Crowded parks, broken shoes and the sea organ

I’m back home, but I want to give you a summary of what happened the last days of the trip and also include a couple of things that I forgot earlier.

The final day of the trip we went for a “hike” around the Plitvice lakes. It is not so much of a hike, more of a walk around a nice area with a LOT of lakes and waterfalls. I call it a walk because it feels like you walk in a park – the whole area has “wooden” roads. There were also tons of people around and since the roads were quite narrow we ended up in lines everywhere - You had to stand in line to take a picture in some places. Of course the area was very beautiful (see pictures below), but it is still not really my cup of tea. I almost get a panic attack when I have so many people around me. I know one thing – as soon as I retire I will move out to the country side. I don’t like places with a lot of people.

One story that I forgot to tell you earlier is how to fix a broken hiking boot while hiking. One of the other hikers’ boots broke down the other day. The whole sole came off. When it happened I think many of us really wondered how we could solve the problem, since you can’t walk without a sole and definitely not barefoot. Our local guide solved the problem – silver tape. See picture below. I have to admit – now I will include silver tape to my equipment list. What would we have done without it??

One night of the trip we went into the”big city” of the area: Zadar. We spent our evening in the old parts of the city. It has been destroyed many times through the years (by earthquakes and wars), but they have still managed to keep some parts from its roman time. It was very interesting to see them. But what I liked a lot more was the “sea organ”. I honestly don’t know how to describe it –the organ made sounds when the waves went through it. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_organ If I would have been on my own in the city I would have sat there the whole evening listening to it. I loved the combination of my favorite things in life: music and nature.

Sunset in Zadar

The trip back to Sweden started early – 5 o’clock. It was an easy trip. We took the bus to Spit, checked in (on an airport that was too small for the amount of people that flew out of there), bought some tax free, waited in the lounge and flew home. It is seldom that everything is so easy, but I’m glad when it is.

Now all my clothes are washed, my hiking boots cleaned and my camel bag cleaned with chlorine and a tampon ( I know – strange, but it was the best way I could come up with to clean the tube to the camel bag). So now I’m all set for a new trip. At the moment I’m looking at trips to Patagonia, but nothing is sure. You will be informed through the normal channels.

Take care everyone!

Maybe I should start climbing?

Suddenly I like climbing. I have now been climbing 3 days in a row and I have noticed that it puts me in a really good mood. The first day of climbing I already wrote about in my last blog. So here comes the story of the other two.

But before I go that far, I need to tell you how yesterday (which was our day off hiking) morning started: I went jogging with our Swedish guide. I’m actually quite proud of myself that I went running while I’m on a hiking vacation and I did it at 7 o’clock in the morning. It takes a lot of commitment. It was a great run, around 7 km along the sea shore. After the run we went for a short swim. It felt extremely refreshing and it is my favorite way of starting a day.

After the breakfast our local guide picked us up and took us for a walk in some natural caves. I’m sure a lot of you have done a walk in a cave. So have I, which made me think I knew what to expect. Boy was I wrong. First of all we were equipped with overalls, so we wouldn’t get dirty (already there I should have been warned). Then we got helmets with carbide lamps, which meant that we actually had an open fire (like a Swedish Lucia) on our head. After a 10 min walk we reached the opening of the cave and I just gasped – “REALLY??? You want us to go down there??? See picture below. I mean the opening was so small and we had to go in with our feet first. You had no idea what to expect from the other side. We came out in a semi big room and had to crawl also into the next room. At this point I was really wondering what I have gotten myself into. But after that we entered the bigger rooms in the cave and we had a very nice walk. Until our guide stopped at another very small hole in the wall and stated that we should go through there. I started to laugh – surely he was joking. But NO! We got really detailed descriptions on where to put our hands and feet, how to release the right hand and put it over our head and how to slide through the hole. Strangely enough I managed quite easily to do that. But not all people in the group managed that. A somewhat overweight German guy got stuck and needed to wait until everyone else had gone through before he could give it another go. Luckily he managed the second time after the help from both the guides. I wonder if he went home and started a diet? That thought would have crossed my mind at that point. So as a summary the cave walk was one of the most exciting things on the whole trip.

