This morning our group went out first to Salisbury Plain. More king penguins than you can poke a stick at, in varying degrees of maturity, eggs, brown fluffy chicks, moulting chicks, and parents. We saw a white penguin but did not get a chance to photograph it, managed a black one on the return to the zodiac. I watched a giant petrel swoop down amongst them, but did not see it leave. I was hoping for a picture of it carting its dinner away. Fur seals of all ages, even mothers with their babies suckling. They make a fair noise if you get too close. The elephant seals are huge, scary even if they don’t move all that fast. We saw a giant petrel nesting with her young. After nearly 2 hours wandering around the colony, avoiding the seals, we took to the zodiacs and cruised along the beach. There were penguins and seals swimming quite close to the boat. The birds were quite amazing to watch, giant petrels ripping their prey to pieces, and some smaller birds virtually dancing on the water. The wind had picked up for the ride back to the boat, so I was rather pleased to have my custom made balaclava. (Extremely bumpy ride back)
The afternoon at Prion Island. Nesting giant petrels and albatrosses. Saw some courting dances. There was a very friendly young seal who wanted to follow Ewen home. Good close up shot of a giant petrel. Grey and white penguin. (really just juvenile penguins before their final moulting)
alias Templeton Travel Tales – Spirit of Shackleton
Ms Expedition – home for nearly 3 weeks
Thursday 10 January 2013
It has taken over a day to get to Buenos Aires with 3 flights, nearly 4 hours to Auckland, close to 11 hours to Santiago, and another 2 hours to Buenos Aires. All flights were unremarkable, very little turbulence, quiet and the food was of a reasonable standard.
We were looking out for our fellow expeditioner Wendy from Melbourne. There were a couple of candidates. We met a couple from Research who were headed on another cruise. Apparently they had the same reaction the announcement asking if there was a doctor on board 2 hours out from Auckland. Luckily did not have to return to Auckland. We endured another stopover, this one in Santiago. Interesting sandwich for lunch, white cheese, tomato, spinach and green beans. We were happy to be on our way again albeit a little late for the 2 hour trip to Buenos Aires. The customs form handed out caused a little concern especially the bit about tax on goods totalling over $us 300. Ewen choose the option to plead noncomprehende and fortunately we were never asked for the form when we arrived. The only issue was the reciprocity fee form; apparently we had entered the wrong expiry date in the online form. Eventually escaped the arrivals hall and found our transfer to the hotel.
Buenos Aires was very warm and humid and it was a relief to eventually settle into our room at Hotel Melia. Dinner at the steakhouse nearby was exceptionally good, only wished we had taken a picture of the food; fantastic Angus steak for Ewen and pork fillet for me, both served with grilled vegetables. Excellent sav blanc from the Mendoza region in Argentina.
Friday 11 January
Early start today, 4am for 4.30am pick up for 6.40am flight. Four hours to Ushuaia. In flight breakfast was a tiny pack of savoury shapes, and two different chocolate biscuits washed down with apple juice and a cup of tea. Waiting for our luggage in Ushuaia I caught the eye of the only person I recognised from our earlier flights and correctly deduced it was Wendy from the blog. The Gap Adventure people were well organised with transport and it wasn’t long before we were checking in at the Hotel Albatros. Wendy joined us to explore the sights of Ushuaia. Found several possibilities for dinner, including the Irish Pub. Temperature was about 11deg c and extremely windy and it was good when we eventually reached the refuge of our rooms. (in the dungeon but quiet.)
6pm briefing. We met up with the other expeditioners and Ewen headed out to dinner with 8 women (including me). Pizza and beer.
Saturday 12 January
Tour this morning to the Tierra del Fuego national park. The mountain range rose steeply above the coastal area and quite striking – grey black rock topped in parts with snow. We visited the park office and collected a special stamp in our passports. Also saw sights of Yamani (indigenous people) middens. Vegetation was similar to the beech forests of South Island of NZ. There was evidence of beaver destruction everywhere. Apparently they build dams and consequently the trees drown as they don’t like their roots in the water. We also saw some upland geese and several varieties of orchids ,as well as snow drops, ferns and mistletoe.
