Island Hopping Croatia by Bike | EP.8 — England to India

🎬 EPISODE 8 – ISLAND HOPPING & BIKEPACKING CROATIA

In this episode, I begin island hopping by bike along the Croatian coast — starting in Rijeka and crossing by bridges and ferries over Croatian islands. With no set plans, me and tom wild camp and explore stunning coastal roads under the hot summer sun.

I’m cycling, hitchhiking, and camping my way from England to India, and documenting the entire journey here on YouTube.

► New episodes every SATURDAY.

📸 Daily updates + gear:
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubenleof/
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🌍 Full Route Map:
👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DI9L9psNOsX/

Music Credits:
Awaken by Alex-Productions https://soundcloud.com/alexproductionsmusic
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/alex-productions/awaken
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/aqLUvpAdLNQ

Element of One by BlauDisS https://soundcloud.com/blaudiss
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/blaudiss/element-of-one
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/E93MxyjpRis

welcome back to episode 8 of my journey from England to India over the next few days me and Tom are island hopping through Croatia wild camping on beaches cycling across remote islands and seeing how far we can go with nothing planned so we are leaving Ria and the plan is to head over to some islands and do some island hopping which is something that we both kind of came up with on the spot about 20 about 10 minutes ago
let’s get to island number one it’s hot it just makes it about twice as hard as well thank you
thank you very much
also learning some Croatian would be cool this is it this is the bridge yes [ __ ] hell first island we’ve made it to an island which is mental we’re on an island what
time to go down to the beach first time in a beach with my bike oh yes yeah so I think this is like a a private like you you have to pay to use this what is this so we cycled about 30 km and then we’re in for a swim oh yes oh look at where we are man we have cycled from England to here like literally I can’t stop like reminding myself of this
and another one is like I didn’t know you until like an hour ago yeah tom messaged me on Instagram
like yesterday
yesterday saying that he was in well yeah saying that we’re pretty much in the same area and then bam we’re now swimming in a Croatian sea sweaty salami and bread but I’m I’m used to this stuff so it’s all right we are leaving the beach the grally beach Jesus is impossible and we have found a port on the island we’re on and we’re going to head to another island today hopefully um so we’re going to cycle to the port now we’ve entered gravel path it’s like nice that we’re on like a gravel path but it’s like still right next to the road it
is nice nice oh wait wrong side of the road oh this looks lush yes [Music] gravel grally Croatia that’s like one of the nicer things about cycling islands or just a coastline in general is that you get sweaty and then you just then you can just like jump in the sea that’s another thing I like about having having title there is because this wasn’t like the center of my trip or even a thing I was thinking about on my trip really like being here
so it almost feels like coincidentally I’m here it’s like it makes me feel like a [ __ ] um
like like a like you know like uh when the first people ever to come came to Creation
Yeah
and like they came here and they were like wow this is [ __ ] beautiful
it’s a bit of a stretch but it’s all touristy you know what I mean like accidentally like stumbling across it
yeah because you feel like you haven’t like flown here
yeah you kind of the scum before
to be fair this is really cool
it’s kind of more technical than the gravel park
yeah no this is sick like we’re just going through like random villages jump croatian gravel hills are not built for I mean your bike is ser some some serious stuff very impressed that I don’t know
that is still alive
it’s still kicking so we’ve just pushed our bike up a big hill and we believe we’re at the highest point of the island due to a it’s like signal pole thing and now we go downhill i think maybe a little bit oh no it’s not it’s like a a bike pump thing
it’s like a bike repair station
yo that’s the stance to go for I reckon just the like wide it’s nice and cool in in this area though it’s not even grass it’s like rocky grass we are back using Kimoot for navigation and uh we’re now It feels like I’m not in Croatia anymore proper off-road my goodness yeah I think this is like the most intense path I’ve been on we’re going right into the jungle the Croatian jungle