Today we had the longest hike of the week. Or in other words the challenge of the week. It was a 6 hours hike (with breaks more than 7 hours) where we gained and lost 700 m. Already before we started the hike half of the group decided not to join us - mostly because they hesitated for the climbing parts. It isn’t the highest mountain I have gone up to, but it still can be and was a challenge.

We walked up 400 m in a ravine. A ravine means that we had to climb up or jump between large cliffs and stones more or less the whole time. At times it was quite tough, so we had to use wires or the helping hand of our guide. I love this kind of hikes – it is just the right amount of excitement. After we reached the top of the ravine we continued through the forest another 300 m uphill in a good tempo. Exactly how I like it.

After a good lunch we started the hike back on nice forest trails and steep downhill with rolling stones. Yeah – even the downhill gave us a challenge. And again – I fully enjoyed it.

We ended the hike a the climbers place in the national park where we had coffee, beer or ice cream and just enjoyed the scenery. It was a really, really nice day in a beautiful environment.

So as a summary – maybe I should take up climbing?? It seems to put me in a good mood. That might also even cure my fear of heights. 

Look at the hole next to the backpack, behind the legs! That is where we went in!

My flame was out as we took this picture. But that was "normal". It went off quite often.

It was climbing both up and down. :-)

The views were fantastic the whole way.

Today was a better day... it only took some climbing and a snake

After rain comes the sun. Or at least after one day of pretty boring hike comes a fantastic day.

Today we were hiking in the Bojin mountains, up to Velika Rujno. My expectations before the hike was not very high, but I knew one thing – the nature would be beautiful. It was even better than expected. The grey oddly shaped cliffs against the blue sky or sea was breath taking. I found myself constantly oooing and aaaing at the view. It was absolutely amazing.

But then the whole hike turned out to be better than expected. Today the slowest hikers were walking in the back with our Swedish guide and the rest of us could keep a higher tempo in the front. Of course we had to wait for the others once in a while, but that is at least better than to walk slowly the whole way.

The hike itself was filled with climbing challenges, both uphill and downhill. It was several times when the guide needed to tell us both where to put our feet AND hands to have a safe climb up or down. That is like an amusement park for hikers – a lot of fun and very challenging.

We skipped our lunch packet from the hotel. Instead our Swedish guide arranged a fantastic picnic. See picture below. We ate local cheeses, sausages, ham, bread, cookies, pate, fruit..... and it all tasted extremely good. To all these local dishes we drank a local red wine. I think it is the first time I have drunken red wine, during a hike (I have of course been drinking after the hike earlier), but I don’t think it will be the last. It tasted great with the food and we only took a small glass. No one wants to be drunk while hiking, especially not since we were also semi-climbing. This was one of the best lunches I have ever had while hiking. FANTASTIC!

But the great things with the hike didn’t end there. We also saw the most dangerous snake in Europe – the horned viper, see picture below. It is funny with snakes – you both want to see them and not want to see them. I hate snakes and am scared of them, but still I’m fascinated about them. This one we could really see up close. But unfortunately I didn’t have the best lens to take a picture of it.

When we came back to the hotel we enjoyed the one thing I have never had the opportunity to enjoy after a hike before – a swim in the ocean. We have only around 100 m to the beach, so we quickly changed from our hiking clothes to our bathing clothes and went for a swim. It was a bit cold at first, but then it felt great.  Then it was just nice to sit in the sun and reflect on the day. Today was amazing.

Fantastic picnic

Oddly shaped rock against the blu sky and sea

Look close and you will see the snake on the branch

Only one problem....

Second day of hiking In Croatia is finished and I can’t complain about the nature. It is absolutely beautiful. It is a mixture of raw rocks and wonderful forests, with beautiful views in all directions.

Yesterday’s hike was in the Velika ravine. The sun was shining and we hiked up around 500 m to a hut, where we had lunch under trees in the shadows. It was a beautiful tour with great views, but it took place in a well-organized national park. That means that the trail (road?) up was quite wide and well taken care of. I call these kinds of trails for hiking highways. They need to have these highways since there are a lot of people visiting the parks. But it makes the hike a bit boring. I prefer the real trail hikes.

