Croatia by boat and bike

By Tim and Nina Fahrer, Karin Pasterer, Markus Purner and Phillipp Hopfgartner

A journey into the unknown.

The adventure started at the check in on our boat “Susak“, because we knew that we were not allowed to take bikes on the boat. We decided to leave the harbour and land at the petrol station next to it, to do it secretly. You need to be an advanced Tetris player to store five bikes in a small berth on a boat!

Siblings Tim and Nina Fahrner are both experienced sailors and so it was natural they would be our skippers. At the beginning of the journey, they introduced the rest of the crew which included: Karin Pasterer, Markus Purner and Philipp Hopfgartner who would be responsible for the most important manoeuvres like “man over board” to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

The first stage of the journey began immediately, sailing towards Vis, which is about a 10-hour boat ride. After we sailed into a beautiful sunset and were about halfway into our journey a thunderstorm forced us to make a stopover on the island of Kaprije.

With the help of our navigation tools, we made our way to Vis the next morning where the first mountain was already waiting for us. We didn´t know of any trails there, so it was very interesting to explore the island on our own. We started in Komiza and after doing a nice uphill ride we arrived at the top of the mountain where we were rewarded with amazing views which compensated for the rain the day before.

The storm was howling in the evening, so we decided not to leave the harbour, as it was too dangerous and continue our trip when Mother Nature was again on our side. Although we secured the boat as much as possible, the whole crew did not sleep very well. It’s a really cool experience to be completely exposed to the forces of nature in a world where you can usually guard yourself against everything. When we woke up the next day, the sun was shining and we were able to sail on. After five hours we arrived in Starigrad on the island of Hvar.

Here we went on a six-hour mountain biking tour in a

breath-taking environment. To top it all off, we hiked to the summit cross carrying the bikes on our shoulders. It’s such a pleasure to ride bikes with a permanent view over the whole island and the sea surrounding it. A technical but enjoyable trail that contained everything a biker’s heart desires took us back to the boat.

The next day we knew that the rain wasn’t far behind us! But our motivation to ride was enough to sail on towards the next island – Brac. We hadn´t even arrived at our destination when we all started to put on our riding gear in order to start right away. This tour led us through tiny villages to the top of the highest hill we could find.

At some point, we didn’t expect to find trails anymore, so we decided to do some urban riding. At the end of the day we even found a little trail which was really fun to ride.

No riding was planned for the next day, and we spent a windy day sailing onto the destination of Zlarin. While we were landing in the port, we saw a trail which was winding straight from the top of the mountain to the harbour we were in. We decided to get up at 4 o’clock the next morning to do a little sunrise tour. Although we were not able to see any of the sunrise due to clouds, it was a nice good morning ride. After a refreshing breakfast on the boat, we headed back to Sukosan, our home port.

It was the last day, so definitely time to do something fun. We wanted to do some wakeboarding, but of course, nobody brings a wakeboard on a sailing trip.

Best alternative: the toilet door! We removed the door, attached a rope to the back of the boat, and started to surf with the door beneath our feet. We didn´t think that it would work – but in fact it worked very well!

Later that day, we anchored in a lovely small bay to have lunch on the boat and enjoy the turquoise coloured water. In the evening we arrived at our homeport Sukosan and had a nice last evening on our faithful Susak, before we started our homeward journey.

To put it all together: Croatia is not only great for a vacation on the beach! Bring along your bike and discover the islands on your own, you will surely be rewarded. But if you are looking for downhill tracks with a shuttle service, you probably are at the wrong place. We will never forget this trip, and we will definitely do it again!