Friday, June 22, 2007
Saturday 12th May
After another free fish on the Friday and an invasion of the ants on Saturday we set off for Novigrad 2 hours drive further north than Split. My Dad was coming to visit for a week so Jon picked him up from the airport. We spent Sunday chilling out with Dad learning caravan etiquette and the boys relishing in having someone else’s attention.
Monday 14th May
Novigrad is a small fishing village situated on an inland sea with a small inlet to the wider sea. The village suffered a little in the recent war and is not particularly picturesque; it has not become a tourist trap yet and in places looks slightly ramshackle. However, the setting is beautiful, the people are friendly and the reality of the place gives it it’s own charm. High on a hill there is a broken down fortress, to get to it there is a steep and interesting climb with many dangerous bits for children and grandfathers in flip flops to fall to their deaths. Luckily this did not happen!
Tuesday 15th May
Close by there is National Park Palenica a favoured haunt for rock climbers. As you enter the park you are instantly thrust into a deep gorge with a refreshing tree lined mountain stream running through on one side. On each visible rock face there were climbers clinging and ropes dangling, the boys enjoyed watching and couldn’t understand why we couldn’t do it. On our walk we saw some tadpoles (well the boys enjoyed it!) two really big Common European Toads, some Alpine swifts and a blue and red lizard that looked rather exotic. The park boasts having wolves and brown bears and although a glimpse of these, from a very safe distance, would have rounded the day off nicely we did not feel too disappointed.
Wednesday 16th May
Not content with walking the previous day we took Dad to Vransko Jezero (a lake). We went for a walk along a cycling route and saw some bee eaters, a buzzard, a hoopoe and many others that could not be distinguished, later on we also saw a tortoise, but we were not sure if it was wild or a pet runaway.
Thursday 17th May
We couldn’t have Dad come to Croatia and not take him to one of the islands, we chose Ugljan, also connected to Pasman by a small bridge. We had lunch by the quayside at Zadar and then hopped onto the Ferry. We drove up to the highest point on Ugljan and climbed the last 10 minutes up a narrow and steep and rocky path to the ruined fortress on top, which also houses the TV tower. You would think we had had enough of Fortresses by now! Again safety is for the concern of the visitor. The view is very good from the top and I was glad Dad got the chance to see it. After this we stopped off at a few fishing villages, in one we saw a ship yard bringing derelict boats back to life but apart from that and the views there was little of interest on these two islands and it has to be said that Hvar was certainly more picturesque.
