Bicycling on Pag Island - Croatia
I like cycling in the vicinity of sea because of warm weather and soft fragrant air. About air and wind on the bicycle: the wind always blows from the front, especially here on the island Pag.
The inland weather was this spring not kindly for cycling. We decide that first tour begins somewhere close the sea in Croatia. We packed up our cycles, leave our jobs and drove to our friends in Novalja on Island Pag - Croatia.
Tourism on island Pag
Novalja is touristic center of island Pag. There is not specialy historiacal or other atraction execpt marvelous sandy and gravel beaches
which is surrounded by many restaurants, pubs and bistros, where you can find rich choice of various meals. Of course here you can find good condition for cycling - in springtime the weather is preaty stabile and the road traffic is low because in april or may tourist season only begins. How to reach Novalja ? You can reach Island of Pag from two directions. First one if you drive from Rijeka: with ferryboat from Prizna to Žigljan, which during summer season sails non-stop, while off-peak it sails only when scheduled.
Other way for drivers from Zadar or Split: to reach Island of Pag is over the large road-bridge on the southern tip of the island.
About Island Pag
Pag is the third largest island in Kvarner, situated between Kvarneric and the Velebit Channel. With population of about 8000 peopele, from south to north measure around 60 km and is wide between 2 km and 10 km. The climate is Mediterranean. No surface water streams are found on the island; there are springs near Metajna, Novalja, Povljane and Pag. Most of the island is rocky; smaller areas are covered with Mediterranean shrubs. The southeast of the island contains karst lakes Velo Blato and Malo Blato. The island's highest peak is Sveti Vid with 348 m.
Short history of Island Pag
In the past Pag was inhabited by the Illyrian tribe called Liburnians At the beginning of the 1st century at the latest, the Ancient Romans constructed a fortification system to defend themselves against Illyrian tribes: a large castrum Cissa (Caska), a port castrum Navalia (Novalja) and smaller forts: Kosljun above the Novaljsko field, Svetojasnica on the cape of the karst Zaglava. Apart from the forts, there were also larger (Pagus) and smaller Roman settlements (the ruins of a town in Tovarnele near Lun, in the fields Brbonovica and Lesandrovica, etc.).
Bicycle trip from Novalja to Lun
We planed trip (aprox 20 km one way) from Novalja in direction of town named Lun with visiting town Jakisnica (Jakišnica), Duduci (Duduči), Mulobedanj and Tovarnele on the north side of Island Pag. Early in the morning (at 8:00) we push first leg on pedals and start our trip. As we expected the wind blowed from the front. Folowing the road signs towards Lun we ascend and descend thrue asphalt road. Somewhere on the middle of the road we turned on the right in Jakišnica direction. After two or three kilometer we descent to the sea write to small bay. Close the bay was positioned small hotel Luna with romantic beach. After short break we turned back to the main road. On the next crossroad turned right again - this time in direction of Dudici and Mulobedanj settlemen close the seat. We were surprised with charming of small bay and we finisher our trip with sunbathing on small sandy beach.