Saturday, May 7, 2011 - Sibenik

Today is more sedate. We meet our guide, Vanya, from the local tourist office. She has the day at our disposal so we walk up and up many steep steps until we reach the main castle and from there we get a panoramic view of the harbour with the mediaeval city roof tops arranged below us. We immediately have problem with wind hitting the mikes and then we hear a loud buzz saw and hammering. We retire defeated and retrace our steps. Chatty Vanya speaks excellent English and is obliging and friendly. She takes us through a door into a small, walled, formal garden; she tells us it is the medicinal and culinary herb garden of the monastery of St Lawrence. It dates from the mediaeval period and has been restored to its former self with neat box hedging squares bordering the planting and a central paths transecting at a small water feature. The smell is enticing; lavender, rosemary, thyme, chives, marjoram, basil, chamomile and curry plant all scent the air, there is even some borage for a Pims cocktail.

With appetites stimulated we repair to a restaurant to eat a local feast of octopus salad followed by a marinated beef dish in a local sauce with gnocchi. We all decide that we must re-shoot the scene at the fort because of intrusive hammering noise. After coffee, we struggle up the steps again and re-shoot the sequence. It was well worth it, the late afternoon light was perfect and the noisy builders had stopped their hammering. We have a birds-eye view of the ancient city below us in its superb natural setting in a fine protected anchorage.

Before returning to Kalani, we walk round the 14^th and 15^th C Venetian cathedral with its famous barrel vaulted roof made entirely of mitered slabs of stone. The decorated doorway is supported by figures of Adam and Eve and around the outside façade of the apse are carved portrait busts of mediaeval worthies forming a frieze just above eye level. The whole is a fitting monument to the power and prestige of Sibenik in the Venetian period.

Sunday, 8^th May; Sibenik and Krka Park

Today, we are going to visit the Krka National Park. I’ve been looking forward to this part of the trip having read much about the beauty of the place. Our guide, Mariana Saric, meets us in front of the cathedral. She is reserved but businesslike; we climb into her car full of baby things and domestic clutter. At last we have a really hot day and we wish we had worn shorts; it is the time of year when each new day brings different weather. Her car has no air-conditioning, so we wind down all the windows.

The park entrance at Lozovac is about 15 kms away. The view from the road as it descends is wide and green with bare hills above overlooking the verdant valley below. We are in Karst Limestone country, the green of the river valley contrasts noticeably with the grey limestone hills. Once we are at the level of the drowned river valley floor and are inside the park; the world changes from arid to lush. The sound of birdsong is all around us competing with the loud croaking of a multitude of sexually excited frogs their cheeks bulging as though they are blowing bubble gum. As we walk further into the park along well-maintained boardwalks, the rumble of rushing and tumbling water drowns out even this sound; we are at the falls.

Layers of travertine form natural ledges over which the limpid waters rush in a series of steps. These are not the largest, tallest or most mighty falls but they present elements of all these superlatives and are certainly beautiful. Bright green weeds trail like tresses in the clear water and, hanging from the limestone rocks in the face of the falls, are mounds of a complementary bright green grass.

The river at this point is divided into many small channels and a millrace that feeds an old water mill. The mill has been restored and we are shown the six huge millstones; one is still grinding maize flower, perfect for polenta. There are two other rooms, the first a sort of laundry room with a natural whirlpool for washing cloth and the other with two large wooden mallets driven by the watermill that hammer, with a repetitive rhythm, the freshly laundered cloth in order to soften it.

We hurry back at last to greet our friends Michael and Lucinda Waterhouse who have already arrived on board.

Monday, May 9, 2011; Sibenik and Krka Park

Lucinda is not feeling very well and welcomes a chance to spend a quiet day reading. Derek, Michael and I head back to the Krka Park to explore the upper reaches beyond the Skradinski falls. Today is cold and a bit dull, quite unlike yesterday.

Michael is entranced by the birdsong we hear in the green woods by the riverbank. It is a medley of warbler song, blackcap, nightingale and the chorus provided by blackbirds. Great reed warblers sing their loud rasping song from the fringes of reed-bed that line the riverbanks. The scenery as we travel upstream is impressive, the boat passes through soaring gorges of naked limestone with the channel narrowing in places to little more than double the width of the boat.

We are taken up the river to a small round island, Visovac, with on it a Benedictine monastery from 15^th C but the four remaining monks are not happy for us to film them or their six noviciates.

The park rangers are all men and, like many Croatians, extremely tall, one must be over six foot four inches. They are not rude but not friendly either and only warm a bit when Michael chats to them in the universal male language of football; one that neither Derek nor I speak. Our guide, under the impression that we are Canadian tells me that she doesn’t care for the English; when I asked her why, she said English tourists are polite to her face but always complain behind her back. This may be so but, I would have thought, this must be preferable to tourists who complain angrily to her face and also behind her back. The general feeling I get is that Croatian men are rather short on charm or maybe it is a language problem. In many former communist countries the ethic of customer service has yet to penetrate. Croatia still seems beset by petty rules and is keen on notices everywhere that forbid something or other. The nicest of the rangers is the boat pilot who obligingly retraces our steps so that we can film some terrapins on the riverbank.

Although there are birds to be heard, the river seems short of bird life; a few mallard, dabchick and a pair of great crested grebe attract our attention and as we approach the orthodox monastery upstream, we see a flock of little egrets perching in the trees, other then these we don’t see much evidence of ornithological variety.

The ancient orthodox monastery of Krka has few monks and only one is prepared to meet us and show us around although he refuses for no evident reason to be filmed. He is a genial old bearded Serb, short in stature in contrast to the Croat men, who tells us he had to leave the monastery and flee for three years during the Serb-Croat war. He chuckles a lot and is by far the best-humoured man we have encountered, he is entirely simpatico and has excellent English. The monastery is built on an ancient early Christian catacomb that is only partially on view; it is undergoing restoration. The chapel is over-decorated in the orthodox manner with many old Russian Icons on the wall behind the altar and newly painted frescoes of two-dimensional saints depicted everywhere. The church is dedicated to St Michael, the archangel and winged warrior. It seems that the monastery was severely damaged in the recent war, which is why the frescoes are so fresh.

We return to Kalani to find that the wind is up and Captain Tim advises that we delay our departure until five o’clock tomorrow morning.

Although extremely tired from our long day, we have enough energy left to enjoy a superb meal cooked lovingly by Bruce, bean and leek soup followed by octopus risotto, the same octopus that we had bought from a fisherman about ten days ago. It had been left to soften in the freezer and then stewed slowly in a pot with red wine for over two hours.