Getting into the wild, end and climax of an epic jurney

Speed is bending us... 0 kms and 4 cars in more then an hour but we got the smille :)

After more than one hour and a half, we had allready chated with the old farmer cuting his grass and offered our help cutting and picking up the grass. The poor guy must have been at least 70 and had a whole field to go. He declied the help aked where we were from and when we said we were Frensh, he told us stuff about De Gaule and the brothership between frensh and serbs. Funny becaus after the NATO bombing, most young people dont consider frensh like friends... An other generation thing. The comunication is not easy, my serbian is poor but getting richer every day!
We then saw the group of hitchhickers we passed in the car more then an hour ago catches up with us, they were walking and we were just waiting. We decided to start walking as well. The next car picked us up for 5 more kilometers... An other farmer speaking no english and going to his field for the grass. Laughter and smiles. We go on walking and a crazy driving combi bus (VW) drives pass use and does some sing of sorry, but finaly stopes 100 meters further. We run, and catch him, jump in and goooooo!!! This is the craziest drive so far, feels like a scene from "On the Road" (J. Kerouac) Crazy driving, crazy position over the stearing wheel, constantly turning around saying things in a captivating fashion, not always understood at first but always keeping trying until we understand. His wife a bit of a crazy person also, all smiles, all ears. They then see my german croatian book and start reading sentences out of it. The drivers smokes like a mad man, some Gipsy tabaco, strong smell strong stast, loads of nikotine. He drives, smokes, reads the book and tells us stories about his time as a truck driver and his mate who drove over the cliff, into the worlds second largest canyon: the Tara canyon (can easaly be seen on the google map). Amazing drive!! and a longer one too, we get to the Tara bridge where he has to go right and we go left, up in the mountains!

Tara Bridge at sunset

The rest of the road is a lot of excitment, laughter, singing, stories about our respective homes (mine and Alains, my traveling compagnon from haute savoie!). 20 kms to go! we walk a bit and get picked up by a singer, he calls his frensh speaking wife to whom we speak a while and explain the trip. He then drives us trought the magnifisent plato up there, sunset, orang light, light beams trought the trees, fog emaning from the street.... an unreal, fantastic landscape i still regret taking no pictures of. It felt somewhat like scotland (i have never been there...) but so green, so fogy, and this sunset light...
And we finaly get to Zabljak in this magical atmosphere. We shortly meet El Coyote in front of the mall and do some basic shoping before finding a spot to camp and cook some long hot food!

Leaving civilisation

This sunny day is the begining of a long serie of modified version of Pierpoljaks song "Pierpoljak" where after the chorus sings something like "Pierpoljak what are you doing, the plane is gona take off soon" he sings: "No, go ahead, i m staying here, i want to leave that crazy civilisation, live in nature, far from polution"


This song, besides remembering us both of our time at school, listening this on the bus, onm Tv, on radio stations or at home in our stereo (yes i did listen to this guy, but i belive he has done less ridiculous songs in his early days... :). Well besides this, it was very addapted to our hike to Durmitor, the national park in the north of Montenegro and we started adapting this song with my co-hitchhiker/trecker/camper Alain and sing about our trip to the park. So we where singing about leaving Podgorica, getting into wilderness and nature in the park, asking cars to stop and take us along, far from this crazy town...

Alain is almost my neighbour, he lives right next to Annecy! He is a funny guy, a good travel compagnon and this is the begining of fun times and some great adventures! For both of us it is the first time we try to hitchhike with an other guy. Thoght it might be a little more difficult but in fact a guy driving a 4x4 Yugo (funny Nelly, who kindly drove us to the city outskirts, told us we d see plenty of those in the parks...) rapidly pulls over. Vladan is a sculptor, about 50-60 years old, hel tells us about his work/passion/art and shows us his small book. He is an orthodox like many people around here and has a very nice philosophy of life. He also works as an art teacher in Belgrade and for this to has a very nice aproach i tought.
Speaking about his work, the various asignments, i asked him what was his craziest job. He laughts and say "tombs". He then tells us about this rich guy with some crazy ideas. The man wanted to be able to see arc angel Gabriel once he would be buried in his tomb... So he asked the skulpter to make an icon so it can be buried above him and that he can see it for eternity ! Our driver said that it would be not able to see it in the ground, the coffin and earth between them would hide the icon so the work was usless... The client said he had the solution to this! His cousin, working in Germany is selling paint and has this very special fluoerescent paint! Ok said Vladan, so before i do the sculpture, we do a test, we both get in the coffin, burie some piece of marbour painted with your paint above us and if we see the bloc, i do the sculpture! "Bastard!!" said the client, loosing the illusion of seeing his arcangel for eternity....

