia’s working on its cycling infrastructure and improvements are literally ‘in the works’, but it’s got a ways to go. Once again we were following the EV8 route which winds along the shoreline when leaving Zadar. It’s fine if you’re entering Zadar from the north, as the marked EV8 route is more or less a busy one way road running south with a narrow shoulder, demarcated by a painted line, for pedestrians and bikes. It eventually turned into smaller residential roads along the coast and this was great.

Until it wasn’t (due to the aforementioned ‘in the works’ stuff).

This caused a few delays and detours, but it was a stunning morning and we did have an early start, so all was ok.

Let’s do a little reconnaissance on foot …

Yep, this will work for about 100 m more and then we’ve got to head up on the steep rough gravel side roads for a bit

Here we go. Dedicated bike path beside the busy highway leaving Zadar

The path led all the way to the lovely little town of Nin. Remember Gregr of Nin from Split? Well, this is his town.

Out of Nin. It was a pretty small town. This works with, or without a comma. Pretty small town. Pretty, small town. (For fans of Eats Shoots and Leaves)

Once we hit Nin, about 15 km’s north of Zadar, we were getting our first glimpses of Pag. We were also getting the first indications of headwinds. We had another 20 km’s or so of west and then north travel across pretty arid rocky land until we reached the quite stunning Pǎski Most (Pag Bridge).

Although we’d been seeing Pag from distance for the last hour or so, and travelling through an already hardscrabble and relatively barren landscape, this really didn’t prepare us for the ‘up close’ reality of Pag.

Oh, by the way, by the time we got to the bridge we had a pretty steady damned fresh breeze, aka to cyclists as a 25 km/hr headwind. We have no grounds for complaint though as this was almost nothing for Pag.Winds of 198 km/hr were recorded on the bridge in 2019. We’ll count ourselves lucky.

First glimpse of Pag. Still a way to go.

Now we’re almost there. Pretty amazing how stark it is. Beautiful day (except for the wind …. But it can be MUCH MUCh worse here)

They should have had Neil Armstrong inaugurate this baby!

Notwithstanding the incredibly stark first impressions, there is some vegetation and rough pasture land in some of the narrow valleys around Pag town

We were at Villa Revelin just across the bay from the town of Pag. Lovely place and an even better host Mario.

Last night’s was great so we thought we’d do it again … another Dalmatian seafood platter at Konoba Bodoluo in Pag. Great place recommended by our host Mario. Both Villa Revelin and Konoba Bodoluo get two thumbs up from us.

SOTD

Well, we just have to stick to the moon theme, but it can’t be Frank again with the subtitle tune. So we’ll go with this,

Walking On the Moon by The Police

….. and each day we’ve got to ‘Keep it up’

I just had another ‘What a Drage’ epiphany as well. This song and video were made 10 years after Armstrong walked on the moon ( and yes, he really did ….). This song and video are now 46 years old.

I think I even dressed a bit like that, and I definitely had ‘that Doo’ in ‘79 (Stewart Copeland’s Doo, a bit ragged and wavey)

Good night from Pag. We were both pretty sweaty and tired after another day of headwinds. This EOD beer was great!

Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 925 km (574 miles)

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Jacquie GaudetGreat SOTD and video choice! Following along with interest for next year, maybe.
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1 day ago

Lyle McLeodTo Jacquie GaudetThanks Jacquie,

I’d say the biking in the islands is a real ying / yang experience. On quiet roads and the odd bike trail it’s great, but these are intermittent and you have to be on some of the larger roads at times. The drivers are OK, but it’s not Catalonia or rural France!

Have a great time on your upcoming trip. Only a few weeks away!
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5 hours ago