croatian yeah this feels like it’s never going to end like we’re just stuck in like a constant loop oh we’re out oh the like smooth road is like it’s a blessing other side to the island is ahead of us look at that it’s like because it it just ends up taking you on like walking paths right yeah it just takes you It takes you on the sketchiest path possible
we have come back on a main road as Kimoot kind of was just taking us down some super small roads that weren’t really roads it’s the city it’s the city and we’ve missed the 4:00 so we might have to end up getting the 8:31 this is the ticket office we’re at the other side of the island and um yeah we’re heading to this boat here alabisca to Lar okay two bicycles
two bicycles yes
2440 and the time of the next one is
half eight
half past 8 okay cool
here you are thank you ah it does cost uh €6 for the bike €6 for a person so I’m paying €12 which yes it is over my budget but this is the sort of thing right where it’s like a once in a lifetime like when am I ever going to be on an island in Croatia with a bike island hopping with a bike never so I’m going to go a bit over my budget with this and this is absolutely this is going to be so cool so we’ve just been chilling by the side kind of nibbling on some uh crackers and peanut butter his bike’s chilling down here now I’m going to go back to the shop if it’s still open and learn some more Croatian so we’ve learned hello which is do
yes do you speak English
preachly preaching have a nice day
oh [ __ ] oh um something exactly soan means nice day have a nice day thank you is goodbye is how are you is and I don’t understand is rav
thank you thank you isa i don’t understand
what what this or
no it
is nearly time for our ferry adventure to the next island island hopping Croatia tom is just cycling in circles but yeah we’re kind of waiting for people to get off this ferry and then Oh wait that’s our That’s our ferry
oh we’re on the wrong [ __ ] side we’re on the wrong side our ferry is this one look so Rab is the island we are heading to and Rab is this way here we go so the plan on the ferry is to ask people if we can sleep in their house on the ferry no like Yeah i don’t know
to rap
okay cheers
thank you you’re welcome kala get on get on get on [Music] we’re on the ferry this is the ferry i think we’ve like timed this perfectly with sunset
oh me you’re kidding bro oh my goodness me
what
look at this holy [ __ ]
this like water feels like AI we are leaving island number one and we are going to island number two look at this it’s so nice oh it’s so nice w I knew it wow this is mental look oh oh this is like the perfect time this is the perfect time look at that
now that is stunning how we ended up here
how How have we got here we are three people asked all said no but it’s all right
i know do it once i don’t care anymore i can do it it was the first step it is the first step the first step we have we’ve got him on the asking random people
no but when he said he had a ship I was like
“Wait who this guy here
that old guy he said he had a ship and I was like shit.”
I was like “We can sleep there.” And then he went and asked his friend and his friend said “Well it’s only it’s only one room.” And then he said “No.”
And I was like “Oh that would have been so
could have slept on a ship
my eyes my eyes
that would have been amazing you like realized that people are just so friendly and
that was so nice just like
Yeah yeah
so I’ve asked about seven people i believe Tom has asked one potentially two people and it’s just it’s like a lot of tourists basically obviously not wanting some random people in their house cuz that’s fair enough there is not many people on this boat that’s the only thing I feel like I feel like everyone like I’ve talked to everyone no oh it’s like it’s like we’re just laughing at the sunset i was about to say that
this guy’s pouring water into his boat what so we’re going to arrive at like 10:00 p.m to this next island just had like one of the amazing chats with a Swiss guy literally for about 20 minutes um he had lived in Pakistan for 17 years uh he knows loads about like China and India and like all of these Central Asia South Asia countries which is where I’m going to be heading which is just mental and I was just saying to him it’s so rare to find someone else right who knows a lot of information about these stuff like I’ve done a lot of research about my trip obviously and the route I’m going to take but to then talk to someone who’s a much older guy who’s experienced in this thing on a random boat in Croatia is just like so nice and it makes me so excited for Central Asia i’m like “Oh my god.” But anyway he also said good option cuz I obviously asked him if I could sleep in his house he said no um I asked him is there like a good spot to maybe sleep and he said on the beach so that could be pretty cool look at this how amazing is this we are now on island number two