Vladan also made us visite an orthodox monastary on the road:

Maraca Monsatary

He then droped us in Mojcovac where we have a long avaited luch, a classic, burek and jogurt! cheap, nutritive, fat n tasty! After this meal we get to the road driving up to Zabljak (hat on the z, speaks jhabiak). This is the start of 70 kms on an almost desert road, few cars pass and half of them are taxis offering us there services the othere half locals offering us there taxi servises... Finally a local, hudge guy stop and want to driv away when we say zabljak, I manage to hold him back and explain to him we will get there "malo po malo" its a good thing if he can just help us for a couple kilometers, there is only one road anyway... So he drives us 5 kms...
He dropes us next to the place where a farmer is cuting his grass using his sickle. After 40 mins the first car drives by and... does not stop :) we eat "duo keks" some sort of local prince and keep on singing stupid verions of Pierpoljak and other songs. Good times but slight desparation in this spot:

Deserted road....

End of this epic jurney tomorrow :)

Life in Podgorica

After chatting for a long while with Marko, the owner who is also working as a policeman, as a programmer and has opened a martial art school. I realise who hart i may be for people here to live, the programming job gives him 210 monthly €... so he has 3 other jobs... You might think life here is much much cheaper then in France or Switzerland but this is NOT true. Gas is almost the same price (maybe 10% difference), basic aliments like bread, flour, sugar or milk area little cheaper but only about 2 times...

After settling down in my room, taking a long awaited shower, i make my way to meet Maria, her boyfriend and Alain the Frenchmen surfing her couch. We have a great meal of cevapci, grilled meet, Kajmac (difficult to explain, it is like butter, but with a cheesy taste... it is made by boiling milk and taking the foam on top. Odlicno, Delicious), Ajvar (a paprika paste), some salad (Krupus of course, cabbage) and delicious fat fries! After that nice meal, we make our way to a jazz concert under a bridge.

Alain and Vuk (wolf in Sernian) drinkin beers and chillin the concert.

After that nice music, the music in the packed with hudge serbians (2m + and 120 kgs +...) night bars is a bit of a shock and i make my way to sleep. The next day is all walking around podgorica, getting to Marias flat, chillin, talking with Maria, Engel, Alain, the roommate Nelly, the student of Maria, Valdana. Some nice dinner, listening to the credence clearwater album i was offered, some more talking about politics, music etc...
Me and Alain have planned to trip a little together for the next days and go up north, to the Durmitor national park. So tomorrow we will start hitchhiking around 9 and try to get there by the evening. But know i am joining Vladana and her 2 friends for a couple beers in the city. Nice long and pleasant night out with those young people. The night will be short, tomorrow we are back on the road!

Froim Kotor to Podgorica.

I easily make my way to Budva (not budwieser ...) with a guy in a falling apart Yugo who think i ve "never seen shitty car like this" and who wants to rent me an apartment in Kotor which i am leaving. Then with a silent, sad faced taxi driver. Budva is ugly. Except for its old town, small and protected by high walls. This old town will have me traped by the rain, forced under an arcade, between two fancy shops.

Budva beach under the rain, just outside the scope of the picture, on the right hudge, modern, concret, russian owned hotels.

Since the rain does not seem to want to stop any time soon, i make my way to an internet caffee (with no coffee...) and search for a Couch to surf in Podgorica, the capital. I send a couple messages, join my mobil nummber and hope someone will send me a message...
As i get outside, the sun is back, i get some food, ask for the road to Podgorica and start to hitchhike again! After a long time in the disorder of cars stoping on the sideway to buy cigarets at the kiosk, cars honking, civil policemen asking for id and not carring because i m a stranger, two girls wanting to share a ride but not going the same ways, all this at a crossing on the main road, next to a bus station. Well i get a ride with a young guy in a "sports" car. The seats are sport seats unfit for classical seatbelts but not fited with sport seatbelts... Roring engine, banging music (he spoke no english but i could find out that 300W where in the trunk...) and a hudge pink cuddle bear on the back seat is what i remember from this trip during wich i fell asleep towards the end. I woke up just outside Podgorica, not so nice looking, neither promising city...
But i recived some message from the french teacher in Podgorica. Couchsurfing Maria already is hosting someone but gives me the address of a 10€ room.

