King of the Castle

It would seem I heal fast. Two days after the accident I was walking around fine. I could even fake that I didn't have a limp for a minute or two at a time and it only hurt if I wasn't drinking. I decided to go exploring on my motorcycle and see if I could get lost without traveling too far. I cruised into Sibenik and stopped at a corner store that sold beer for half a Kuna less than most other places. I picked up a liter and stuffed them in my day pack.

I decided instead of heading towards the water I would travel the other way and find high ground. I had been rewarded with some great views of the sea the last time I did that so I thought I should try again. Plus, I was feeling really antisocial today and staying away from the water meant no crowds. I could see some ruins on the big hill behind Sibenik and I decided I would try to ride up there. I circled around the hill and found another part of town where the soccer pitch was. I don't know how I never saw this part of town before as it seemed more people lived here than in the tourist part of Sibenik. Elvis likes finding new places.

As I circled around the hill I would cut up streets to see if they would take me up to the top. A couple of roads took me pretty far but not far enough. I was about to give up trying when I turned up a road on the back side of the hill. The road switched back a half dozen times and the asphalt was polished and slippery. I could barely take a corner it was so slick. This road took me up to a couple of machine gun pillboxes left behind from the war in the 90's.



That was about two thirds of the way up the hill but my destination was here:



There was no road so I decided to make my poor little yamaha xj650 maxim cafe racer into a dual sport bike. There was a bit of a rut that led up the hill so I followed it. The rut disappeared quickly and I was doing some true off-roading. It's a good thing the bike is as light as it is because I had to get off in a couple of places to walk the bike over some big boulders. I wasn't thinking how much harder it was going to be to get back down.

When I reached the top I parked my bike and climbed the fortress. I reached the ruined walls and this was the view.



There was no one up here so I opened my beer in peace and drank the first one down quickly.



The second one I savored a little more.



I then took a few more pictures of my bike in the fortress, including one of the best photos of my bike to date.





The ride back down was treacherous. There was a couple of times where I nearly went ass over teacup with my back tire standing straight in the air. I stopped on the way down to take this great picture:



I think the paint job on my motorcycle suits the wartime background. I began to imagine what it must have been like during the war to split up Yugoslavia. I entered the pillbox and it had to have been 40 degrees inside. My god that would have been terrible to have to sit in there and man a machine gun.

I got back down the hill and I toured around this new part of the city. I found a little cafe to sit down and have a cold one. A couple of guys came up and took pictures of my motorcycle.

I wonder what adventure I will find tomorrow?