Week 4th to 9th April 2017
What joy to wake up to stunning sea views, waves lapping at your tyres (D forgot the handbrake again!) and to be able to breakfast outside in the sun taking it all in. We really are absolutely making the most of every opportunity now with the ferry booked for our return in June when the views will be completely different in S.E London. But for now and today it was down with the bikes and over to one of this island called Pags most famous things- cheese. We have had Pag cheese or Paski Sir as its known locally twice before as a starter and both loved the texture, slightly nutty taste and very slight saltiness. It’s not a cheap date and as we cycled to the factory closest to our campsite and saw the small flocks and also the terrain they live on we could understand why. The island of Pag is also known for being quite moon like with vast amount of rocks and boulders forming its foundations and therefore making farming very difficult. But as we know sheep are as dumb as they look and are also very hardy and this cheese has been in production since the 18th century and is rated as one of the world’s top 10 cheeses. Why?- production traditions are still more or less continued and you won’t see mass production, the flocks are small in numbers and the sheep are much smaller in size perhaps due to the conditions. Another contributing factor is apparently due to their salty diet caused by the islands famous Bora wind which is strong, dry and covers the vegetation in salt dust when it dries after tumbling down to the sea. Most of the plants that do survive these harsh conditions are aromatic (lots of sage) as well again giving more flavour to the sheep’s milk. We spent a pleasant few hours in the factory and then having a lovely chat with a local ‘lass’ who worked in another cheese shop and gave us the full history, her father owning a flock of the Pag sheep so therefore first-hand knowledge. It’s lovely to hear these stories especially when told so passionately and we came away armed with a good stock of the cheese, plus 2 little china sheep as well, just to add to our collection (and they say sheep are dumb!!)
It was with difficulty that we left our lovely little seaside spot and the island of Pag but onward we must go and this time inland to one of the islands oldest national parks-Piltvice Lakes. The journey after our short but expensive ferry hop was the norm with me driving when crossing over a mountain range with cries of “Omg don’t look down” “Oh God I’m going to die” and my heart pounding away as all kinds of thoughts of brakes failing, us tumbling over etc haunt me but thankfully it’s Croatia not Italy and the road was in good condition and there weren’t any maniac Italians drivers adding to my fear. Once up we then drove through more surreal landscape that was very bleak, remote and almost Alpine like as we made our way to the park. The final approach to the park was a lot like what I remember of Grand canyon- a gradual but definite build-up of restaurants, hotels and tourist trappings. The park is all about the lakes, some 16 that tumble into each other via a series of waterfalls and cascades and there are a series of walks that you can do around them all or some. The weather had turned on us slightly mid-week and of course it was worse here being higher and inland so we delayed our visit till the Friday when the weather was due to be slightly better, us being fair weather walkers plus to get the colours and the crystalline waters that a sunny day provides. So we set the alarm (that being a shock sound for us) on the Friday morning and headed into the park to make the most of the day walking and to get ahead of the crowd, both of us wondering slightly what to expect from a lot of water and greenery, how amazing can it be. Within about 100 feet and less than 10 minutes we were won over and as we made the walk via a series of stunning walkways over, around across the lakes and falls we were by the end in total agreement that it was a truly awesome experience and all done so wonderfully by the Croatians apart from perhaps the slightly institutional style eateries – but having said that a picnic would have added to the experience had we not been too lazy to get one together this time.
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
So with our love affair with Croatia continuing and the falls not being far from the capital Zagreb we decided to drive straight there when we had finished our walk and so we could get a full weekend Zagreb experience. As ever for big cities the nearest campsite was slightly outside the main action and as we approached having by now stayed at quite a few really lovely sites in Croatia our moods dropped slightly, no sight of old town or transport in and the site well sort of looked not much at first glance to be honest. “Gets rave reviews” David kept repeating like a parrot as we approached now early evening. Uhm, I thought personally we could have hit a bum note here but we pulled up ignoring the French and as usual making a drama out of a crisis parking up only to still get it wrong and park with our door wrong way round to our patch of space, but hey ho it’s like picking up the wrong knife and fork at a function once ones started the others have to follow don’t they. With reception shut we made an inspection of the facilities starting with the bar and restaurant as you do. Well the pizzas coming out in the restaurant looked and smelt divine and had us both drooling and the terrace had wonderful views over the lake, did I mention another lake. A drink was partaken in the downstairs bar which again had a wonderful outside area before I dragged David back to the van to have left over coq au van (yes I know its vin but van is the motorhome take on this dish). Saturday morning came sunnier again and David trotted off to register us and to get the lowdown on how to get into Zagreb central. By this time with its location, excellent bar and top notch wash and toilet areas we were already over our slight downer on arrival yesterday, this coupled with the excellent cycling and recommendations from the owner plus the high speed lift he gave us to catch the train into town we were both totally in agreement about the rave reviews for Camping Zagreb.
Zagreb, another city, same things- cathedrals, museums, old buildings? Yes but each has its own magic and Zagreb certainly does as well. The Dolac market was huge and packed with meats, smoked hams, amazing fruit and veg but unlike so many other city markets it wasn’t so much of a tourist stop and photo trap, with a huge amount of locals shopping and buying their daily groceries- good to see. The mini metropolis is great for strolling, people watching in the many cafes and bars. It’s a mix of very modern and innovative but still slightly dated in other ways, an absolute pleasurable place. We have as usual eaten as much local style as we can but for the Saturday we were drawn away from tradition by a lovely little Sri Lankan café called the Curry Bowl in one of the main strolling streets. The menu wasn’t huge but very authentic to Sri Lanka and we both ordered full spiced dishes, neither disappointed and we left very happy, very full and with hardly a dent in our lunch budget at just under €20 including drinks. On the Sunday we tested out the cycle lanes and cycle friendliness with a 15k or so pedal back into town to visit an unusual museum – The Museum of Broken Relationships. Some of the last 16 months have been testing at times so this might not have been the best place for us to visit, but we survived the heartbreak stories and memento’s deciding however that if we were to go our separate ways after Croatia we would donate our Lonely Planet guides as our memento! Joking aside the museum is unique, quirky and worth a few hours of your time, better than a Barbara Cartland novel. A chicken kebab from one of the street vendors set us on our way back before we hit the restaurant tonight back at camp.
Another full week of surprises and delights gone in Cracking Croatia. Next week Easter by the sea before heading into Slovenia.
Our route this week.
Margaret Somerville says
Loving your great blog, how on earth will you settle back to working life after such an awesome 18 months?
David says
Margaret that remains to be seen, ferry booked for 6th June. Hope there are people that will employ us after our adventure.