Day 38 - The weaker sex - Korčula, Croatia to Baćina, Croatia
July 24, 2026 - biked 28 km (18 mi), ferry'd 18 km (11 mi) - biked 1345 km (836 mi) total
I learned once again why women are called the weaker sex.
Today we had one ferry, one island crossing by bike and then another ferry as we continued to island hop our way south.
On the island crossing there are two ways to go 1) the same road as cars but a bit longer or 2) over steep gravel (aka big rocks that you might see on train tracks) road with some sections 14% grade.
If you’re following us at all, you’ll know we do a lot of gravel/rock roads to avoid the traffic on the main roads. That would be great but we brought the wrong bikes for that kind of road. Our bikes have no suspension, so our bodies absorb every bump. It’s so difficult we can’t ride on it going uphill and sometimes not even downhill. So we pop off our bikes and hike.
One hand on the bar to steer and another hand on my seat to pull, it was hard to make progress especially since my feet would slip on the uneven ground.
I was falling behind so David took one of my back bags. And then another. He still managed to progress further up the hill faster than me with only two of my smallest, lightest bags.
I struggled on. It’s not like I’ve done more mileage than him in the past week.
I know I’m strong, but not strong in the way that I needed today. I was humbled.
It took us 1.5 hours to climb a little over half a mile with 600 ft evaluation gain.
Great views but we were beat. Definitely type two fun.
To further my weakness, on the way down, I fell off my bike on the loose rocks and hurt my wrist. It’s a pretty bad bruise on the palm of my hand which is where my hands steer while biking.
Nonetheless, we made it to our ferry after bike/hiking almost 5 hours to go 8.9 miles and jumped in the lake near our campsite.
I made David a simple sandwich with tomato and cheese and called us even.
GPS looking sharp
Leaving our campsite
First ferry
David took a midday swim
Best view for a water fountain
He’s waving and smiling because we are biking on asphalt. Asphalt the most wonderful invention.
That’s me struggling
Me pausing to take a picture of David beasting up the hill with one bag
Too far away to tell, but now he has two of my bags.
Weird egg like structures that had info on it because this is technically a bike path.
This picture shows my two back bags that are now on David’s bike.
I finally pulled ahead in this moment. Or David lagged behind on purpose to take this photo. (I moved my two light panniers to the back).
Gotta appreciate the view or it wasn’t worth it.
David isn’t tall enough he must get taller.
David’s load vs my load
Toothless selfie at the top
Walking even on the downhill because our bikes can’t take this rock.
My bruise
We caught our 5pm ferry back to the mainland. Our island hopping is done for now…but maybe in Greece?
Virgin Mary on the island
How to put on a life jacket
Businessman statue looking at the bishop statue.
Almost to the campsite
The campsite is full, but the host squeezed us in next to the car.
Swim time in fresh water this time. It takes so much more effort to swim in fresh water than salt water.