Returned to Ushuaia and time was spent looking for a hardware store as Ewen’s you beaut power board plug did not fit the outlets in the hotel. It was Saturday so they weren’t open. Decided to spend our money at the souvenir shop and bought some penguins (black and pink- special stone in Argentina).
Back at the hotel we waited for buses to take us to the boat. We could have walked as it was only 200metres at the most. Quite happy with our room. We have a large window a whole 450 X 750 mm, although they need to clean the outside a bit more often.
Ewen and I went to check out the mud room after dinner (meals are very good) and saw the crew making preparations for the pilot to disembark – a rope ladder tied to the door frame. I scampered upstairs to see if I could get and outside view. Watched the speed boat come along side and the pilot step off our boat onto it. Hoping to get a copy of Stuart’s photo. He caught the exact moment in time.
Hunt 1 on 2M was located just south of the Eastern Freeway just East of Doncaster road. Those who were at Geoffs Tuesday night Orienteering event will realise that this spot was inspired by control 17. The hunt was clearly won by the FAST team with CI and FOX 2nd and 3rd, 5 and 6 minutes later respectively. I had 2 calls from different members of the BLN team asking for directions to the fox as they were having trouble hearing it. This made me wonder if there was any communication between team members…….. Their result on this hunt would suggest not, or were they just missing dog. Or perhaps the turbo on Subaru was playing up
Hunt 2 on 70cm was in a narrow unmarked pathway on the Northern side of the Doncaster swimming pool. The hunt was narrowly won by VK3BLN closely followed by the FOX team and then FAST and CI. The TXO team placing’s were starting to fit a pattern at this stage. The lane on the South side has been used before but I didn’t think the Northern one had been. Perhaps someone could correct me on this one.
Hunt 3 on 70cm started as a mobile hunt with Henk driving around the South side of Ruffey Lake Park and ending up in the Northern car park. The hunt was narrowly won by The FAST team, very closely followed by the FOX and CI teams, then a gap to BLN and TXO.
Hunt 4 was a modified 2M ARDF event. We thought this was worth a try for something different. To allow team members to swap runners a runner was only allowed to find one TX and then had to come back to the start. Other team membesr were allowed to DF but not leave the start area. The TX’s were within about 300M of the start. Bruce, who ran all legs, was the winner, with FAST second, after a slow start, followed by FOX, BLN and TXO (well done Gary for persevering to the end with this event). Unfortunately I didn’t record the start time for the event, only the finishing times. The scores announced on Friday hadn’t been adjusted for the later start times for some teams. The scores in the attachment allow for this but the overall placings don’t change. We learnt a few lessons with the event. Firstly normal ARDF TXs on a five minute cycle mean a lot of standing around waiting for the next cycle which is frustrating. Also I didn’t put any reflectors or flags on the TX’s and while I didn’t go to any trouble to hide them I didn’t make them obvious either, which made finding them more difficult than need be. Some reflectors and Serbian style 12sec/one minute cycle TXs would help a lot here.
Thanks to Di for the salads, cheese cake and helping with the BBQing.
It was a pleasant day for a run or quiet stroll through the parklands, sniffer in hand.
5 Fox-Or Txs were deployed in the Bellbird Dell parklands. �3 were secreted in the Southern sector relatively close to the start. �The remaining 2 were positioned further North.
8 people participated despite the fact that many (including the course setter) were somewhat sleep deprived following the previous evening�s fox hunt exploits. Lack of sleep however did not discourage Bruce and Ewen. They covered substantial distances to collect 17 and 12 Orienteering controls respectively, in addition to the 5 FoxOrs.
Newcomers Dennis M (from the UK) and Ian J (a regular orienteer) also tried their hand at FoxOr-ing.
Not having had enough exercise for the day, Ewen then escorted the Stuchbery family (also newcomers to RadiO) around the 3 southern Txs.
Regular RadiO participant, Chalky, completed a regular Street-O course then collected the two northern-most Txs.
Fox-Or Txs
Orienteering Controls
�Bruce
5
17
�Ewen
5
12
�Jenelle
5
10
�Pierre
5
8
�Henk
5
8
�Mark B
5
8
�Dennis. M
5
1
�Ian. J
3
3
Control Collection:
�Chalky
�Stuchbery� family��� (under direction of Ewen T)
Thanks to all who participated and helped out on the day.
