Saturday, August 30, 2008

All Things Plum


Day 338
Rastoke (Slunj) to Rastovača
Time: 2:22:00
Distance: 30.3 kilometers
Avg Speed: 12.8
Terrain: Rolling Hills
Location: 44˚ 54’ 33.15” N, 15˚ 36’ 34.10” E

It must be plum season here in Croatia. Last night we had the šljivovica and this morning we had a fresh plate of plum jam. It was actually the consistency of apple butter – very tasty. Chris and I managed to annihilate the entire plate of fresh bread just to make sure the fruity spread was used in its entirety. The wonderful little breakfast also included eggs, smoked meats and blintzes. All of these items were homemade and, as you can imagine, we were giddy like school children.
We weren’t in a rush to get on the road today as we only had 30 km or so to our next stop. We enjoyed a third cup of coffee on the bridge and then got the bicycles loaded. By 9 am we were headed south towards Plitvička National Park. There was no aggressive pedaling and we enjoyed looking at the heavily forested countryside. I was not expecting this sort of landscape in Croatia. It’s definitely a “getting back to nature” sort of area.
We planned to see how close we could get to the park without having to ride too much to the entrance tomorrow. Our last day off hiking was a bit too much so we’re going to try a different strategy. As luck would have it, we found a really nice guesthouse about 5 minutes away. We scoped out all of the logistics this afternoon at the park entrance and will get an early start in the morning. The main draw of the park is a series of lakes which are connected by cascading waterfalls. The park was formed in 1949 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage area.

Happy Thursday,
LK

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