Road trip: Cavazzo, Croatia, Croce - Woife Strasser on a windsurfing tour
I actually wanted to go to Sardinia again this spring. The flight for my wife, who wanted to travel afterwards, was also booked. But as I know Sardinia like the back of my hand, I had to realise that the forecast simply didn't look good this time. Just like the last few years at this time. Even in the south, drizzle and days without wind are pretty unpleasant when the focus is on windsurfing. On the last working day before the holiday, my wife had an early shift at the hospital and we didn't even know where we would be going when she got home.
So we decided to just go with the flow. First of all, we took our little surf bus to Lago di Cavazzo, Friuli, where you could already surf the next morning as a kind of refreshment.
From there, we wanted to continue quickly towards Croatia, as the weather forecast predicted a week of bora in the area around the island of Murter in Dalmatia. Instead of taking the motorway inland, we took the coastal road from Rijeka to Zadar, as there are always beautiful views of the offshore islands. The bora is caused by cooling due to bad weather over the Velebit Mountains and on this journey we were once again able to experience the natural spectacle that it brings with it when it hits the coast: fierce winds that not only made the water fly, but also caused our bus to sway. On the bora-whipped island of Pag, the houses facing Velebit have no windows - for good reason.
Once we arrived on the island of Murter, we had a week of sunshine, with a pleasant 16 to 22 degrees air temperature and 14 degrees water temperature. And best of all, we were on the water every day with sails of 4.0 to 5.2 square metres.
On the bora-whipped island of Pag, the houses facing Velebit have no windows - for good reason
At this time of year, things are still very relaxed in this area. There are no parking fees until the beginning of May, tourism is still in hibernation, but there are already some open konobas, cafes and supermarkets. We met water sports enthusiasts from other countries on site, some of whom were there because of my spot reports. For water sports enthusiasts from Slovenia, the route there is the same as a trip to Lake Garda for those from southern Germany. After days of bora, there were two more days of thermal wind from the west-north-west, which usually reaches 4-5 Bft at this time of year.
Although the weather forecast in Dalmatia was promising, we decided to travel to Lago di Santa Croce via the Preluk spot near Rijeka. That sounds like a long way, but it's only just under 300 kilometres from Dalmatia to Rijeka and another two and a half hours' drive from there to Lago di Santa Croce. Preluk is perhaps the windiest spot in Croatia. During the day, the thermometer climbed to around 20 degrees, while at night it cooled down considerably in the mountains to around five degrees. The result is a downslope wind in the morning, which brought us the typical 4-7 Bft for two days. The drawback is that the wind window is between 6:00 and 9:30 a.m., which is exhausting at our age.
The wind window is between 6:00 and 9:30 a.m., which is exhausting at our age
After two days of early-bird windsurfing in Preluk, we continued our journey to the Lago di Santa Crocewhere we were able to sail from 4.0 to 5.2 for a whole six days in pleasant temperatures of 15-20°C. It's always great to enjoy the mountain panorama from the water. During the week there are only a few water sports enthusiasts on the lake at this time of year, but at the weekend there are around 50 water sports enthusiasts.
One day, however, we had to make another trip to the sea as strong bora was forecast there. It was only an hour's drive from Croce to the well-known spots, Lignano, Caorle (with moderate waves) and the flat-water spots Marina Julia and Grado. In Marina Julia, the bora turned out to be unrideable for us. The wind indicator levelled off at 40 to 66 knots. Despite this, some of us were out on the water with 3.0-3.5 square metres and 70-litre waveboards. Hats off!
On the whole, we were again largely travelling in "no man's land", but were able to windsurf on 18 days out of 21 and in an absolutely relaxed atmosphere. So windsurfing away from the mainstream spots isn't that bad if you're mobile. We also presented the spots we travelled to in detail in surf magazine some time ago. You can find the relevant links in the travelogue.
