Having slept virtually nothing, being slapped by the canvas and sticks inside a tent that becomes flat as a pancake every 5 minutes as the wind squashes it - I go up at 6 o'clock to greet the day. The sea is perfectly blue, sun is warm and trash from the camping site is flying all around the place. It is time to find a way to get to the ferry. The bridge to Krk is open and we could go to Valbiska - taking the long ferry ride to Lopar (north side of Rab). The ferry from Stinica, which connects Rab directly with the mainland is still not operating due to the wind.
But there are still fires on the coastal highway. I spend half the day calling different taxi drivers and finally I get notice that the ferry from Stinica has started to go again. Here we go!
A taxi from Senj is taking us + 4 bikes to Stinica. Biking is not an option this day, even the big combi car is being grabbed by the onsets of the wind. The driver plays nothing but Serbian "turbo folk" music on his car stereo, smokes and talks without stopping.
There is a 2 km line to the ferry going down from the highway. We are dropped off and start our breakneck descend. Once the wind hits you from the side, the biker and the bike can literary be thrown into the line of cars waiting (and we all know how touchy car owners are about their property).
Nevertheless, the feeling to slide by all these cars is highly empowering. And once we get to the other side - the bora is much softer, almost caressing and the noise of the wind that has been following us for the last days is gone. We are among the first to leave the ferry, coming ashore at Mišnjak. Our bicycles are carried up the steep uphill road by a soft but firm wind pushing us as a helping hand from God on our backs.
Man, the feeling is that of Titans! I look steadily at the cars waiting for the ferry back to the mainland. Family tourists in big cars, some drive SUV:s, kids watching in-car-DVD-systems look at us. We are strange, funny to them - they point finger and giggle. And I smile back at them filled to the brim with the intoxicating feeling of pure and sweet contempt: We did it! We crossed Europe on bikes, you fossile fuel junkies!
