finding some 'trails' in Croatia...
A few more days in Croatia.. we tried to search for some MTB trails, but it appears Croatia is a very rocky landscape with little dirt to be found. We decided to hit up another national park but when we got there it was deserted. We decided to hike this trail up a hill with my bike to see if there may be any cool spots to shoot but it was mostly covered in snow and the view to the lake was hazy anyway. We headed to Italy in search for DIRT!
I had heard about this place ‘Nimis’ in Italy from my mate Carlo who I met last year at Riva Bike Festival. They hold a slopestyle photo contest each year so we decided to go in search for the course cos I was keen to ride! Upon arrival in Nimis, a small rural village in the north east of Italy, surrounded by Vineyards, we found the closed information centre and only a few locals traipsing the streets. All we could do was go to a cafe and order our second Cappucino for the day. Italian coffee rules! Then by some stroke of luck sha and I were looking to see if anyone was inside the locked info centre and I spotted a dude on a dirt jump bike – the first ‘real’ bike we had seen in a while.. the guy spoke mostly Italian but we worked out he was part of the Nimis Slopestyle Club (www.slopestylenimisclub.blogspot.com) and soon we were following him in the Bumblebee to the slopestyle course – Pistoni. Had a bit of a session on the lines and then they had to go so I took Sha up Monteprato to do some mellow DH runs back to town on old access roads through vineyards etc.
Hangin with the Nimis Slopestyle crew
Went back to Pistoni that night and had a good ride with a few of the guys from the club, finished off the night with Pizza and beer and started driving to Riva Del Garda.