so the plan of action is to go to a beach which is on the other side of the island not the other side of the island but the other side of this little strip and sleep on the beach camp on the beach i’m pretty excited
i’m very excited man
and it’s a pretty safe place as well you know it’s a random very touristy island both cycling with head torches as neither of us have lights we are currently here on this beach and our plan is to go tomorrow the left side where it’s a little bit uh quieter and find somewhere to camp on the beach down here all right so we are going to set up our camp um and go to bed for tonight probably just probably chill out and just watch the stars for a bit cuz the stars are very visible which is awesome see you guys tomorrow we’ll be waking up on a beach which will be my first time waking up on a beach is it also your first time waking up
first time on a beach both of our first times sleeping on a beach waking up on a beach it’s so nice like now waking up on the beach you can now see the beach and this is where we are we’re sleeping down here somewhere but look at this just on a Croatian island by bike currently just like drying my sleeping bag out it got a bit wet in the morning even with even with a bivie bag on which was quite surprising now I can stand by the sea look out onto the sea whilst just eating peanut butter and oats at 6:30 in the morning opinion on the oats
i mean you definitely need a bit of that fruit as well
yeah yeah yeah
but they’re not horrendous
we are kind of all packed up but we’re going to go for a little swim now and then dry off and then head on to the next island pretty much and we think it’s about like a 1-hour cycle across this whole island which is crazy and then we can head on to the next one starting the morning with like some nice wind in my face it’s so nice cuz I’m literally just sweating right now we are currently cycling across Rab which is the island we’re on um to a port to get to another island we’re just island hopping awesome we’re now going to head to a supermarket to pick up some food as I don’t have any food with me whatsoever supermarket’s closed on a Thursday at 10:00 a.m that’s so random look at that look at all these boats all just to be fair if you have a boat right you can just go to any any any little random beach that you can’t get to by
and all these little Yeah all these little coves and [ __ ] oh my god back in the shade for a bit so loud they’re probably all all grasshoppers this is the island we’re on we arrived to Lar which is there we’re cycling now to there there amazing i hope we’ve got like half an hour till the ferry to go for a swim on one of these beaches
yeah well we could even
That’s what I’m hoping for
we could even wait until we get here find a supermarket here pick up stuff go on there go on there nice
that sounds like a [ __ ] plan
we got loads of time it’s not It’s like
It’s not even 11:00 it’s 20 10
somehow ended up on a bicycle path on on an island like what this is actually so nice back on a hill actually a really steep hill 40 minutes of riding we’ve made it to the other side of the island how cool is this i imagine buying like an actual meal now or for lunch damn so this is is this Rav then
okay so this so the main city on the island or the island’s called Rab the main city is also called Rab it’s definitely not even a city it’s more like a town it’s close
just today it’s the 19th today isn’t it
uh yeah
[ __ ]
maybe translate what what this says maybe it says it’s like a bank holiday or some [ __ ]
so yeah we we figured out it’s like a it’s like a national holiday or like a some sort of like Catholic holiday which means all of the supermarkets are closed just arrived to the port and then realized that there’s only one boat and it leaves once a day we haven’t missed it but it’s at like 6 in the evening and it’s currently 11:00 a.m what a shame we’re stuck on an island oh I’m so sad croatian Island this beautiful weather so we’ve been to a tourist office and we found out that there is now also a boat at 12 and bikes can be taken on it cuz we’re a bit unsure if bikes can’t or can or whatever and that’s all cool we believe this is the boat and somehow bikes are allowed we don’t really know how but it leaves about half an hour we’re going to go have a little walk around the old town and see what is happening damn this is nuts
this place is [ __ ] beautiful this is such a nice place this place is amazing
there’s not a [ __ ] I could spend like a week here already if my budget accommodated to this
I love like little side streets
like the little mini
so nice oh man I’m going fast
look at this water we just walked to the other little side of the where the ferry port was
