We decided we were going to have an easy day after our day off yesterday, and so plotted what we hoped would be an easy route along the Parenzana rail trail, which winds its way through much of the northern part of Istria, Croatia.

Of course, like many of our cycling days, it didn’t quite go to plan.

The morning was lovely, and we potted along quite roads, chatting with fellow cyclists along the way. The rail trail was rough, and a little windy, but very pleasant, making its way past olive groves, vineyards and Mediterranean forest. Along the way it passed a number of little hilltop villages, usually walled and with less than 100 or so residents. These were amazing and felt like they had hardly changed over the last few hundred years.

We had a very pleasant first lunch (yes, we’ve now taken to eating two lunches as well as pastries) made with the remainder of our markets goodies from Umag.

By 1 o’clock, we were over the highest point in the trail, at a beautiful hilltop village called Grožnjan. After a very pleasant wander through the the little alleys of the town we had beers and a second lunch at a outdoor terrace, with some very noisy, but friendly Italian mountain bikers.

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On our way out we had some fresh cooked doughnuts from a small stall on the outskirts of the village, and had a long chat to some Canadian cyclists who were also cycling to Greece.

So far the perfect day.

We left Grožnjan around 4pm, safe in the knowledge that our destination was mainly downhill and only 20 kms or so away.

Our first mistake was to make a wrong turn which took us to the bottom of a large hill, only to have cycle back to the top again. The second miss turn took us above the rail trail and had us following tiny rough roads trying to reconnect to it. We ended up in a dead end at tiny olive grove. From here we bush bashed down through the forest, replete with thorns and thick vines, to finally reconnect to the rail trail.

By this time we were a little tired and frustrated, but, while the rail trail was very rough, it actually went downhill…..well, at least for a few kilometres…..

25 kms later and Motovun was in sight at last. We were expecting the hill to perched on to be around 100 metre high. To our horror it turned out to be much higher, with a 3 km, 12% gradient climb to the top (for you Brisbanites, this is the equivalent of cycling to the top of Mt Cootha, with a around 40kg of bike and luggage). Aarrrggghhh, why did we pick the apartment with a view?!? We arrived, exhausted and barely able to appreciate the glorious sunset from the top.