Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Sibenik, Croatia - NP Krka Waterfalls & Walking Tour - April 8

Well, I guess I was feeling something coming on yesterday afternoon as I was up for several hours last night barfing my guts up. Luckily, it stopped and I was able to get back to sleep. By morning I was still queasy and didn’t eat much for breakfast and popped a few packets of saltines in my purse for the tour. 

The sail in today was beautiful through a very narrow strait, with people fishing along the shore and we even saw beautiful swans swimming along.

 this was actually seen on the sail out, but it seemed more fitting here....
 sail in










 arrival at port




The private tour I had set up for today had been booked with Split Excursions through Portal Travel and they had been responsive and helpful in setting it up. www.split-excursions.com 

Our driver was Tito and our guide was Igor. He turned out to be a very good guide and he was helpful in identifying various plants and birds along the hiking trails. 

Today we were joined by Karen & Steve, Julie & Jeff and Rick & Janie. It made for a fun day. Karen also had been up all night with coughing. We are troopers and powered through the day!

It was a beautiful warm day and it was pleasant to be out in nature. Birds were singing and the surroundings were just so peaceful and beautiful. I had seen the photos of the Falls, but I had no idea that there were so many. In fact, Skradinski Buk Falls is a series of close-set cascades which is a powerful network of waterfalls some at over 75 vertical feet.

We started out driving through Sibenik (pronounces Shi’benik) and we had some amazing panoramic views of the countryside.





We arrived at the National Park where there were nice walking paths and a couple of small museums and we saw the water mills. We walked along the trails of Skradinski buk (the iconic photos you see) and Roski slap. Buk & Slap mean waterfall and the different names signify the size of the Falls.













 Greg






 Jeff, Julie, Annette



















 St. Nicholas Church






 Skradinski buk













 Igor showing us plants








 Steve & Karen




We had the option of taking a small boat out to a beautiful very small island (Visovac Island) that is home to a monastery, but it would take up quite a bit of our time and we opted to spend more time seeing the different areas of the falls.

 driving to see Visovac Island





 Fortress ruins at the back of the canyon











stop to see Visovac Island
 Visovac Island from the lookout 
 close up of the island & the monastery 



 statue at the lookout




our van
 drive to lunch



We had lunch in a traditional tavern close to Roski slap where the owners brought out platters of traditional Croatian food (prosciutto, sausage, dried beef, cheese, hearty bread, olives, pickles and wine and local fruits and vegetables). The meats and cheeses were wonderful (all homemade) and it was all you could possibly eat. We had olive oil to drip the bread and there were free flowing red and white wines. Oh, and more grappa. We tried the sour cherry which was strong, but tasty. My stomach was feeling stronger and it felt good to eat some bread and meats. These are always some of my favorite meals where you get samples of lots of things, simple and tasty and in a lovely setting with good friends.

 the restaurant


 who wants some grappa?




 Greg, Julie, Jeff, Tito, Karen, Steve, Janie, Rick
 Tito, our driver with the wine
 owner sits in the same spot that his father before him did


We did some more walking around the National Park before driving back to have a short walking tour of Sibenik.














 tiny orchid






 Greg climbed part way up
 


 the group waving at Greg

 drive back to the port





We saw the harbor and the Cathedral of St. Jacob. Of course there is way more we could have seen in town, but our walking tour of the town was short, but Krka National Park was worth spending more time to experience.

 our ship in port








Church of St. Nicholas is only open a couple days of the year and Igor said he had never seen it open, so we popped in










 Cathedral of St. Jacob











Sail out was beautiful through the narrow strait.

















After dinner we went to see the comedy show which was John Caponera “the Sports Guy” He was “OK”. 

We came back to the cabin and uploaded photos and after 8 straight days of tours we were exhausted and went to bed early. Plus, I was still a bit weak from being sick. Only one sea day to rest before 2 more ports in a row.

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