Tag Archives: Landscapes

Afterthoughts: So…..Croatia, eh?

In the midst of dealing with the fallout from being away for a fortnight (laundry, mainly, though having lots of nice cups of tea also features heavily), I think it’s worth gathering our thoughts about the last couple of weeks and sharing them here, just in case it helps others planning something similar. Generally, both Jane and I thoroughly enjoyed our experience of Croatia and would heartily recommend it (particularly the Dalmatian coast) as a walking and/or sailing destination.

Timing. July and August can be fiercely hot all over Croatia. The best time to visit is May or (like we did) September. This is the second time we’ve visited in that month and the weather we experienced was, by and large, lovely. The Croatian tourist season runs out at the end of September or very early in October and things start to wind down quite markedly, so getting hotel rooms later than September might be challenging.

Walking. Our experience of walking in Dalmatia is very positive, but it was definitely a good thing to have thoroughly researched the level of difficulty in prospect, and the levels of fitness required, before booking the walking tour. We were operating towards the top end of our range with many of the group younger (and fitter) than us… Anyhoo:

The tracks are plentiful and well-marked (though I wonder how many of them we would have found without having an expert guide to do this for us).
Most of the routes we undertook were short on shade, which means that the walking can be pretty hot work, and taking lots of water is essential.
The tap water is perfectly drinkable, so take your own bottles and refill.
Very few of the walks we did passed any outposts of civilisation, so it’s advisable to take some food with you as well.
Mobile signal appeared to extend over much of the terrain we covered.

Sailing. This is big business along the Dalmatian coast. There are lots and lots of sailing boats, even some small towns sport large marinas and generally this part of the Adriatic is a good place for sailing, with or without an engine (take note, however, of the section below about the weather).

Landscape. The Dalmatian landscape tends towards being mountainous and scrubby – the land is difficult to farm, being stony. So the trails through it are pleasant enough and will occasionally offer great views from the tops of hills, but are otherwise not particularly scenic and are in some cases quite challenging. Our admiration for the local people who used these trails simply to get from A to B (often with their livestock, and often despite advanced age) grew day by day! We followed a couple of trails through woodland, which were more rewarding.

Townscape. The cities we visited all had old towns, which are all worth looking around. The towns and villages are by and large somewhere between pretty and handsome – well-maintained, tidy and picturesque.

Money. Croatia is no longer the cheap destination it was, but it’s not too expensive, either. In the towns, debit cards were widely accepted in shops, cafés and restaurants, and it was easy to find ATMs. You might find places that will accept Euros, but it’s best to have local currency (Kune) available. If you’re off the beaten track, you’ll need cash to be able to buy anything.

Eating out. Tourism is an important industry in Croatia and so there is usually a plentiful supply of cafés and restaurants in the towns, with English spoken and good service.

Cuisine. As you’d expect, there’s some good fish on offer, and seafood (especially squid and octopus). But emphasis tends to be towards meat and potatoes – the vegetarians in our group had some difficulty getting anything more imaginative than a plate of grilled mixed vegetables on occasion. For non-vegetarians, a couple of traditional dishes are worth seeking out: Pašticada, a slow-cooked beef stew; and Peka, a baked dish of meat and, yes, vegetables, cooked under a dome in barbecue coals. But there’s no problem finding more cosmopolitan fare such as steak, pizza or burgers – the burgers I had were very good, and served without bread, which I prefer.

Drinking out. You’ll find that most restaurants have a limited selection of wines and what is offered is likely to have been made locally or nationally. Croatia has a well-developed wine-making tradition and the local wines are perfectly good without being stellar. Local beers tend to be of the lager persuasion and are perfectly good.

Liqueurs. Something of a Croatian speciality is the production of liqueurs based on local produce – one we found to be very nice is based on sour cherry, but you’ll also come across walnut liqueur and something called Prošek, which is grape-based and quite sweet, among other variations such as olive and cornelian cherry. These are quite often offered as a welcome drink and I think it’s polite to sample at least one…

Bloody Cruise-Ship Tourists. Many of the larger or more attractive towns in Croatia are magnets for the big cruise liners – Dubrovnik and Split have a constant stream of them during the holiday season, for example, and Trogir during the height of the season is reportedly an utter zoo. So you may find that such towns are crowded during the day.

Bloody weather. Actually, for the most part our weather was pretty much perfect – a bit hot for me for going uphill, but sunny, warm and lovely for sitting outside when eating or drinking. But the Bura wind that we experienced is capable of wreaking havoc on sailing boats and travel itineraries. I was grateful for the experience of our captain to know it was coming (it took many others by surprise) and plan accordingly; if you’re considering sailing in the Adriatic, this is the sort of thing that can become very suddenly of very great pith and moment. Having said all that, and with the benefit of hindsight and no havoc having been wreaked, we’re glad to have experienced it; apart from anything else, the Bura clears the air and the visibility after it died down somewhat was vastly improved.