and my goodness me look at this sea oh no don’t oh wait wait ashley be careful if there are sea urchins cuz that could [ __ ] up your whole day
there’s loads of them there’s loads of them you see i I I want to see what they look like but also like seriously be careful cuz No yeah
like you won’t be able to bike yeah be careful when you’re walking over but what the [ __ ] what do they look like come on look
don’t step on one they look like a spiky black ball you You’ll notice
Okay one
so look there’s one there you see it no
there’s one right by my foot
oh [ __ ] that is massive where’s the one here
there’s a big one there look at that one
where’s the one here
[ __ ] don’t be one right by my foot you see
look at this [Applause] i was sitting on one the bikes are going on the front of the ship one second please
no worries one second please because my beautiful ladies call me
oh no worries
of course what oh just chilling on the front of the ship
imagine we can sit on the front
oh yeah
this is a different uh ferry i thought it was going to be a bigger ferry honestly something more like more like the one over here but yeah we just literally just sat on the front of a boat ah our bikes are just now this is crazy
yo oh my god this is [ __ ] just completely surreal goodbye goodbye rabbi Rab
we are heading to Pag Rab rabb to Pag sick of him to just let us chill out on the boat i think it’s just had like like we’re like a different class
yeah 100%
you didn’t want us mingling with All right we are arriving to island number three
three wa that is very cool oh yeah give me some food give me supermarket any of the supermarket you know what
you know what you can give something what do you want you want to buy some food cuz all the supermarkets are closed here all of the supermarkets are closed because it’s because it’s Catholic day or something
like a Catholic holiday
and we’ve basically decided to go to a restaurant my first time spending money for a restaurant but we’re in Croatia look at this place it’s beautiful so splurging out going probably doubling my budget maybe even more than doubling my budget the budget for today
yeah yeah we’re going to have a triple budget day today and then tomorrow we we can get back on supermarkets will be open tomorrow and it’ll be much cheaper but this is actually the first time in my trip where I’m spending money that isn’t at a supermarket which is mental excited over [ __ ] bread oh my god we are back on the road we are both full it is incredibly hot and we are cycling so we’re currently on an island called Pag and the aim is to kind of try and cycle through the island today and get back on the mainland like even the most tiniest hill can just tire you right out it’s so nice when you get the cold breeze well it’s not even cold but the kind of hot air in your face so that’s mainland Croatia over there oh my goodness me we are heading to one of the only cities on the island to basically just restock on water cuz we both have no water left we’re in Nova Lei i don’t even know where we are but it’s like a I don’t know it’s quite a nice place maybe very typical uh like lads holiday i reckon we’ve ended up on another beach in Croatia with more food
it absolutely had to be done there was no choice out of the city we go and back inland of the island of Pag basically making our way to a bridge that uh connects this island and the mainland [Music] wow look at this oh yes whoa bravo [ __ ] hell wa look at that it’s like a literal tunnel [Music] oh back on the road oh it feels so smooth listen to that sound of novel wow it feels so like each like push you do you just go so far feel like it’s like the same feel of laying down in a really comfy bed or something oh
or drinking that first sip of water
oh my word
so we’re going to be entering Pag which is a town on the island which is also the name of the island that that seems to be a common theme havala
Havala i don’t understand sorry i wish you same oh nice is it sweet
i thought it was going to be sweet i wonder if mine’s going to be sweet i’ve got no idea it’s nice though no it’s like a sausage roll
i’ve got like six sausage rolls
i know i’ve honestly think I’ve drank about 5 liters today same
that’s mental and we’re just probably just sweating it all out instantly as well
i pissed like once all day
yeah I pissed once as well
just we’re like putting the water out through our body tv no no
no no no i was trying to do my Yeah
uh preachles ingleski
english
english
yes english
can we have one lollipop i was trying to ask in Croatian
we’re We’re We’re uh trying to learn some Croatian on this trip so far
it was close