We are really pleased with our accommodation here in Trogir. It is just a couple of minutes walk from the main square, away from the night life, it ticks all the boxes, very comfortable and most importantly quiet (double glazing on all windows). I can definitely recommend this one. There is a pomegranate tree just outside our window growing in a stone archway, apart from the drip watering system I’m not sure how it survives.
We thought we might see if there was a day trip to Split today, but that did not eventuate. We revisited the sites from our walking tour last night to take some photos and climb to the top of the bell tower of the main church; at least we managed to achieve this without the bells ringing. It seems the island is on the flight path for the airport not far from here, and around 10 o’clock in the morning, it seems that every few minutes there was another low flying jet on approach to the airport. There is a maze of laneways off the main square, with lots of little shops and restaurants. The one good thing is that if you do get geographically challenged you soon end up on the road around the island and quickly relocate yourself. We have also found Trogir’s Jaycar as well. Ewen has now completed his souvenir shopping.
It became quite hot and windy just after lunch, so we retreated to the cool of our apartment for a siesta. This was interrupted by a text from the tour group who were organising our trip to the Blue Cave and the island of Vis on Thursday; unfortunately the windy conditions make it too rough to view the cave. We have opted for a trip to Hvar and Brac tomorrow instead. Ewen’s solution to this disappointment was to order a banana split. He is now having his second rest of the day, before we head out for dinner. We have found the perfect place for dinner (you would love it Sue and John) – yes it has purple tablecloths. It is just a pity you aren’t here to join us.
Dinner turned out even better than expected, grilled octopus with grilled vegetables for me and steak for Ewen.
Wednesday 26th September
Sailed-into-the-sunset.
Today’s trip to Hvar and Brac(h) was most enjoyable. There was a strong easterly blowing as we headed from Trogir to Split by speedboat, so it was a fairly rough ride. Our waterproof jackets have not had much use up till now, but were quite effective against the sea spray over the side of the boat. We collected a few more passengers at Split and in another half an hour we arrived at Milna on the island of Brac. Apart from the quaint old buildings, the good coffee and the bakery, what I will remember most about this place was the stunning toilet seat of clear acrylic with floral print – very trendy. (Definitely no photos) The male toilet was not as flash!
More bumpy seas on our way to Hvar, but once inside the harbour the wind had dropped, the clouds had cleared and it became quite hot out in the sun. The local guide was excellent, and provided just enough information to make it interesting without overloading the details. Most notable architectural feature was the shed for repairing galleons in past centuries. Check out the large archway at the end of the building. The equivalent of an aircraft hanger for the big ships of that time. There was another fort to conquer, and the view from top was worth the walk up numerous steps. Like all tourist spots there were numerous shops and stalls selling souvenirs. (lots of lavender and olive oil products)
From here we took a short trip across the bay to one of the Pakleni Islands to enjoy one of the beaches. A little bit of sandy gravel and plenty of slippery rocks. The water temperature was okay, (not chilly like Lorne), but it still took Ewen some time to take the plunge. We spent about half an hour swimming out to the buoys and back to the “beach”.
Meal times are totally different here. Breakfast seems to be about 10 am, then there is a snack around midday, and lunch happens around 3-4 o’clock. A new experience today – green pea dip/spread – surprisingly tasty, and an amazing fresh tomato soup. The bitter orange and lemon tart was okay too as were the jam crepes.
Our return trip to Trogir was even more invigorating. Forget the microderm abrasion at the beauty salon, I feel like I have been sand blasted with salt spray. Totally saturated and salt encrusted eyebrows. The trip was topped off with a view of the sunset just as we returned to Trogir. All in all a good day, even though it wasn’t the trip we had wanted to do.
