16-22 July 2012
The first day for any new destination follows the same pattern; move to a new town, find an apartment, buy supplies, have a rest, and if possible, go for a swim. The second day on Dugi Otok was a rest day where we spent the entire day at a sand beach. For me it was time to go to the Telascica nature park.
Top of the sea cliffs of Telascica Nature Park
Telascica nature park is at the southern-most tip of Dugi Otok and encompasses a huge natural bay. On the eastern side are huge sea cliffs and a shallow salt-lake. We have to walk in and so get there early, abandoning the car and walking in around 8am before the sun gets too strong. While Keiko decides to have a swim, sunbake and then lie in the shade listening to the cicadas, I want to explore and end up doing a two hour hike over the nearby ridges.
Minor cliff jumping
After arriving back at camp and convincing K to give up her life of leisure, we return together to the tip of the salt-lake where it almost joins up with the ocean and where the sea cliffs begin. The cliffs rise out of the ocean, with a continuous 60 to 80m of cliff below the waves, the slowly grow over a couple of kilometres to a height of over 150m. Although I jump a little off the 5m cliffs, I lack the partner to push me higher. I do however spend 40 minutes swimming far out around the cliffs and staring down into the depths. Swimming back in 80m of water, with sparkling rays of sunlight filtering through the water and the Jaws theme running through my head was invigorating.
Staring into the depths
I had originally planned to take a tour through the Kornati National Park, a NP full of hundreds of islands. However the weather turned a bit nasty until our last day, the tours looked a bit too touristy, the islands didn’t look that spectacular, and I was bitterly disappointed to find that my original plan of sea kayaking through the area was not going to be possible as no-one on the island even owned a sea kayak, let along rented them out. I satisfy myself with swims and runs in the local area instead.
Swimming with the fishes at Telascica
We finish our tour of Croatia with a trip to a couple of national parks. First was Krka National Park to see the Skradinski buk waterfalls, sets of travertine terraced waterfalls cascading down over a kilometre of river valley. As with most places in Croatia, this was more of a place to swim than look and hundreds of people are swimming in the pools and diving off the waterfalls. I also visited the rock band named Roski Slap, a highly overrated waterfall made better by delightful cliffs and a village full of natural jacuzzi baths.
Stradinski buk waterfall
Old miller’s cottage jacuzzi
Our last stop before leaving Croatia is the Plitvice National Park. Another set of travertine waterfalls, but this time it has the UNESCO World Heritage stamp of approval. The other national parks in Croatia are also overpriced, but Plitvice charges a hefty AUD $20 per day entrance fee without providing an infrastructure or maintenance to match. Unfortunately, the day we arrived it started to rain, and so we missed out seeing the lakes in their best colours as the minerals in the water requires the sunlight to show up best. I did have an excellent trail run through the park though.
Plitvice National Park waterfall
The next morning we load up and bug out of Croatia. We pass through Slovenia, an absolutely beautiful country that we both want to come back to explore properly, and arrive happily at our next destination, Germany.