Waiting for the meeting with the room owner a bit later, i chill in the sun by the river Moraca.

The view out of my room, shortly after this picture Gipsy will cross the playfround with their horse driven cart.

Kotor castles!

So that evening, Milian kindly made a detour from his route and droped me in Kotor where he introduced me to his friends. Since he had been driving since 3 this morning, he did not join us for a beer. His friends where very kind and welcoming, showing me the city, the places to be and explaining that here it is so small that everybody knows everybody. This might explain why the fancy dressed young girls looked a little perturbated by walking whith a stranger with a hudge backpack in the small streets of Kotor Stari grad (old town). So they might even have been some small talk about me :) I droped my bag in the car trunk and we go to one of them fancy bars. Expensiv drink, pop music, the girls love it, the guys decide to go and find something else: a pub with cheep beer and rock music :)

Around 1 am, my compagny has to go home, tomorrow is a working day. I take my bag and make a n attempt to get into the world famous (so i was told) "Maximus" nightclub ... As you could have expected this from a worldfamous club, they did not want to let me drop my bag at the cloakroom and i could not get a glance of the club and only got part of its banging electro sounds... A bit disapointed i made my way out of the old town finding a nice spot to sleep.

The Boka bay at 5 am. Early wakeup by some fisherman as usual when sleeping by the sea...

Walking up the Streets to the castle, not a soul up at this early time of the day!

The stairs along wich some brave venitian soldiars must have been defending the castle from the turks (i m guessing there, nobody was around to give me a history lesson but i know this castle was a Venitian forteress ...)The view on the bay from the top of the castle

Small Kotoran old town streets, rare delivery cars drive through theese streets in the mornings, you better not own a Hummer...

After last nights disapointment and the expensive price of nights here (100€ for hotel and no hostels...), i decide to make my way further... no idea where but away from here :)

Bol - Dubrovnik ??

[dadoudoudou dadadada ... Sting still sings in my head :) Last night, the real time last night not the blog time last night The Police where playing in Belgrade, nice show! I have to write a few posts to keepathe blog running but the sun is shining outside so i ll be brief, at least i ll try...]

So, After 5 or 6 very nice days in Bol doing all sorts of sports and taking a rest in that nice place i decided to move on. Sinice it is quite tiering to move all the time and i was happy to stay a bit longer in one place and am now fully pumped up with more energy and will to discover! (and my cloth are clean again!) I drop in at the windsurf camp to say goodbye and have one more chat with Vlado. Vlado was very kind to me, besides tips for windsurfing, he showed me his family's summer cottage in the hights of Bol. There his dad has a small wineyard and some olive trees. They make their own red wine and i got to taste my first red croatian wine and even got an whole bottle offered which i drank at the camping with some young an older guy from round the world, chatting about exil, beeing a refugee, politics and the sitation in the Balkans and much more....

So after saying goodbuy to Vlado at the windsurf camp, i wait for the showers to pass and get on my way! First hike with some polish people takes me to a village up on the island top where i try to find a nice local lamb grill but find only a hot chocolate, again waiting for the rain to pass... The next ride then takes me to Selca:

Leaving Selca

From there, the ferry will take me back on land, to Makarska. Small wonder in this city will prove once again that most smaller cities in Croatia have these small streets and this touch of anciant times. Very nice and easy.

Makarska main square.

Making my way to the main road however is not so easy... i walk through not so nice parts of Makarska and realize it is not all about the nice little center. After wainting for some time in the sun, by the road, a delivery truck stops and takes me along. The driver says he goes to Dubrovnik but he also getts further down to Tivat, Montenegro. We chat a lot, he is a very nice dude and convinces me to check out Kotor on a friday night, it will be party time for the young and the city is so nice... So i pass Dubrovnik, just getting a nice look of it at sunset.

The dark side of Dubrovnik, hudge Ferry, not so nice houses...

The brighter side, a bay with the old city everbody knows.

My longest ride so far! Thanks Milian! This pic is at sunset, at the border between Croatia and Montenegro.

Ok long enought for this post, more about Kotor tomorrow!

More Sun in Bol

After thunder storms in the past nights and the past day, the sun is back!Tourist coast :)

Sunning Tourists...

Basicaly this day i did more or less nothing... chiling, chating with Vlado and swimming. One more nice day of rest, tommorow i m on my way again, I plan to go to dubrovnik and then up the valley to Sarajeva, passing Mostar (as you see i didnt go as planed).