Thursday 27th September
Bell-tower-and-church-in-Split
We have been told that the weather here is either Jugo or Bora. This week is definitely Jugo. The day starts of coolish and a little cloud and by midday it is hot and humid with a clear sky, and high chance of sunburn. Our plan was an early start to head to Split for the day. We decided to take the local bus No 37, firstly because it was the next one to depart and secondly to check out how long it would take to get to the airport for tomorrow’s departure. Ewen’s comment, “this bus was built for neither speed nor comfort”; so after an hour or so of rocking and rolling we arrived at the local bus stop in Split. The local bus stop is further from the waterfront and not to be confused with the intercity coach stop near the ferry terminal.
We negotiated a price for a walking tour of the Diocletian Palace scheduled for about 10.30am. This left us with sufficient time to do something totally uncharacteristic for me – indulge in a jam donut for breakfast. The Diocletian Palace was originally built by a local ruler as his retirement home in 3rd century AD. He even built himself a mausoleum so that the locals could worship him when he died. He didn’t take to kindly to the Christians even though his wife and daughter were Christian. Any person (namely Christians) who did not bow down to him was put to death. It seems ironic that when the area became under Christian control the mausoleum was converted to a catholic church (bell tower added) and the pagan statues disposed of or had their heads removed.
The architecture shows a range of influences from Roman right through to the Hungarians, Venetians and the Austrians. There seemed very little respect for previous buildings over the years with the open forum area built on, and archways chopped off so that another building could fit in the space.
Entertainment today was provided by an a’capella group singing in the dome near the Peristyle. They were particularly good, no doubt enhanced by the acoustics of the dome.
It would seem that the plants around Croatia are extremely hardy. Today we saw caper bushes growing out of the stone work around the palace. Yesterday there were small daisies in crevices on the Hvar fort, and as well as the pomegranate tree just outside our apartment window and the numerous fruiting olive trees by the road side.
We opted for the comfortable ride home in one of the intercity coaches for only additional 3 kuna each and returned to Trogir in just under 45 minutes. The market near the Trogir bus stop has some interesting and very tasty merchandise. Sampled some local cherry brandy; alas no bottle of suitable size to fit in my case.
Now comes the difficult task of packing (under the weight limit) for tomorrow’s flight home and then time to enjoy our final night in Trogir.
I don’t think you are meant to sleep in Zadar on Saturday nights. They know how to party long and hard till late and then the street cleaners come through just on day break.
Upper lakes – this colour is for real
Today’s excursion took us far away to the Plitvice Lakes, halfway between Zadar and Zagreb, about 2 hours drive. We found out today that the limestone escarpment here called Velebit extends all the way down to Dubrovnik, but here it is further inland. There is an extensive freeway network and what is most amazing is the 5.75 km tunnel through the mountains to the central area of Croatia.
The national park we visited had series of 16 lakes, numerous waterfalls and board walks. Obviously the lack of rain has had some impact on the water volumes, but the colour and clarity of the water were particularly noticeable. In the shallower lakes there were most unusual orange finned trout. In most of the lakes you could see fallen branches from trees that have been petrified by the high content of calcium in the water. We walked around a couple of the upper lakes and had our packed lunch at the edge of one of them. A 20 minute ferry (all electric) ride took us to the lower lakes and from here we walked to the Velebit Slap (78metres) the highest waterfall in Croatia. Probably the most disconcerting of the walk was the smaller waterfalls flowing under lots of the board walks with many with no side railings. There were a few native cyclamen growing in crevices in the rock face. After about 4 ½ hours of walking our bus collected us from the other end of the park and headed back to Zadar. We broke the return journey with a meal stop, and checked out a few bears as well.
We are now back in our apartment. It seems rather quiet at present but that could be quite deceiving.
…….. Spoke too soon. Another broken night’s sleep!
Monday 24th September
Not in a great hurry this morning as our bus to Trogir didn’t depart until 11am. Breakfasted on whatever left overs we had, apples, shortbread biscuits and apple burek and later joined the locals for coffee in the main square and then Ewen had a bright idea. As we had passed the equivalent of Zadar’s Jaycar on Saturday morning, he decided he needed to purchase a European plug so that he could make up his own power board for future trips to ARDF championships. (I should be used to this by now.)
