This route captures a mix of great gravel roads, a tiny taste of single track, a fair amount of back-country roads, and a touch of tourist heavy walk-ways. From the Bijela Uvala auto-camp to Porec, I chose to take a relatively swift bike-lane on Istarska in favor of the pedestrian path along the water. People strolling to the beach and along the walkway can make the route very slow and meandering. Once in Porec, the route continued on to some light single-track which is part of the massive Bike Istria cycle network. This soon gave way to forested farm roads, which was a nice respite from the rising heat. The route jumped back and forth between paved and gravel roads as it winds it's way up to Visnjan. The next 4.5 miles from Visnjan were on roadway. There was light traffic here, but the cars don't give much space, and there is very little shoulder to speak of. I perked up the traffic-sense along this last section of the climb before the winding decent towards a big section of the Parenzana trail. Here was a rough run of road that had all kinds of terrain, from smooth dirt to chunky rocks, and some mud that hadn't yet dried out in the sun and turned to damn near glue. This was probably the first point in the ride that I really wished I was running my own tubeless tires. The tubed Kendas did not fair well in this section, and I rattled along the big bumps and grooves as I made my way over to Motovun. From the Parenzana the route climbed up in to Motovun. I stopped here to grab some more water. This was about the half-way point, and I wanted to be sure that I had enough for the leg back. If I had more time, I hear that Motovun is a pretty impressive old fort, and well worth the visit. From Motovun, the road runs steeply down, and winds around sharp curves. Another spot in which a rented bike shows its weaknesses: the Kendas did not provide a lot of confidence in the sharp curves so I had to take these fairly slow. Luckily the road was quiet and no one was behind me. After the descent I crossed over the highway and made my way to Livade. From here, I had to make a decision: one more 1000' climb, or limp home on the meager energy reserves I had. I chose to head home. The climb up to the top of Livade is rumored to be well worth the effort. Next time, I'll plan better. From Livade I was on the Parenzana again. A long section of old train track that has been converted to a gravel path. This was a glorious stretch of flat gravel that ran about 13.5 miles from Livade back to the sea. Heading south along the seaside I was mingling with tourists once more. The slow moving people traffic is much nicer than fast moving car traffic, but still not quite the biking experience that I prefer. Thankfully, this was a relatively short section of the route, and I was once again climbing a bit through some back-country dirt roads. After a particularly shaky jaunt down a tree-covered dirt road, I discovered another reason why tubeless setups are so much better for a gravel ride: a pin-hole puncture in the rear tire. Thankfully, I had a patch-kit with me. However, that meant that I had less time to get back home, and so I opted to find what I thought would be a direct route back to Bijela Uvala. Sometimes, however, things on the map are not really roads that can be passed. I found myself deep inside some back-woods trail network, and had to walk my way through some very tall grass before finding the actual road once more. The sun had fully come out at this point, and I was dead tired. Lead feet pushed me the rest of the way to Bijela Uvala, where a welcome glass of Pasareta awaited.