Bike in Bol

No wind again today so i ask Vlado, the very nice guy at the rental place, to give me a bike instead of the windsurfing gear today. He fixes me with a brand new mountain bike, an island map, some instructions about the paths, a pump and an extra air chamber. And go! I m a it late coz i spent the morning publishing some post for the blog... The weather is not ideal but at least its not to hot or so i think.
After about 4 km i stop to fill up the water bottles and chat a bit with the owner of a bed and breakfast. Very nice chat with one more very kind person! And then the first nice place, a stop for water and delicious sir (cheese), prosut (smoked ham) and olive oil, all local:

nice place for a break and a bit of local food!

On the way up, its pretty steep...

I m finaly up there on the plateau, the weather egets bader, bit of thuder in the distance, bit of rain here and there but nothing to stop me in me fast and furious ride :) So furious i burst a tire shortly after this picture. Good Vlado gave me an extra tire!

More or less the top, mystical view of the Brac island in the background!

The plateau and track at the top, some old roman water reserves here and a nice track. Music in the ears and speeeeeed!!! nice ride up here. So nice i got "lost" and did not take the right track, ending on the road earlier than i planed. It is not the first time i get lost today, poor map and poorly marked track (rather poorly marked crossings).

The deadliest turn in Croatia... its a bit dark (remember i have no more manual mode on the camera) but check out the car wrecks...

The end of that road was easy but very wet, it started poring down on me suddenly at the corner of a turn!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my 2 younger twin brothers!!

Thomas and Daniel, this is for you!

Bol is really an active holiday island: wind almost every day (ok not today...) nice weather, beautiful clay tennis courts (lots of them!) and beautiful bike tours around the island (more of that tomorrow...). In October it also possible to come here for olive picking and to enjoy nice weather and calm. Maybe something for you Thomas and Daniel ;) practice tennis, earn money, eat well and relax by the beach. And there is a Challenger in March :)

Chillin in Bol

A nice breakfast on the shore, local strawberries and yogurt. And sun of course :)

Not much today, this breakfast is not that of the day... i m far too tired to be up at that time :) . No wind so nothing to do. Really nothing special actually today... A day of nothing like you love em once in a while!

Windsurfing in Bol

The Wind is blowing on this second day so i make my way to one of the windsurfing rental places, get a package for 10 hours and start up. To be honest, I thought if was better than this and that it was easier than this. But i had a great tiem this moring. The wind was picking up and i had more and more troubles holding the sail :) after some 2-3 hours my hand started to get sore from pulling up the sail (yea no waterstart yet...) and i was getting real hungry.

Getting back on shore, Minna whom i first met this morning on the beach, making my way to the windsurfing while she was making hers to diving was around and we wet chillin onthe beach a bit further. Great chats with Minna who is a drug counsler (right words??) for heroin addicts. Lots of chatering about party, drugs and so on but alos about life, travels and squats. Yea she made me wonder how the rules are exactly in Switzerland because she and some friends have been squating a place legaly for some years now... So more chats, more sun, sunburns and a good dinner made that a full and nice day! Sunnset

The back streets of Bol.

The next day was a little less windy, it took a lot of time for the wind to pick up but it did slowly so i used this to practice maneuvers. Witch went better and better but are still far from perfect. I manage a "jibe" sort of but as soon as the wind gets strong it goes out of hand... So after a long day, many hours of practice, some more beers and a pleasant evening with Minna, i am exhausted and once again happy and satisfied with the day.

The arrival in Bol

The hike to Bol is fairly easy, a woman (second on that trip!) dropes me there :
From where i get a ride with Jure, a delivery man and his friend Damir. They are working exceptionally late on this Saturday and are telling me about life in Croatia. It ain't easy, working hard and getting little pay, but you have to take it when you have responsibilities, you have to earn the money somehow. I truly respect those guys and meeting and talking with people like them makes me realize how lucky i am to be able to do what i am doing. Most of you guys reading this should also realize this. After deliveing the hotel with some food:
I decide i will never eat an omelet in a hotel again... See those 5 big white packs, well they are the eags for breakfast and omelets... premixed into these 10kilo packs you can serve them just like you serve vine out of a "goon bag", using the valve. Appetizing isn't it?? The rest is all caned food, tomato concentrate, olives and tuna... On an island where tomatoes grow, olives are allover the place and the fish is right there this is just chocking... O and the yellow pack in the back on the right side, well thats for the German! precooked pre-sliced potatoes for there favorite salad! never travel in big hotels! As you will see in the next posts, i paid nothing close to what they pay and had great food, great vine and superb olive oil!
After the delivery, we had a bit more of a chat with Jure and Damir. "Slazem se" right? We just agreed on so many things! Would be really pleased if you leave a message or email me!
I them made my way to find a nice spot to sleep. I got a cocktail at the bar the German girls told me about. Chill out music, but the styling of the place should have warned me about what i got. An expensive cocktail, a condescended barman and a bit of a down in my mood after the great time with the delivery guys.
I then found a spot on the beach and had a bit of sleep looking forward to the windsurf tomorrow!

