Day 171: Friday 5 September – Duga Resa to Plitvićka Jezera, by Ken

Looking up through the skylight over our bed we could see a hint of blue sky through high white stratus. Aircraft vapour trails were clearly visible. It boded well for our first fine day in Croatia.

Mable, 2nd On Left At A Cramped Duga Resa Camping Ground

German Caravan Made Mabel Look Palatial

I skipped breakfast as my stomach felt less than ideal. After Jane had eaten we drove into Duga Resa to visit the local NTL supermarket. It was well stocked and had everything we needed except a box of tissues for Jane. As in Serbia, tissues were only available as small multipacks. Lots of men were shopping with their partners and we wondered whether that was an indication they were not working.

By the time we returned to Mabel the sky had returned to a heavy grey overcast. We had noticed when we got up that the area where Sam and Sheena had pitched their tent was completely underwater. 90 minutes later when we returned from the supermarket the water was noticeably higher and the river was now flowing through the area.

Area Where Sam And Sheena Pitched Their Tent Was Now Completely Under Water

And The River Was Flowing Through Te Area

I visited reception to pay and noticed the camping ground had received ‘Best in Croatia’ awards for the last 5 years. Also, it was possible to go rafting on the river. I thought they should be capitalising  on the weather and advertising it was now possible to go rafting without leaving the camping ground.

Jane had found there was good wi-fi reception by the waters edge and sat in a covered barbeque area posting on Facebook. She checked Sam and Sheena’s site and found photographs of them wading through floodwater pushing their bikes. They were certainly having a tough time and we were very fortunate to be travelling in Mabel. By the time Jane had finished water was lapping against the barbeque area.

With a trip of less than 100km today I did all the driving. Our route took us back to Karlovac where we turned south on a two lane road. We travelled along a bank of the Mrežnički river for a while. It was a wide raging torrent and looked to be close to flooding the road. Farmland and crops were underwater. The road climbed steadily into forested hills and traffic was light but I did the decent thing and pulled over three or four times to let our ducklings pass.

We arrived at Autocamp Korana in Plitvićka Jezera, a small town close to the Border with Bosnia, shortly before 12:30. The two men in reception were wearing suits and ties and the man I dealt with had very good English. It was a case of parking wherever we liked. The camping ground had a perimeter road, lengths of which were widened to provide parking for motorhomes. The few vehicles already there were parked close to each other at 90° to the road. We did a circuit and picked a spot close to the facilities which unfortunately put us a long way from the café, the only place in the ground with wi-fi.

We ate lunch of cheese on toast topped with fiery baked beans having found that was the best way of using up the tasteless Bulgarian cheese we had bought. After lunch Jane lay down for a snooze and I wrote up the blog.

I cooked a chicken, mushroom and pea risotto for our dinner, it took rather a long time and it was 20:00 before we ate. Afterwards we played Scrabble which I won 311 to 242.

Over the course of the evening a steady stream of camper vans arrived. It looked as though all the available pitches were taken as the late arrivals began parking on the road nearby.

As we climbed into bed heavy rain was bouncing off Mabel’s roof, we wondered whether it was ever going to stop raining in Croatia.