Out and about in Plitvica

We decided to stay an extra day here because it is so incredibly beautiful and we're not that rushed for time - yet! I couldn't do nothing all day so I went for a 3.5 hour, 55km ride around the lakes which was quite punishing. There are an awful lot of hills around here I found.

The map of the park that I have wasn't that accurate, or else I completely missed an entire road, so I ended up climbing a 4km hill expecting to come out at a view point but the road disappeared down the other side of the mountain which it wasn't meant to do so I turned around and went back only to arrive back at this point later on; approaching it from up the hill I had decided not to descend.

The roads varied from pretty good to barely a tarred track through the forests and I went past loads of abandoned buildings, some of which look like they had been damaged during the civil war.

It was very nice being away from campers and tourists with only the sounds of the forest and my breathing. It was very beautiful but I did not see any bears although the map clearly states that they're there. I was hoping to spot a bear or two frolicking their way across some of the meadows like the one below.


We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing because it is too hot to really do anything else and I finally finished my book which has been dragging for the last 500 pages.

We have finally put two and two together, the reason loads of Croatia looks so new and well maintained is that it is new. It had to be rebuilt after the civil war. When we were looking out over Dubrovnik I commented to Caron that it looked like someone had taken a machinegun to some of the walls and that there were an inordinate number of new roofs so it wasn't just my imagination.