Finaly on Brac, Supetar

After having my dinner and beer i got on the ferry to Brac, finaly. There i met Two girls speeking german. One of them Serbo-croatian the other Greek (did i get this right?? :) ). After some exciting chat about travels, recomendation about travels between the croatian coast and Sarajevo, Ducha (is that how you spell it??) fixed me a room with her neighboor for a preferential price. It is always nice to live moment like that where everything works out and there is no need to ask yourself about where to go and what to do!
The room is great the owner full of care and experience. We have a couple cahts altought i dont always understand everything... Ducha is there for a bit of translation :) After a nice midnightwalk along the coast, i get one other nice and comfortable night of sleep!

Chillin!!

Thats what we did for most of the next day. Swiming and chillin' Around 4 however i decide i have to make i to Bol, the spot top be to windsurf! The wind is blowing pretty strongly now so it should be great!

They closed the Roof!!!

Trains in Croatia, no forbiden to ross the railway signs :)
Split Old town and new cars

Arriving in Split i am very excited to see this place again. Two years ago, it was madness here, i met Jean Seb and Thomas. Two graet frenshmen. On is now in Thailand and the other in New Caledonia (if you read this guys, leave a msg!!!). The city is the same, so many great memories, those bars are still there, the old city, the places we sat at night etc...

One of the great thing i did in my life and that i will never forget, are the nights on the roof with Tom and Seb! (check out some pics here : roof it is in frensh :) . So i was real excited, to get back up there and have a beer, thinking back about those times!

Bad surprise... the roof is closed.

Tom and J-S on the roof, back in the days...

Drinking that beer on the jetty... still thinking about those times! Hope you are fine wherever you are guys! Take care!

Revival!!

Yeahh the camera is back! was just a bad contact!

View from the hotel room!!!
The hotel, right on the marina!
Reading the news!! Thanks Xavier for that one! And thanks for the Room!

It is not completely back however, it can only shoot in the automatic mode. So no more black and whits, no more video, no more nice setting and nice pictures of sunset/sunrises... I ll have to find a solution to this...

I now make my way to Split... This will be an epic journey... First ride with an ice cream delivery man who does not speak a word of English but whom i surprisingly manage to understand... mostly :)

He drops me at a familiar place, the very same place i got stuck in 2 years ago, on the same road! but today the sun is shining, it is early, i will make it. I wait for the next ride learning a bit from my Croatian book. He arrives soon, before the bus the people at the station are waiting for! He is young has been to Lyon a couple times, nice dude! Remember he was waring his seatbelt i my attachment for it so i had no possibility of seatbelt, but who cares, we are in Croatia!

Next ride brings me from a shit spot to a nice spot with a beach, Fortunately coy it is middle of the day and getting hot again! Nice swim, cold beer before a other working young local picks me up for a couple kilomerters.

Sensing i am getting there to slowly, i catch the bus showing up 30 min later. To Split! On the way some strange bunker and nice views on the sea as always along this road.

More of Split tomorrow!

A Hotel in beograd

Hehe hope reading yesterdays message was not to long! I ll make i short for today!
I woke up early as always when sleeping outside, made some tee and had breakfast, packed and got back on the way. I Rapidly made it up out of the creek, and enjoyed the nice views remembering that i had no more camera witch made me feel a bit shit. I ll have to buy a new one... I rapidly forgot about this, made it passed a hut (not the one i was seeking) with bees to make honey all over the place. Then down the other canyon on the other side of the hill. The scenery is beautiful everywhere.
Down the end of the canyon, it is about 9 am and as i get to the exit of the park, most people make they way in... Most of them to climb. The bottom of this canyon is full off excellent equipped climbing tracks. I stop, get my climbing shoes on. Actually one of them because the toes on the other one hurt way to much to get into them tight shoes... So with one climbing shoe on i make a couple transversal at the bottom of the climbing wall. Too bad i cant get both on and ask one of the groups out here to secure me for one real climb.

