Week 38: One sea urchin, a million mosquitos and an impressive slap!
- May 23, 2022
- 5 min read
Our stops this week:
2 nights at Camp Skradinski Delicije (near the Krka National Park)
5 nights at Kamp Jasenovo (near Sibenik)
On Monday morning we packed up and left Vransko lake, in search of the Krka national park. It was only a short half hour drive until we arrived at the campsite but it was mid-afternoon, the air was completely still and it was baking hot! I was starting to wish it had been a longer drive, so we could run the air-con in the cab for a bit longer. We managed to find the only pitch with any shade but even then it was so hot all we could do was sit in the shade and stay very still. Bear eventually got the idea that this was an afternoon for resting and not dashing about!
The next morning we got up early and set-off into the heart the national park.. we had a choice of catching a boat from the centre of Skradin, or walking about 4km along the the river, the boat only runs once an hour, so we thought we’d go for the first one of the day, however as we got close to the pier we noticed a couple of coaches drive past and we changed our mind, it was still early in the day and cool enough to enjoy the walk, much easier than trying to contain Bear on a packed boat!
We didn’t see another person on the whole walk into the park, aside from a park ranger at the ticket office who told us it was too early and we could buy a ticket when we got further into the park. As we walked on we could hear a droning sound that got louder and louder, after a few minutes we realised that we could hear the spectacular Skradinski Buk… in Croatian a waterfall is called a “Slap” but “Buk” means noise, which in this case made perfect sense.
It was worth the walk, the waterfall was beautiful and there were just a handful of people milling around, so we felt good about the getting up early and not catching the boat.
As we walked along the boardwalk above the main waterfall we could hear another loud noise but this time it definitely wasn’t a slap, it was lots and lots of noisy frogs. We took a lot of photos in the park… but Yvette got slightly obsessed with finding and taking pics of the frogs! Here are just a few pics and videos of the flora and fauna...
The last picture is of a turtle in the river, although it looks like it's up a tree!
It's worth playing the videos with the sound on... I've never seen a frog puff it's cheeks out like that before.
As we left the park for the walk back to the campsite, it was starting to get very busy, another good reason for the early start. Twelve kilometres later and five hours after setting off we made it back to the van and the afternoon was starting to heat-up again, this time we knew the drill, find shade and stay still… this was even easier for Bear after such a long walk.
Whilst the Krka national park itself was stunning the town of Skradin is probably the most commercialised place we've been to in Croatia so far, it was all very nice... pretty streets, riverside views and not any litter in sight, but it felt a bit like a conveyor belt of carparks, hotels, bars and restaurants to turn around the invasion of visiting tourists and this wasn't even the busy season.
The following day we set-off back down the coast, I had a couple of campsites in mind as not sure what to expect, so we agreed to stop at the first one and try it for one night to see if we liked it… we ended up staying the rest of the week, so it worked out pretty well. It’s only a small campsite, by Croatian standards, probably about 60 pitches and only a handful of other campers staying. The campsite is set in a pine forest right by the beach, offering lots of shade and only a few miles away from a small village with a few shops and cafes.
The view from the beach and the local town.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and decided to go for a swim, the sea has really warmed up over the last few weeks and now feels warm from the second you step into the water, not quite bath temperature but getting there. I was keen to try out my new birthday present, flippers (thanks Mum and Bob) and Yvette hasn’t swum for ages… it was all going so well, I was happily snorkelling around looking for fish and Yvette was swimming lengths of the bay! As we got out Yvette looked at me and said “I think I’ve scraped my foot on a rock”… although the rock turned out to be a sea urchin!
We dashed (probably more like ambled) back to the van to have a closer look… Yvette had about a dozen little bits of sea urchin spikes stuck in her foot, so we consulted google on what to do. Google wasn’t particularly helpful, some websites suggested that sea urchins were deadly and immediate medical attention was required, others said don’t worry but soak the skin in hot water, with some vinegar… I didn’t mention the deadly bit to Yvette and suggested we tried some hot water and vinegar, Yvette gave me a particularly unimpressed look, when I asked if she’d like balsamic or malt vinegar!
While Yvette was soaking her foot, I did the next most logical thing… and went to the bar (!), here I found the campsite owner, who thankfully spoke perfect English, I explained what had happened and he said “ohhh don’t worry this happens all the time, wait here and I will bring you something to help”… I was feeling much better, a few minutes later he emerged from the kitchen with a small cup of olive oil, not exactly what I was expecting! He then suggested leaving the spikes in place and covering the skin with olive oil until the spikes make their own way out in a few days...
It’s now Monday and I’m pleased to report that all but one of the urchin spikes is out, although Yvette ran out of patience with the olive oil and resorted to some tweezers and a needle! Although we have now got a good collection of mosquito bites between us, for some reason the mozzies have been very active for the last few days and they clearly like tasty English tourists!
Our pitch and some underwater pics... there's a fish hiding in the middle one and some sea urchins in the last one!
After the urchin drama, the remainder of the week has been very relaxing, we’ve been out for a few walks and bike rides, back in the sea swimming and snorkelling (although Yvette now wears my wet-suit boots)… I’ve even had a chance to test out another one of my birthday presents from Yvette…
Laundry day... and Bear just checking that we got everything out the laundry bin!
Thanks mum and Bob for treating us to a birthday pizza and ice cream although we couldn't manage both on the same day, but more importantly....
The hammock looks like an inspired success and glad the sea urchins were not so bad after all!