Nin & Krka national park

Monday 12^th

Moved to Nin near Zadar on the recommendation of Tomislav the very helpful Tourist Information guy at Korana.  Good place to visit. Camp Ninska laguna very eccentric with very basic facilities. Solar water system was coils of black pipes on the roof!  Worked in a fashion. Our pitch had views across to Pag and the Velebit mountain range beyond.

Nin

View across to Pag

Tues 13^th

Rain and cold wind am, then sunny. We cycled onto sand spit afer lunch. Lots of broken down / deserted beach cafes. Nobody on beaches. Haircut for me in the evening before dinner. Lady spoke perfect New York English (10 yrs living there)  Bargain at £4.00!

wrecked beach cafe - no service

Weds 14^th

Howling Burra north wind all night which buffeted the van keeping Tina awake. Colder so bacon rolls for lunch – the last of our treats from home now consumed.

Thurs 15th

Bus into Zadar.  The town was bombed in WW2 then also badly in the homeland war in 94. it has been completely rebuilt and the main tourist part of the old town is very impressive. We arrived in a scruffy part but the footbridge  to the old part delivers you into a lovingly restored Roman designed town. Lots of churches but we both ranked number 1 attraction the sea organ which is powered by the waves. It was designed by a local architect Mikal Basic. We recorded the amazing sounds and will try to post a link. A  good day's sightseeing.

Roman remains

amazing sea organ

Friday 16^th

Poor weather all week so far with very strong wind so when the sun popped out we went for a cycle to Privlaka. It was absolutely empty of life with lots of deserted, half finished houses. All the rest were shuttered up. Strange. The island of Vir was the same – what a chaotic style of building. Not especially pretty.  The end of the island was better with a rural feel.  Great views to the islands.

dramatic sky and sea

Sun 18^th

Left Nin and drove south along the coast road to Sibenik and the Krka National park. The Kornati islands off Biograd and Vodice looked great – sort of volcanic mounds all over the sea.  Lots and lots of remote campsites which we assumed will come to life in high summer? We arrived at Camping Marina and Krka side by side. Quick inspection and we chose Marina. Pretty full with mainly German and Dutch. Quick setup and a scoot into Skradin. What a picturesque place. A lovely inlet lined with expensive sailing yachts and “gin palaces”. The road down was scoot heaven – full of twisties and hairpins.  Ice cream was also nice.  Nice atmosphere.

Krka main waterfall

ooh!

very loud close up

Skradin from above

Mon 19^th

Moved pitch away from the path to the loos. Then scoot down to Skaradin and the boat to the Krka park. Very pretty mini cruise up to the entrance. Krka is a sort of mini Plitvice. The infrastructure appears newer and well orgaised. Still very impressive set of main waterfalls. Lots of Americans replaced the Japanese we saw in Plitvice.  On our return the pre booked Dutch ACSI group were arriving. Our new pitch gave us grandstand seats as motorhomes and caravans arrived. Funny to watch then maneuvering their caravans with tiny remote control for the electric movers!  Like Scaletrix in very slow motion if you know what I mean. (for the younger Blog readers Scaletrix was / is a slot racing car game with remote speed controllers – Google it!)  very friendly bunch who also told us we had great viewing seats.

Stopovers - Google map

Places visited and other info on stops / route from Slovenia to where we are currently in Croatia


Hope the link works this time!



https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zLPprIVde9E4.kRyn0X9c1cDM

into the lush interior

Pigeons on the beach!

Tues 6^th

Lovely scoot to the bottom of the island – Baska. Crystal clear water with a lovely beach (and pigeons!)  Bit tacky at campsite end.

Baska old town

bit cold!

pigeons on a beach

Plitvice Lakes - national park 

Weds 7^th

Big supermarket shop then off to the interior of Croatia. Our destination was the Plitvicka Jezera national park. This has the most amazing waterfalls and lakes and has been a park since 1951. It actually was where the homeland wars started when the Serbs took control of the main buildings. Once off Krk island the road went up and over the coastal mountains, and we were in lush, green valleys.  Several of the villages had very stark reminders that the war was only 20 years ago. There were quite a few abandoned houses with roofs / walls missing and pock marks from bullets and shells.  Very sad to see.

few wiggles ahead

Kamp Korana campsite

We arrived at camp Korana a sate owned site. 35 ha and 2500 people in Summer. It was only half open and very quiet.  Very nice location and only 6km from the park.

Thurs 8^th

Walk in the morning to a mill, then on to an impressive restored tower standing high above the canyon.

restored tower

In the afternoon we got the bikes out and went exploring. We saw a church with lots of bullet holes above the door, there were also several wrecks of houses hidden in the trees. A local builder stopped to ask if we were lost. He explained in perfect English the church was Serb – “ they destroyed our church, but we left theirs alone”  the houses were a stark reminder of the upheaval caused by the wars. Bosnia is only 15km away from the remains of the village.

bullet ridden Serb church

The campsite had also been destroyed and rebuilt. There is a huge overgrown tarmac carpark – the only remains of a former motel that was bombed.