Most of the people visiting the park know what they are doing, but you also meet quite a lot of people hiking in city sandals without water. Every time I met these people I feel sorry for them. They usually have a look on their face saying “please take me out of here”. The key thing to enjoy hiking is to be prepared for the situation. Bad shoes and no water is not the way to enjoy a hike on a hot day on steep trails (even if they are more like roads than trails).

Today’s hike took place in the national park Velebit, but this tour was rawer. We used a narrow forest trail up to the rough rocks on top of the mountain. We were almost climbing uphill in some places and when we went downhill we really had to watch our step, since it was steep and slippery. We were lucky with the weather, since it was supposed to rain, but we had just cloudy skies and the perfect temperature for a hike. This was the kind of hike I like with beautiful scenery and greats trails. There was only one problem……

The group is older than me. I’m still not sure when it comes to number of years, but they have an older attitude to hiking. They like it slow. I’m not the person that likes powerwalking when hiking, but I like to get some pulse - at least in the uphill. But this group likes to take it easy and have a lot of rests. It is actually the slowest group I have ever hiked in.  Well – maybe the Cuba hiking group was worse, but there, at least, I could together with a couple of friends hike ahead of the group. Here I’m not allowed to hike faster than the guide in front and he is walking as slow as the group wants. I’m not sure how to handle this the rest of the week. I have a feeling it will drive me nuts.

I have to say that I didn’t know what to expect from the food and wine in Croatia, but I have been pleasantly surprised. The food taste great and the wine is quite OK considering I haven’t drank the expensive stuff (they don’t sell that per glass). The only thing that has been disappointing is the desserts. Not that I usually eat and like sweet things, but these were not even fun to taste. Well – you can’t win them all.

The group!

Rough cliffs and trees makes a beautiful combo

Even when it is cloudy it is beautiful.

The first day in Croatia

Finally I have arrived to Starigrad in Croatia and hotel Vicko where I’m staying. It is a cute little village and a nice hotel. Nothing fancy, but quite OK. I was lucky to get my own room. It is not that I mind sharing a room, but if I’m given the choice I prefer my own room.

I’m bit tired. It was a late night and a VERY early morning. Two friends of mine, who are borrowing my apartment while I’m away, arrived yesterday afternoon. And since my friend Jannica also knows the girls we all met for dinner at my place. It was a very nice evening that we ended already at 20.30, since I needed to do some final packing and go to bed. Unfortunately I had a lot more last minute things to do than I expected and ended up going to bed shortly before midnight. And then I had to wake up at 2.30.  Two and a half hours of sleep is not enough. L Luckily I can easily sleep on planes and buses, so I managed to get another 2 hours of sleep on the trip to Starigrad.

I have now met the group that I’m travelling with. It consists of 4 couples and one single man. Before you even think it – NO he is NOT my type. All are Swedish and my first impression is that I’m one of the youngest. I might be wrong here. I have a tendency to forget how old I actually am and look at people in my own age as old(er). J It is always a surprise to look in the mirror and realize my own age. Anyhow – they are experienced hikers and seem to be very nice. Tomorrow we will have our first hike and it sounds like it is a fairly easy one.

It is nice and warm here (around 25 degrees Celsius), but somehow we managed to bring the rain from Sweden with us. I’m hoping it will clear up soon. I have brought my rain gear so I will be fine during the hike, but again – I prefer to hike without the rain. I don’t need the sun, I just want to stay out of the rain.

Since I will have a break in the half marathon training program next week I wanted to do the most of the training this week. That meant that I needed to go for the 90 min run today here in Starigrad. So this afternoon I went out. It started out quite ok, even though I felt that I hadn’t had enough sleep. My whole body felt tired. Also the heat was quite tiring. On top of that it started to rain – A LOT. And it didn’t really cool down, so now I was tired - running in the hot and rainy weather. Let’s just say that it wasn’t my favorite run, even if I had a great view all the time. On top of that my headphones broke down and I was flushed with dirty water from a truck a guy was cleaning. I actually finished my run 10 min too early because I was so fed up with the situation.

One nice surprise – they have great food on the hotel. I just came back from the 3 course dinner where the only thing I didn’t like was the banana ice cream for dessert.

Now it is time to get some extra sleep so I can be fit for the hike tomorrow.