I realize i was supposed to be short in this post...

I then cached a ride out of Staligrad to Biograd, further south, on the way to Split. There i strugle for about 2 or 3 hours to get a ride and finally catch a bus who kindly drops me into the city, It is that crazy hot time of the day again and i need a swim! i walk up the beach and see a Kite. Make my way up there where two guy are chatting, windsurf gear is rigged and a kit surfer is surfing. Again, no way to rent gear and loads of chats about trips, windsurf, ski etc... I am about to leave for a swim as i hear that "Salut, bonne route!", a Frenchman! the first in a long time :) We chat a bit. Xavier is a private jet pilot, about 28 i d say and he kindly invites me to share his hotel room. I was seeking a nice bed, shower and a bit of comfort after the two previous night but certainly did not expect this! Anyhow i accept the offer and after more chats with the windsurfing guys and a couple refreshing swims we make it to the restaurant with the other pilot and the hostess. Delicious dark risotto, some ice cream and a nice night of sleep in a real comfy bed! finally after two short hamac nights!

Sorry this got long again.. and without pictures,
tomorrow, surprise!!!!

The end of that day....

First off all thank to all of those who post encouraging comments, or messages on facebook, or mails!! Adli, i m sorry i checked before choosing the address but i still got it wrong.... So that everybody knows, it is Delhi not Dehli...

Now to the end of that day...
The drive with the guy from Rijeka... why does my memory have to fail that often with names... If you reed this, what was your name?? Anyway we spent the drive listening to Drum n Bass, talking about Berlin, Amsterdam, London, about the "Tresor" and other meccas of electronic musics:) He then dropped me at the entrance number two of the parc, since Marco did not mention the existence of two entries, i just piked one on random... It was all readz 8pm and since he told it ll take an hour and a half, i had a look at the map there, said goodbye to my ride (thanks again for dropping me right there!) and decided i had an hour and a half beforeit got dark and that i would make it to the hut in time (it was about the time Marco told me it would take). And anyway i m well equipped, it is not going to rain in the next day so i can sleep outside in the worst case i told myself... Since the office was closed, i wanted to make a picture of the big map, not to get lost. Surprise, my camera did not work anymore, i remembered now dropping it right after the last pictures you saw... So no picture of the map and no pictures of Paklenica...
I decided to go anyway, this is a tourist destination, i got food, something to sleep, there are water points all over the place so no reason to wait for tomorrow. And it ll save me the entrance fee since nobody is there. Five minuits on my way i just made it over that greenish 50cm snake without stepping on it... I v seen Aussie black snakes this tiny one is not gonna make me turn around :) The light is beautiful, i have no camera so i have to describe a bit of this, sorry if it gets long.... Its beautifully orange as it gets at sunset, the reddish clay and white rocks are just stunning.
The way up that creek, actually its more like a canyon is great. Slightly challenging with my 14kilo backpack in that dry riverbed. The stones are all washed, the track nicely marked, in fact it seems like stones have been arranged to make the way easy and comfy. To bad i m in a slight hurry because of darkness and that i have no camera to immortalize this. I keep making my way up the steeper and steeper path to that hut i still believe is within reach. Light gets dimer and the scene is unreal, the white stones reflect so much of the moon light and the marking remain well visible. After about an hour and a half walk it gets darker, and still no sight of a hut, i keep following the marks but see no signs with names... I get out my torch and decide to keep looking for the hut, it must be close! The scene gets surreel in that darkness with my led torch creating this whitish blueish light around me...
I have to face it, i have been walking for two hours, well over a normal rhythm despite the heavy pack, i m getting tired and wont make it to the hut. Even though i was prepared to this possibility i did not expect it to happen and it does not make me feel safe to be alone in this park, on a track but not exactly sure on which one... So i keep walkin and try to learn my lesson from this experience. As i hear a river sparkling, i decide this is the place to stop, i finaly found some water and a nice place from where i can see the stars and find 2 trees to put up my hamac. After getting of my completely wet clothes, putting on something warm, cooking up a hut dinner, i make myself comfortable in my hamac and keep thinking about lessons i could learn from this. I don't feel completely safe i have to admit, so i think about positive things, exhausted i rapidly fall asleep in the middle of that park sourounded by wilderness...

