Now you will tell me, but what about the heat. You say it's hot quite a lot, but you still drive around on your motorcycle. Are you just plain old nuts or what ?
Well...
Yeah...
Kind'a...
Whilst driving, the heat is usually quite bearable. The worst is when you stop to visit something. Are you going to take everything off ? Probably not. Why ? Because putting it all back on, will revert all the benefit of having it taken off for a little while.
Today I stopped at a beach in Risan not ten seconds after leaving the Roman mosaics museum. I painstakingly took off all my gear, put on my swimming shorts, dove in, sorry it's lukewarm, changed again, put my gear on again and I was sweatier than before.
What's the worst part ?
I think at the start, when I only could imagine what was going to hit me, was the Blue Eye. I walked the two kilometres to the eye with my motorbike pants on. That was a mistake. It was a furnace without that. I paid for it by overheating. Luckily, a couple of cold water bottles and a dip in the cool river corrected that. But that's not always the case. Usually I have to wait for the evening shower to cool off. Today, with only a short ride from Montenegro to Croatia, I dipped in the Adriatic sea twice. The second time in Mokošica was much cooler and refreshing. Sitting by the sea inlet, I even thought the temperature is quite nice. Another mistake: walking back showed me how hot it really is.
But sometimes, the heat also causes natural refreshments. Like the Berbers in the Sahara, they wear black clothes which cover their whole bodies. Why ? so that a thin layer of sweat builds up between skin and cloth to refresh the body temperature. That works with motorcycle gear as well.
It's always a conundrum to know if putting the helmet back on is a good or a disgusting thing. Both are correct answers.
You know when you're really hot when you start dripping sweat in your motorcycle pants. That happened to me a couple of times. It also seems quite unnecessary to drink too much water at a time, because I will just sweat it out as quickly again. So better drink small amounts more regularly. Easier said than done.
Mostly I keep on the same t-shirt for driving for several days, until it smells really bad. There's no point at all in changing every day. I could change every five minutes for that matter. I will only have to find a decontamination method for my gear once I'm back home.
I'm feeling kind of tired of the heat, especially when I have to gear up again to leave by bike.
But hey, it's a cool trip anyway! And the good thing is, I can try a new beer every day.
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