was it close we were just in that restaurant basically filling up some water getting some nice cold water for free obviously um we’re now all stocked on water got another 2 lers of water with me now and let’s get off this island all right we are back on the main road which is nice nice and smooth and we’re going to follow this road across a bridge over to the mainland of Cro Croatia over the other side of the hill is a town and we’re going to start asking people in this next town so let’s just get there i’m leaving Zada
zada okay no chance no worries we also have like a mat and a sleeping bag so just like Yeah now it’s no problem to sleep outside
yes yes but we also love you know like getting involved in the culture of a country
you know you only want outside sleep where on couch outside where in the house
on a on a couch or on the floor inside the house just cuz we have sleeping mats just
up here all right we’re currently viewing a house we’re We’re kind of viewing a a halfbuilt house that we can say we we could live not live in but that’s [ __ ] lush i mean it’s fine it’s got quite a nice view to be fair
it is chill so cool so this this is the house and there’s also another part of the house more to choose from
it’s [ __ ] like when this is built oh my god got another room any uh like bread or
broad
broad little piece of bread i’m hungry you’ll be appreciative when we’re this little piece of bro
kakosi kakosi oh
oh oh wow
his leg is gone
no leg
his leg’s been cut off
oh my goodness yeah oh
it’s gone wow
it’s gone the legis you can still walk though
you can still still walk
yeah yeah hala so obviously I was like insistent on asking uh if they have any food that we can have and this is a very weird concept
it’s an insane concept it’s new it’s a new concept to me just knocking the house going to have some food
it’s crazy
but we got a whole loaf of bread whole loaf of bread and a whole packet of cheese and this is our house for tonight this abandoned new build we have combined all of our food sources this is everything we have we have the bread we got from the lady the whole pack of edomami cheese we also got from the lady my kg of couscous uh like probably about eight beef stock three cans of tula and couple spoons of pesto in this tiny little village and they’ve just got a basketball court our house is that building there I believe yeah it is that building there and Tom is going to slam dunk nice it’s mad cuz I consider myself a pretty confident person but then like that that that like out of my comfort zone like asking someone for some food which which is perfect like I I love that’s that’s the whole thing
now you’ve done it
it’s not out of my comfort zone anymore
exactly
i just need to I just need to practice a bit more i just need to practice
so we got a cheese and bread starter do it now that’s going to be [ __ ] beautiful i’m I’m [ __ ] well excited for your YouTube video
yeah i’m also excited for this this YouTube video is going to be very cool the
beef stock cuscus which is actually amazing
nice nice slice of cheese
yeah yeah oh my [ __ ] god cheese pool you
choked on it as well so in in the house we got my bed here this looks really cool and Tom’s bed is blinding you good night we’ll see you guys tomorrow probably one of the worst night sleeps I think we’ve both had we We’ve currently woken up to being inside a building site which is fair enough cuz we’re in like a deredict house but um literally for the whole night been sweating because it’s so hot and just being attacked by mosquitoes oh my goodness me honestly I don’t think I got any sleep this today last night whatever england yes and then we go to We have We have cable yeah yeah yeah we have We have Thank you breakfast you’re saying good morningro before 10 before 10ro 10 is good night uh what is your name tom tom
reuben
my name is Ab
abentralistan i’m going to be huh
uh
you live in Usuzbekistan or you or you live in Croatia radi always
in in uh Tash Kent
tash Kent
uh Tash Kent
glown glown center city
city center city center City Tashkin tashkistan Tashkin
i I will be there bye-bye is
Arasmik arasmic
yeah bye-bye we do damn he’s from Usuzbekistan that’s pretty cool so I’m going to Usbekistan on this journey starting day three we are leaving this lovely house we’ve both agreed that we probably had the worst night’s sleep of our lives last night so we’re feeling pretty knackered we’re going to try and head to the near city picking up some fruit and pastries yes you can cycle to the beach to eat this oh 100%
we’re like only like 3 km
yeah we’re so close
well then that would be a bit [ __ ] if we like just ate all here then like
get to the beach there just like soon as we get to the beach and you got food i’m sitting right in the shade for some reason that like 20k felt pretty I’m basically just been sitting on a beach for about an hour uh kind of resting and feeling quite tired from last night but to be fair I’m actually feeling a lot more motivated goodbye to Zadar which is the city we’re in and we’re going to head down the coast [Applause] so we’re very very coastal literally just going down the coast oh my Jesus my arms are roasting coming up to peak heatness hotness of the day and I think being on like a like a main road makes it a lot hotter oh holy just like pure air con