Sorry Mom and Dad, sorry Judith if this made you worry, believe it i learned my lesson. Though thinking back about that (now about 3 weeks later) i think the only thing i have done wrong was to be in a hurry and have an empty phone battery...

The longest day

I did not know this but this was about to be the longest day since the start of my trip. After a short ride taking me just out of the city, a nicer spot where i could watch the sunrise and wait for a better ride. This ride comes pretty soon. Jermio works in a refinery, he does 12h work, 24 h rest then 12h work, 48 rest and this all over the year. When he gets one of those breaks, he goes fishing. Harpoon fishing, apnee fishing. Its his passion and he indeed speaks very passionately about it. Very nice person. He is about 45, he tells me about fishing, a little about family and a lot about Credence Clearwater Revival. which he puts on as loud as it gets in his Renault.

He drops me at the point where he goes down to the see. It is still very early, about 8-9. I m hungry so i decide to drop my stuff and walk a little bit up on of those arid hills around. No track it s a bit like climbing among razor blades. Very nice. I have some of the bread and delicious sausages from the Rijeka market and take a couple pictures..

Shadows... :) The island in the back is pag, they make excellent cheeses there ! the sea was so calm you could see th reflection of pag in the sea !

I the got down and rapidly got an other ride closer to Nin, a place i wanted to visit 2 years ago but didn't have time to. Dont remember why but it was still there in the back of my head. Got to the right crossing with my ride, a cargo ship captain, with an ank tattooed on his arm -for real!- nice man no has a ship for tourists and drives them around. The next guy how will bring me into Nin is owner of bouchery and has 300 kilo of dead meet in the back of his car!

It is about 12 and i find a nice camping and info about a beach where there is a windsurf rental. Go! The place is unfoirtunatlz closes so i go to chat with the guys kite surfing a little further... One of them turns out to be the owner. He has no windsurf gear yet... In 3 days the seasons starts ! shit :) anyway i chat a bit with him and his friend who just got back from windsurfing in Maroco. We talk a lot about ski, surf, and climbing. They recommend the place i past a couple km before. Paklenica, it is a national park, worldly renowned for climbing and one of the guys who was taking a kite lesson drives past it on his way back to Rijeka!

I quikly make up my mind, i will visit this park tonight and sleep in a hut there! But that is an other story, to be told tomorrow :)

Getting stuck in Novi Vinodolski....

I left Rijeka though it was not easy, lots of feeling on my heart..

After a ride with a gay (i think...) guy who wanted to take me to a nice quiet beach on Krk (which i refused with a smile of course) I got an other ride with an old crazy dude (about 80) driving his automatic Fiat panda quit dangerously... He dropped me in Novi Vindolski, it did not know that , but this was the place i d get stuck in today...

The view of smoggy Rijeka from the road.

Beautiful calm and warm Novi Vinodolski.

N.V is a beautiful little Riviera, nice and quite, warm watter, not to many people and this small island with a building on it...

The harbor at sunset, i m still here...

I ll have dinner in a small Konoba, some grilled squid, delicious. And after the snapss on the hous i make my way to the beacj to find two trees to try out my hamac. I find them but the spot is not very wisely choose, young people driving by in scooters all night, too much lights and way to many birds waking me up for the first time around 3-4 and them for real around 4-5... I get up, get my stuff pšacked and get back on the road to get to Split. I decided i have to do some sport, lets windsurf. The girl from the tourist info told me down there is the best spot to windsurf in Croatia. Its called Bol. Lets go!!!

More Rijeka

Rijeka Skys
Rijeka Fish market
Rijeka Delta, the blood river... former border and location af many fights.

I satyed about 5 days in Rijeka, mostly at Dejans Gran mothers place. It was a very nice stay, if you read this Dejan, Thanks again! your welcome anytime wherever i am! Thanks to you, after 5 days i could meet people i knew on the street, have a coffee or beer with them, get some great advice or have discutions i will remeber! Hi to all of you he read this and thanks for the great time in Rijeka!

Rijeka sightseeing

Footpath under the streets.
Slightly falling apart buildings with style.

Nice city with its old buildings, its artistic footpath under streets, and its castle (A castle again!) from wich the view is amazing. It has about 140.000 inhabitants (+270.000 outside) and feel a bit like lausanne, you got water and hills all over the place.

View from the caslte.