Friday 9^th

Hot and sunny – we scooted up to the lakes. Free parking for scoot. We had a great time walking on the board walk trails which zig zag around them. Great sounds and sights of all the water rushing past. 

impressive from above

Some of the waterfalls provided a very cooling mist as you can get very close. Nature is truly impressive!  The park setup is huge with free buses to transport you from one end to the other. 

nice cooling spray

Not too many fellow tourists but a few school trips. Usual teenage lack of manners on the quite narrow boardwalks – we seemed to be invisible. Several times I just stopped when they would not move over from walking 3 abreast. A few bounced off me – a few just did not know what to do.  Grrrrrrr. Lots of shouting by the teachers, but “normal” deaf ear syndrome from lots of them.

boardwalks zig zag around the falls

A truly impressive place to visit. Make sure you do.

Krk island

Sat 3^rd may

An earlyish for us (we now find it impossible to have less than 8 hrs sleep) start had us headed for the Island of Krk. The road and scenery were fab – great curves and some miracles of engineering took us around Rijeka and onto a brand new motorway to the island.  Forgot to mention the teeming rain………again.  

Krk bridge view

campsite rock beach & idiot?

The bridge across is very impressive. We drove straight to camping Krk – formerly a naturist site, but now officially a “textile” site. Thank goodness.  4 star luxury at ACSI prices. Very, very nice site with designer loos and swimming pool.  We walked into town around some lovely inlets. Nice place.

view from path to Krk town

circle the difference(s)?

Sunday 4^th may

Cloudy with cold wind – not what we wanted!  Scooted into town and walked around the narrow streets of the old town. Back for lunch then a cycle to Punat marina some 6km away. Mega yachts and a huge boat yard / marina hinted at what it must be like here in August.

thought it was yellow?

sunset view from van

 Lots of people were leaving to go home so the site was very quiet – have we finally arrived at the quiet season??  Lovely evening sun and great sunset across the bay to Krk town.

Monday 5^th  

Sunshine all day!  We scooted into town and had a coffee and yummy cake before we embarked for our 4 hour island cruise.  We were the only English speakers – German was the dominant language as most tourists seem to be German, Swiss or Austrian. 

remote beach - boat only!

We burbled along the coast and passed some seriously lunar rock formations.  There were some amazing tiny beaches only accessible by boat.  The landscape at Starska Barska was truly lunar and very barren.  We cruised past the cliffs of one island and saw a Griffon Vulture roosting. It was completely unperturbed by the boat engine or the stupid German guy repeatedly clapping his hands! 

lunar landscape 

We are now officially islanded out.  Next planned move will be inland to explore the interior of the mainland.

our pitch

Motovun

Friday 2^nd May

After a supermarket shop (try reading Croatian labeling) we moved all of 30 km inland to the lovely medieval hilltop town of Motovun. What a difference. Gone are the crowds, prices are cheaper and we are on a nice camperstop for motorhomes only. No ghettos here. The views are stunning all around us. 

view from Motovun camper stop

We managed to walk around the town walls before the inevitable thunderstorm appeared (recurring event this at the moment). Feels like time has stood still in some of the steep, narrow cobbled streets. Bit scruffy in places but full of character. It is also truffle central.  

steep & cobbled

before the storm arrived

view from town wall

I am sitting  here typing this up watching the rain clouds waft down the valley below us. feels like we are floating above the valley floor.  Bottle of Lasko beer tonight for me – 55p for 500ml.  Cheeky little local merlot for Tina!  Somebody has to do it.

Bovec, then into Croatia

Bovec

Tuesday  29^th

Better weather today so we went out on our mountain bikes. Nice offroad trail through a golf course took us to Slap Boka – waterfall!  Coffee and cake at a very smart hotel on the river for only €2.30 each was a bargain. The nice waitress told us all about how they learn English from yr 3, then Italian from yr 5. The ride back was along the side of the beautifully turquoise Soca river. We passed the point where the final Narnia scene was filmed.

turquoise Soca River

nearly home

After lunch I went for a ride on my road bike up to the village of Soca whilst Tina was “chef d’equipe” on scoot. Big grin on her face! 

Weds  30^th

The drive into Croatia was very scenic with the road following the river, then twisting upwards and over the mountains into Croatia itself. At the border the heavens opened (again) and the road became a river. Double action wipers and slow speed saw us splash out the other side. 

We headed for Camping Sirena near Novigrad, our first taste of a large autokamp and adjacent hotel complex. There seemed to be a ghetto area full of Slovenians. Tents with awnings, decking and extra small tents for the fridge / freezer  were all packed in cheek by jowl at the back of the site under the trees. Horrible. We initially were not impressed. A walk into the town cheered us up as it was very nice. Lovely harbour, walls and coastline promenades and a calm atmosphere.

Novigrad

Thurs 1^st May

Brief shower of rain over breakfast but good afterwards. We cycled along the coast to Mareda. Cycling is popular with lots of well marked out routes. After a late lunch we scooted into Porec – old Roman town with a very famous peninsular full of narrow cobbled streets. Nice roads on scoot, nice town that wasn’t too busy.

The 1^st May celebrations were in full swing back at camp with boom, boom music until 9pm. It was then thankfully quiet. Are we getting old / grumpy? (don’t answer that…..)