Festivals and Events Wmc Night of Gulpen Carnival Holidays & celebrations Videos   Guestbook Contact

About our website Overview On holiday Balkans Balkan top 10 Camping Day trips City trips

<<< The first destination of our tour across the Balkans: journey to Zagreb, capital of Croatia

Travel to Makarska with a two night stay and a visit to one of our favorite destinations and attractions, mount Sveti Jure >>>

Overnight stay in Starigrad and a walk in Paklenica national park in Croatia

Hotel Vienna in Zagreb was not bad and breakfast was okay. Then we continued our journey, although we changed our plans. If Sarajevo was going to be our next destination, it would mean that we would have to drive another 450 kilometres, of which the greater part would be off motorways. Going down South 250 kilometres towards Zadar and the Adriatic coast was going to take us perhaps 3 hours. And national park Starigrad Paklenica was on top of our list. None of us wanted to spent another whole day in the car, so the direction was going to be northern Dalmatia. After a two hours trip we left motorway A1 at Gospić and continued our journey on the road D25 to Karlobag, which is said to be an interesting road as far is comes to landscapes and panoramic views. Though it was very cloudy, we could imagine that on sunny days you would be able to shoot beautiful photos. We tried it too :-)
In Karlobag we found a nice restaurant near the water, where we had a delayed lunch.

After a short walk along the seaside we continued our travel and soon we reached Starigrad. Immediately we saw the signs pointing us to the entrance of the Paklenica national park and of course we could not resist, though the weather was still cloudy. The entrance fee was going to be 40 kn. Then we went back to the living world and the main street of Starigrad and turned right and after the Ina petrol station turned right once again. There we found an apartment for the overnight stay on the following 2 nights with the Šikić family. Really nice open minded people, that were in for some conversations and discussions. They invited us to some some domestic drinks, before we were allowed to have dinner in town. Restaurant Lucija was recommended by them and it really was a good choice. We had a good sleep, but sometimes the webmaster heard coming down. Then morning broke and it was the day that we were going to explore Paklenica national park and the gorge. The rain had stopped though there was no sunshine yet. We decided to take the risk, though there was an option to visit the national park at the end of the holiday. We were lucky, because rain was going to stay way and after noon turned out to be a quite sunshiny part of the day. We were quite used to some long distance walks, but having not had any relevant training anymore in the past 2 years, we noticed that we took a rest more often than we were used to. But on the other hand, we started our walk from the overnight stay address and left our car there, and furthermore, we are photographers and we stand more frequently, compared to sportsmen for example. We paid the fee at the entrance og the national park, 40 kn. Along the route along Paklenica river towards our goal Planinarski dom Paklenica , the mountain hut of Paklenica, there were several sources with fresh drinking water to be found. Some parts of the trail were quite steep, which reminded us of our annual long distance walks in our province of Limburg, the Night of Gulpen.. From the higher areas of the park, e.g. the mountain hut on an altitude of about 500 meters above sea level, you have a spectacular view over the gorge. Paklenica national park is a favourite destination for mountaineers. A famous and favourite challenge is the rocky wall of the Velebit peak Anića kuk. On our way back through the park we could watch some daredevils at work, hanging on the walls. The day ended with a cloudburst, while we were having dinner in pizzeria Tomato.

 

© Jos van der Burgt