Croatia: Dinara (6/28)

We crossed the Spanish border into southern France. Our route, avoiding the tolls, took us along rural French roads, and through a picturesque mountain pass at Montgenèvre. We stopped at a lake outside of Turin, and relaxed with a cold beer on the shore. That evening, just outside the van, we watched a swarm of fireflies. With the camera tripod out, Anya took some long-exposure shots.

The next day we continued driving towards Croatia, stopping outside Trieste for the night, before carrying on through Slovenia – carefully avoiding the motorways to avoid paying for a vignette. We arrived just outside Zadar, in the late afternoon, luckily bagging the last available spot at the campsite. The campsite had access to the beach, and before dinner we went for a swim where Anya found a sea cucumber, I’d not seen one before.

That evening was quite still, and humid, which meant for a sticky night in the van, but it was made much worse by the invading army of mosquitoes. Much of the night was spent squashing, or attempting to squash, them – bittersweet when you got one full of blood. Despite our attempts we were both savaged that night.

In the morning we visited Zadar, an old, walled, coastal city. Firstly, we’re pretty sure we got ripped off for car parking; paying a man for a ticket in what turned out to be a free car park! We wandered around the city, along the coast to the sea organ – an organ powered by the waves, although due to the randomness of the waves, it doesn’t actually produce a very tuneful sound.

We wound our way back through the narrow streets, and through the old Venetian gate back to the van and set off to Krka National Park.

The national park is known for its spectacular waterfalls. It was very hot when we visited, and the shady trees, large bodies of water, and spray had a lovely cooling effect. We took the 2km circular walk along the footpaths and boardwalks taking in the crashing waterfalls, and the local wildlife, before stopping for a swim beneath the largest of the waterfalls.

There was also a brief, historical section explaining how this location had been used for hydro-power for centuries in the milling of wheat, and production of textiles. More recently it was the location of the world’s second hydro power station.

That evening we headed to the car park for hiking Dinara. We spent the night there to ensure we could get an early start the next morning. Setting of early to try and make the most of cool air, we took the well-marked path towards the peak. The path ascended consistently but not too steeply across the green, karst landscape. Spying a Croatian flag flying at the summit, we headed for it, arriving just before midday. We met a Croatian at the top – the only other person we saw all day. For some reason, which we never ascertained, he’d bought the large Croatian flag with him. He took our summit photo for us – next to the flag – with our much smaller version, before setting off back down the hill with his flag. The circular route we’d taken took us back down a slightly different way, but along much rougher ground before joining back with the main path.

The next morning we went to see the source of the Cetina river, which was located nearby. It resurges from the limestone landscape into a crystal clear pool, with lovely shades of blues and greens.

Our original plan had been to tackle Triglav in Slovenia, next. However the mountain hut was still closed as the winter’s snow had yet to melt, and was level with the roof. So we decided to postpone that and instead headed for Pula.

Pula was another interesting & picturesque coastal town. Previously a territory of the Roman Empire, it features a large amphitheatre — apparently the best preserved outside of Italy. We wandered round the town, stopping in the square for some refreshments, and had a brief walk round the castle.

The next day we paid a visit Baredine show cave, stopping at Rovinj on the way. The cave was very well lit, with iron-oxide stained calcite in the upper levels and pure white lower down. In the final chamber they also had two human fish or olm — skin coloured, amphibious, cave-dwelling creatures only found in the caves around Croatia & Slovenia. According to our guide, they actually reside lower in the cave, but they capture two of them every 50 days and bring them up to this chamber for public viewing.

From Croatia we set off for Faenza, Italy; to meet up with Mum who’s spending the summer there. We stopped outside of Trieste, again, on the way back. Stopping in a different car park, we discovered that there was climbing right next to us. We chatted to some climbers there and blagged a photo of the guidebook. The next morning we climbed a few routes, which were very polished – making it a little tricky in a few places.