Naked in Croatia

To Croatia and back in seven days, on a Kawasaki W650? Was Dave Owen mad for attempting such a feat or just ambitious? Story/Pics Dave Owen

For a good few years now, I have seen an advert for a rally that takes place just outside Zagreb at the end of August. I was determined to go. One by one my friends dropped out, and everyone thought I was crazy to attempt riding to Oresje, 20km the other side of Zagreb, for the 10th Wild One Weekend.

My intention was to set out Tuesday pm and be there by Friday lunchtime, stay Friday, Saturday, and possibly all day Sunday, returning either Sunday pm or early Monday am. That meant a round trip of approximately 3000 miles with a weekend camping in the middle – all to be done in eight days – it was going to take some serious riding on a naked 650.

So, with Oxford tailpack, panniers, tank bag and my trusty tent, I set off late Tuesday afternoon. The tent was purely for the rally, it was to be B&B en route as a reward for my aching bones after 400-plus miles per day. My natural inclination is to take things as they come, so I had nothing planned re accommodation, I was going to ride until I had to stop or drop.

Good roads, and my steady pace meant that by the end of day one I had passed Cologne and Frankfurt and was just past Nuremberg before my 50-year-old body decided it couldn't take any more. I had hardly needed the Routefinder directions on the tank bag, as the E40 and E45 were so well signed.

Food, drink and a good night's sleep later (at £25 for B&B) saw me packed and ready to continue at 9.30am the next day.

There was a huge assortment of bikes from many different countries, the Austrian roads were excellent and I simply couldn’t believe those tunnels through the Alps. I passed the 1000-mile mark doing 85 in a two-lane tunnel wearing shades and open face. It was not worth taking the shades off because of the number of tunnels and their varying lengths. Some were so long I was struggling to breathe because of the fumes, but that made it so much more enjoyable hitting the fresh air and sunshine at the other end.

Straight through Slovenia on the equivalent of our B roads and an hour and a half later I was at the Croatian border where I had to show my passport for the first time – thank goodness for a united Europe.

Oresje (my destination) is somewhere between Zagreb and Samobor, so having found Samobor, a quaint, medieval market town, I decided to stay the night. Seeing a fully laden BMW GS outside a Japanese restaurant, I pulled up and was soon enjoying sushi and sake with Dan, an American who had been in Bosnia for six years, and his Bosnian wife.

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