i feel I feel so out of place
yeah I was about to say it’s so funny being in like probably normal places like crazy
yeah just dirty haven’t washed in 3 days i’ve been wearing this shirt for days straight
so yeah we are picking up lunch in the supermarket to then head to a lake
want to go swim and see on the water
oh that would be so tonight the the plan is to sleep on a beach again so
this glass 60 food yes we’re currently debating about buying a cake cuz we we’ve seen a cake for for €4 fire this cake
no we got it what like I’m cycling through a desert air is so dry yeah left there all right we’re going to be going to the world’s not the world’s Croatia’s largest inland lake yeah left here oh oh [ __ ] yes oh that is [ __ ] perfect [ __ ] yeah bro
maybe we have to go down there
that what look at this it’s just a fish fish head so we got the cake on the beach ice coffee oh rumbly what do you have this slamian what a view that that’s like a [ __ ] 50 cent slice not not even on oh mate serious stuff cake is it all right
it’s all right man it’s good [Laughter] [ __ ] yeah
we both basically fallen asleep on the beach after eating nearly a whole cake it’s 400 p.m we slept for an hour and a half wow yeah so let’s get back on the road because there’s no there’s no um supermarkets closer to where we need to be
yeah so we need to kind of stock up parallel to us
oh really all right okay we’ve made it to a little supermarket and we’re just going to stock up some bits for some dinner tonight all right so we’ve currently stopped at a at a campsite fill up all our water so when we So when we find a beach tonight we then are kind of like fully stocked up on like food and water and stuff like this plan now is to basically go onto the coastline and just like have a look at little beaches and see what is a good spot to sleep at all right we’re on beach beach scouting time and we believe that this leads out onto a beach oh this is [ __ ] beautiful
this is a nice spot to swim in
this is [ __ ] beautiful let’s have a little explore oh look at that place down oh oh what this is [ __ ] sick what look at this oh my goodness me we found a house look at this space we’ve just kind of gone down a path and we found a whole house with like a sink that obviously doesn’t work but oh my goodness me look at this that’s such a cool space look they’ve got like a whole like a big old shed no one’s here now so it is going to be ours for the night like this lovely little space here and then you just kind of walk out here and there’s just the sea and it’s got a nice lovely little beach down here and it’s just the sea what we have decided to just have a little wander down the beach and find a bit of a better swim spot as the bit of sea outside the little hut we found has lots of sea urchins in which are the kind of black spiky things that if you stand on you probably can’t bike for the next week we found a spot it’s potentially just a like a random little campsite so nice walked in ready to go goggles on goggles on
yo that is a minefield of urchins
really
everywhere on the floor really
literally everywhere
really
you cannot put your foot down
are you Are you close to the bottom mate there’s hund Are you Are you close to the bottom
no not really
oh
you can’t stand up you have to do one of these
this This could ruin my whole trip trying to keep my feet up right now no if you go out a little bit it’s out your depth
all right I’m going to show you guys under water maybe you can see i can’t see under literally about 20 here there [ __ ] loads in my feet how the [ __ ] has that happened that’s inside my foot that’s literally inside my foot
all right okay so the um the the way you tell if if you’ve been stung by it
which is what it is it’s like if it’s like immediate pain and swelling like
how the [ __ ] has that got there i’ve just literally cut a hole in my foot and it’s under the hole in my foot like teleported through the skin of my footing i reckon you’re probably not doing that any favors there you reckon
yeah I reckon definitely not i’ve literally got about 30 spikes just under my skin shaving cream my foot
it says that’s what it say it says put shaving cream shaving cream on my foot as well
shave your pretty much just chilling now we are going to make up some food uh we’ve got a mix of couscous chickpeas like tomato puree type thing and sea water salty is it well maybe like 80% um water and 20% sea water just because we want some salt I suppose that is quite salty yet