For anyone interested in sailing, walking, history, archaeology and/or pretty places to visit, the Dalmatian coast of Croatia is somewhere that we think should be high on the list. We hope that these thoughts, along with the descriptions of our various vacation days, help in understanding the possibilities that Croatia presents to the tourist.

Day 7 – Boiling Bojinac

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September 21 – Jane’s morning:

There has been a settlement on the site of the modern town of Starigrad (“Old Town”) since Roman times. Until the tourist boom of the 70’s it was a small village whose inhabitants decamped during the summer months with their sheep and goats to summer pastures in the mountains, travelling up in May and back in September or October, depending on the altitude of their pasture. Our walk today followed one such path – although calling it a path is pitching things a bit high

as it is only barely distinguishable from the surrounding rocks! We started early but still toiled upwards in direct sun

Our guide Zeljko had spent two summers as a shepherd in the mountains while he was at university 35 years ago, helping an elderly couple whose sons had taken conventional jobs, and he explained that everything needed was hauled up by mule or donkey, and people lived – and died – in the mountains. If somebody died a party of 6 men carried the body down the trail, since as devout Catholics the body had to be buried in consecrated ground with due ceremony; and church, priest and cemetery were in the village far below. The pall bearers were only allowed to put the body down to rest at certain spots (just one place on our route, about half way down) and the resting place of the body was marked with head – and foot – stones. Later flat slabs would be laid at the spot, and such “graves” can be found on various trails on the mountains.

Headstones would be marked with some arbitrary design or shape since the people were illiterate.

Up we toiled, rewarded with wonderful views,

scrambling over sharply eroded rocks

And encountering fierce wildlife

Until after about 3 hours we reached the first flat pastures

and a shaded spot for a well earned lunch

Just another 15 minutes led us to the highest point of our hike at 840m, known as the Doorstep, with amazing views and rock formations

And then it was (mostly) downhill to the pickup point where our driver was waiting.

Steve’s morning:

Drinking beer and bringing the blog up to date as far as September 20.

Our evening was spent with a final group meal in the hotel restaurant, doing the usual end-of-holiday stuff such as exchanging e-mail addresses before retiring for the night and some well-earned sleep before the excitement to come – getting back to Dubrovnik. Read all about that varied day in the next exciting instalment!

Day 5 (II) ….and Slap

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Our journey towards our next overnight stop continued towards the Krka National Park, about 90 knee-crunching minutes in the rather cramped tour bus that was ours for the day. The National Park has many attractions, but probably the best-known feature is the waterfalls. To get there we had a 50-minute walk along a flat, stony and dusty track in the scorching heat, which was surprisingly taxing. However, the track led to an area where there was shade and seating for lunch. One could also have bought beer, but that thought never crossed our minds. Oh, no. Not at all.

Lunch consumed, it was time to go to see the main act – the waterfalls (“Slap” in Croatian). Željko stressed that although it was offically possible to swim by the falls, in practice this was not a worthwhile activity, as you couldn’t actually get near to the falls themselves and also you had to share the space with several thousand people. There are, however, trails around the falls – wooden boardwalk or paved track – which enable one to experience the whole area. The trails stretch for a couple of kilometres, and it’s best to allow an hour to potter round them, particularly if one of you is a fanatical photographer.

Right at the start, you get a great view of the lower falls. I guess they’re more cascades than falls, but still it’s an impressive sight.

and you can see how popular it is as a bathing area. As you go round, you go higher and higher on the trail and get more views of the cascades

as well as various exhibits, such as this impressive piece of ironwork, which formed part of a hydro-electric generation facility that first opened as long ago as 1895.

As you get to and round the higher trails, the scenery changes from the dramatic cascades to a quieter, more gentle vibe, with boardwalks taking you through areas with pools,

streams full of fish,

gentler babbling brooks and smaller cascades.

We even saw a froggy who, from the sound of him, was a-courting.

Towards its end, the trail takes you to probably the best viewpoint over the major cascades.

A post shared by Steve Walker (@spwalker2016) on Sep 19, 2018 at 9:47am PDT

Fortunately, after our Krka visit, we didn’t have to retrace our steps along the hot, dusty trail, but could take a shuttle bus to where we could continue our journey – some 75 more knee-crunching minutes – to Starigrad Paklenica. Our hotel there was the “Biker-Friendly -10%” Hotel Vicko, and we were in an annex called Villa Vicko. Our room was more a small apartment, with balcony and kitchenette; more to the point it was up only one flight of stairs. We were to be here for three nights, so could unpack some stuff and relax a bit – very welcome.

The group had dinner in the hotel restaurant that evening, and reports of the food varied: Jane’s seafood risotto was very humdrum, but my tuna steak was superb. The service was a bit erratic at first, but we eventually adjusted to the style of our young waiter, Josip, and the day ended very pleasantly. We even had the promise of a relatively relaxed start the next day – 0830! – and you’ll have to stay tuned to find out how all that went.