Publikuar: 16.01.2019
Originally, I had considered going further into the wild nature, along the rivers..along the water..this looked so promising on the first train ride..turquoise colored water and brightly green forests..
However, the mine maps (landmines) made me change my mind and wild camping wasn't really appealing to me either.
So I continued towards the national park, through towns that have hardly seen a tourist, where parents & children waved at me, a priest blessed me (even if I didn't understand him, it must have happened 😇), towns with many abandoned, destroyed or decaying houses, towns that are developed for cycling tourism, towns with deserted train stations where the railway staff hid behind a window and a curtain, the entrance area looks ancient yet swept, at these train stations where the telephone still sounds like 1980 (?), towns that have an incredible silence amidst and surrounded by a lot of nature, chickens in the front yards, wood being chopped and stacked for the winter, I'm not allowed to enter the post office shortly before closing time, gas stations where English no longer gets you any further, but even if the Croats occasionally seem very seriously and sullenly detached/resigned in my eyes, they were all helpful in every way.
Towns that resemble rural Bavarian flair. Towns with dried-up river beds. Towns with destroyed factories and refugee accommodations. Towns with large roadside stands. They offer pumpkins, potatoes, onions and much more. Today I walk about 11 km on foot. I drive 18 km, about 30 minutes with the colorful wagon through the country.
Everything seems as it should be. History meets nature. And nature has endless expanses to offer that are unused. It is also hilly to mountainous, especially near the park and later as I get closer to the sea.
It's getting dark soon, I'm still on my way to the national park. Considered asking some residents if I can pitch my tent in their garden. They all have very large gardens here and usually a dog.
But then I met Karl, 60 years old with his red VW bus. We talked and assessed the danger posed by each other or not. 😉 Apparently, we both passed the mutual check, so that we reached a really nice campsite near the national park already in the dark. On the way there, about 45 km, I was a little nostalgic at times that these great scenic pictures were now rushing past me, including a church, in front of it a turquoise pond with 2 bathers (they were naked. 😁) surrounded by brightly green forests and rocks. And all this at sunset. On the other hand, I was also a little relieved that I didn't have to climb these gigantic mountain climbs with my still too heavy backpack.
Set up tent in the dark on a slope. It only helped to push the backpack to the foot of the bed to periodically push off and stretch out the whole length of the body at night. 😅 The nights are getting colder. Around 5°C.