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Published: June 12th 2011
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Days 21 –23 Plitvice Croatia – Rovinj Croatia
We have been on the road for 3 weeks and the Eastern European leg of our journey has now started.
Why Croatia, why Plitvice?
Bits & pieces of what we call Croatia has been batted back and forth between foreign powers for nearly a millennium and it is hard to believe that it was only in 1991 that it gained its independence. We all remember ‘the war’ and when travelling through Croatia there is still evidence of that terrible struggle. Perhaps because of its history (excluding the last war) Croatia has always attracted tourists, it has Roman arenas, Byzantine mosaics & Venetian bell towers coupled with predictably balmy summer weather and a coastline that beggars belief in its rugged beauty. We have been to Dubrovnik and wanted to see some of Croatia’s natural wonders – mountains & waterfalls – a complete change from cities & art!
Day 21 Plitvice National Park, central Croatia
And so we ‘found’ Plitvice National Park. What a find – it surely has to be one of Europe’s most spectacular natural wonders. A lush valley, with canyon like sides, of 16 terraced lakes, waterfalls
and miles of board walks throughout. All surrounded by ancient Beech forests.
Le camping was just outside the National Park and set amongst wild flower meadows & trees. It was charming but regrettably rather full (of Germans & Dutch, later we discovered they were on a caravanning convention!). We have hardly seen any Brits since leaving Venice.
We donned our walking kit & spent the day up at the park – we walked the board walks, we trekked along the trails, we climbed through the Beech forests and some 6 hours later arrived back at Big Bess, pretty exhausted but feeling energised. We had seen some stunning scenery; we had been amazed at the turquoise colour of the lakes and the incredible clarity of the water that had allowed us to see the fish as if they were in an aquarium. We had strolled through the ancient Beech forest and the meadows that were full of wild flowers and finally we had admired many species of dragonflies & butterflies, none of which we had recognised!
Day 22 Plitvice
Another stunning day – blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Temp around 25-27 degrees. We had left the
rain behind in Italy. The caravanning convention left and le camping became a complete delight as we enjoyed a day of admin. Another little glitch had occurred with Big Bess which necessitated Il P going under the chassis to connect up the shower hose with the basin hose – the rather large tool kit that he had brought with us was beginning to pay off! He also decided to check the oil, up went the nose of Big Bess and, after some time, out came the lorry manual. Where was the dip stick? The manual told us not to worry, the on board computer would tell us if the oil was running low…………on board computer ………..do we trust it? I don’t think so! We eventually locate the dipstick. There is another revelation: the lorry has cruise control! What? Three weeks into our trip and we never knew?!
We spend a leisurely day, with the luxury of free wifi, catching up with our work emails, sending our family photos and checking the weather in other East European countries.
Late p.m. we take our bikes for a bit of a canter around the lanes – fabulous wild flower meadows were
indispersed with vegetable gardens and very small swathes of barley and wheat. Alot of land seemed to be fallow and we later discovered that the reason why was LANDMINES (Plitvice is only a few miles from the border with Bosnia). Just as well we didn’t decide to stroll hand in hand in the wild flowers! We noticed that a great deal of the houses were new builds and concluded that most of the older ones had probably been blown away; evidence of small arms fire was obvious in some of the smaller towns we had passed through on the way to the park.
We discovered a tower, recently renovated but the entrance not yet complete……..we climbed up and were afforded the most fabulous view over the park and the river below.
The river looked very inviting so we mounted our steads and trotted downhill to the water……and had a swim……..yes, it was chilly!
Day 23 Plitvice – Rovinj
Enough of mountains, lakes and rivers – the weather on the coast had improved so we decided to cut across to Istria, a Croatian peninsular just below Trieste. It promised Venetian style villages with Croatian coastline
– how could we resist?
On our way to Istria we passed a war memorial at Turanj - but no ordinary memorial, it was a graveyard of tanks and planes with a sign stating that it was "where the Serbs were stopped". Chilling.
As I write I am sitting overlooking the Adriatic once again. We have struck lucky with le camping and find ourselves with a sea view set amongst pine trees. It isn’t too busy and the weather is superb. Rovinj, a sweet little town dominated by a charming church, is a mile up the road and beckons us tomorrow. We have already had a dip in the sea (no warmer than the river) and are now enjoying the evening sun with a glass of Pinot Grigio from Le Vigne de Zamo. x
P.S. the cruise control worked!
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Sarah Taylor
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