Relax, it's all downhill from here!

So, after having four more tents set up around us last night, loaded with teens and twenties, I was understandably worried that sleep would be non existent. Imagine my surprise to have the best sleep of the trip so far.  The sound of the water running over the rocks may have helped drown out any noise, but in general I think everyone was just more considerate. When Julia got up at 1.30am for the loo, there were still guys at the bar, but she didn't hear any shouting or loud talking/laughing as we have done elsewhere.  Having decided last night that we will stay another night, just to plan our best route forward, we woke and whilst Julia looked at options, I read the novel Julia had found, written in English at the Plitvice camp and given me as a surprise on my birthday. So far, not a bad read. The temperature was 24 degrees early on and the mist sat low over the water. With similar temps all week, we will probably have mist every morning so will be interesting to travel these ...

Five..Four..Three.. Two..One Thunderbirds are go...........  Bang on 6am I woke and began packing up. I'd said to Julia last night that if we got up at 6am, we'd be away and at the supermarket along the highway, by 7am.  And so, it came to pass. That they entered the holy sliding doors at 7am, as was foretold.  Took a side road as the main road is truly a nightmare. However, as is quite often the case, we were soon back on the nightmare main road as the side road turned ugly, as in potholed gravel. Even though it was only 7.30am on a Saturday morning, there were plenty of cars and trucks, quite happy to pass us with oncoming traffic. Fortunately, the further we got from Bihac, the less traffic there was. Of our first 20kms, 17kms was uphill. It was a steady gradient but when we reached a covered bench and table at Entrance 1 for Una National Park, the sweat was well and truly showing on our entire outfits.  At this particular entrance there was an old guy, redirectin...

Woke at 1.08 am last night to sounds outside the tent. Turns our it was a dog. He was scavenging for food around the tent and also in the covered eating bay. Got out and chased him off.  Back to bed and put my polar fleece on as well as having my cycling longs on and socks. My next purchase is going to be a silk liner, if they've got any here, as mine has more holes than material now. I know a lot of people don't like them, but they do protect your sleeping bag and keep you warmer.  Yesterday, I forgot to mention that we were chased by three medium sized dogs, outside an old farm property. And dogs around this camp were barking throughout the night. We'll have to be careful with them as there seem to be a lot of strays. One older looking dog outside the supermarket, looked like he may be living there and customers feeding him perhaps.  We have heard that when Bosnians go on holiday, they just turn their dogs loose to fend for themselves. Looking at some of the dogs, I can...

After waking from a restful sleep at 11.39pm, to a young Dutch couple talking and laughing loudly, I yelled out to them to “Give it a rest" and they promptly did.  Then I had this woman sleeping next to me moaning about shutting the flysheet door, because she was too cold. Because it was Julia, and because it dropped to 11C overnight, I did shut the door. The tent, as you may imagine was sodden this morning, but over the course of a few hours, we dried it out before we left. Never heard a peep out of the Dutchies.  Getting packed up at the Primavera Plitvice campground. It was a nice relaxed morning chatting firstly with brother Dave and then with Brody. Great to get the news from the last week or so. We had six eggs to use up so boiled them for our breakfast which I was able to put on buns. Ju just had eggs. Finally, packed and loaded, we hit the road at 10.20am.  Left Saborsko and cycled along the road where we had been picking up rubbish yesterday. Worked out that we c...

Awake at 5.30am. Finished yesterday's blog and sorted through the front bag removing anything I didn't need to take to Plitvice Lakes.  Rode down to the shop for 6.50am, hoping she would let us in early....No chance. 7am means 7am...  Bought some yoghurt and bananas, to go with our prunes, muesli and walnuts and I bought a bun, which I also put banana on. Raced back to camp and threw the food down us, before meeting Matt from reception, who was taking us to Plitvice.  The drive took about twenty five minutes but didn't seem that long as Matt had some very entertaining stories. He dropped us at entrance 2, as Nigel thought this was the best place to start. Climbed out and walked over a bridge down to a bus stop, where the bus picks you up and transports you to the start of your adventure.  Different entrances and different routes to choose from.  We used the "H" route and began as soon as we got off the bus. By this time it was 8.30am and absolutely chocka. One h...