Croatia… and umm more weather and broken buildings
By admin. Filed in croatia, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Plitvice Lakes, Slovenia, Wild Camping |After some shocking weather in Slovenia and some wild camping in the Forest we stayed in a Hotel for our second night in Slovenia.. The first for our trip so far.. How nice was it to have a real bed to sleep in finally.. We didn’t realise at the time though that our wild camping experience the previous night was actually in a bear area. oops.. maybe wild camping is not such a great idea in the mountains around the Balkans… after all heather thought she heard noises in the night.. maybe it was some bear trying to sniff around the tent.. Maybe it was the central heating system that kept it away after all.. Who will ever know.. one thing we do know for sure is that we are not going to be wild camping so much any more until we know there are no more bears.. ohh.. maybe the odd koala then.. After we camped near the Plitvice Lakes National Park. From there we went to see the baracs caves and the lakes. On the way to the National Park we came across a town called Slunj where we got our first glimps of what we should expect in the national park.
![waterfall_village One of the many waterfalls in this village](http://www.hoboworld.to/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/waterfall_village.jpg)
One of the many waterfalls in this village
Just before the town in the middle of the forest we saw this beautiful little setting.
![oasis_croatia Oasis in the Forests of Croatia](http://www.hoboworld.to/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/oasis_croatia.jpg)
Oasis in the Forests of Croatia
It was good to have a day off and relax while the really bad weather passed. Unfortunately our plan to let the weather pass was not so great.. looking at the weather forecast its going to be crap weather for 5-7 days.. depending on who you believe (the bbc or weather.com). The caves looked pretty cool but they have nothing on many of the caves I’ve seen in Australia (Jenolan for example). It was still a nice suprise and the tour guide was excellent. I would recommend anyone going to the lakes to make the small detour (10km) to see the caves.
![baracs_caves One of the cambers in Baracs caves croatia](http://www.hoboworld.to/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/baracs_caves.jpg)
One of the cambers in Baracs caves croatia
One of the stark differences between Croatia has been the number of buildings in a terrible state. Many of them pitted with bullet holes, shell’s or with little memorials of families that have died there during the conflict. It was very depressing seeing all these comunities of just ruined buildings all over the area. There are so many ruined buildings they probably out number inhabited buildings 5 to 1.
![bullet_building_1 One of the many buildings showing the signs of war in Croatia](http://www.hoboworld.to/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/bullet_building_1.jpg)
One of the many buildings showing the signs of war in Croatia
Its crazy but its a real reminder of how shit war must really be. Now we have seen the lakes and the caves we had planned to go down to the coast and travel for a while. With the shit weather we are going to head north instead to Hungary and then east to Romania missing the Dalmatian Coast. Maybe next time if there is one we will make it down there.. or if the weather improves in the next 30 minutes our route will be back on track…
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 12:52 pm |
Testing testing, what is everyones issue about leaving comments its simple… 😛
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 2:55 pm |
I have left a comment before :-). The other reason not to wild camp in Croatia is that apparently about 90% of the forests still haven’t been cleared of land mines! So there’s bears, land mines…. need anymore reasons! BTW any chance of enabling the option to be emailed when there’s been an update to a post that you’ve made a comment on.
Cheers,
Pete
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 5:29 pm |
Hey guys, I’m glad to see you are having heaps of fun and still alive! It’s been great reading about your silly adventures (like heather laughing at her falling bike!). Have a blast!!
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 9:22 pm |
Hey! now now…no need for the hostilities Heather…we are a peaceful race on here. I think the problem is that you need to select the heading of the i.e. Croatia… and umm more weather and broken buildings before then scrolling down and leaving a comment. I was looking around everywhere on the page for somewhere to comment and couldn’t find anywhere then accidently selected the heading and hey presto!
The photo of the waterfall is amazing. The whole bear situ is a bit scary. Are you sure it was a bear during the night and not James’ letting off a sneaking butt burp?
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 9:27 pm |
I meant sneaky butt burp….not sneaking. no no! not sneaking. That would make his butt sly, but his butt’s not sly…it’s just stinky….hmmm…I think i’ve digressed!
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009 at 9:31 pm |
My avatar has a penis! is this James’ doing?
Thursday, June 25th 2009 at 8:28 pm |
Quite funny actually, that you could have been eaten by bears, and there being no reason why you weren’t except for anal gas!
Thursday, June 25th 2009 at 8:29 pm |
So, can I put a photo by my funny xmas tree with wings?