It was only a short trip today (just under 3 hours). The road followed the coast line most of the way, so on our right the views of the coast were good and helped pass the time. While on the left, there were a number of churches built on the peaks of the Velebit escarpment. We had no trouble finding our accommodation at Trogir, another rectangular grid of streets. We have enjoyed some of the local cuisine and polished off the remainder of our Serbian white wine.
The local tour guide told us that Trogir has had 25 centuries of continuous habitation, from pre Roman times in 500 BC. There was so much information it is a shame I can’t remember it. The buildings are incredible, not only in design, but the fact they have stood for so many years.
We awoke this morning to thunder, lightning and heavy rain, which meant the breakfast needed to be inside. Slight problem – only one table inside. As we had a tour at 9am, we got the first sitting. The English couple staying here said it was no different to England and so they wiped down one of the tables on the terrace so they could eat outside.
Trsteno-Arboretum-Fountain
We were picked up from our accommodation and driven to Trsteno to visit an Arboretum which was first established in 1492. It contained a Summer Residence, hedged garden areas and the most amazing irrigation system still in use today. Water flows from a spring higher on the slope, through an aqueduct to a water garden and fountain, and then through channels throughout the garden. The wealthy family that owned the garden had contacts with those sailing abroad and planted exotics from all around the world. At the entrance were two plane trees over 150 years old. There was even a large Manna gum and palm trees and tree ferns of several varieties. Part of the garden had been destroyed in the homeland wars and also bushfires in more recent times. As we were walking past the Summer House a voice in English said “don’t bother about photographing the flowers they’re all artificial” and sure enough close inspection revieled many were plastic. Apparently all the real flowers had been and gone and as someone was coming to do a photo shoot of the gardens they’d decided to spruce the place up a bit!
From here we headed to the Peljesac Peninsular to Ston, another old walled town established by the Venetians. Ston is known for its salt processing pans. We wandered around this area and then climbed part of the wall, just enough to work up an appetite for lunch at Mali Ston (Little Ston) nearby. We were encouraged to take a 30 minute tour of the oyster and mussel farm, showing the old and new methods of farming seafood. We even got to taste the freshly shucked oysters straight off the boat, and then it was time for lunch; a few more oysters, black risotto, grilled fish and even the Croatian version of Crème Caramel and a traditional Ston dessert made with pasta, ground walnuts and chocolate. No more food required for the remainder of the day.
On our return to Dubrovnik the driver stopped at a vantage point so we could photograph the new bridge in Dubrovnik. We have been trying to get a photo of it several times earlier this week, but from a moving bus it is impossible.
We took one last stroll through the old town and then returned home to House Boninovo to pack for Friday’s very early departure.
Friday 21 September
Today started much earlier than the expected 4.30am alarm. Woke up about 1.30am to discover it was pretty dark outside, not the usual lights that shine through the shutters all night. Yes, the power was out, and given the very short time we had allowed to get out the door, I had to try to find the torch in my luggage with the aid of the light of my mobile phone. Even when I eventually found it, I spent quite some time convincing myself that we had allowed enough time to catch the local bus to the main bus station, and finally went back to sleep. Fortunately the power was back on at 4.30.
We did make it to the bus on time for the 6am departure. It was a long haul to Zadar and although the scenery was spectacular we were glad to get here by 2pm. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor again, so we are getting plenty of exercise.
Enjoyed a walking tour of the old town of Zadar late in the afternoon. Yes the Romans were here, as well as the Hungarians, who sold it to the Venetians when the Hungarian king was a bit short of cash (shades of Australian state governments here), and the Austrians. The old town is on the peninsular about 1km x 400m with the streets set in a rectangular grid; much better than Belgrade to navigate around. The tourist map is very good as tourist maps go, but my cut and paste (actual paper and sticky tape) brought from home has been extremely useful even though it gets some strange looks.
There are lots of little eateries and food shops around our apartment, so it is quite economical to purchase something to take back to here and put our feet up.
Saturday 22nd September
The apartment grows on you after a while. There is some noise at night from the street below and thankfully the bells just outside our bedroom window don’t ring. The main bell tower at the other end of the street did however start to ring at about 7.45am, an acceptable time. It’s a bit tired inside but we have a kitchen, bedroom and a lounge room.
A very leisurely start to today and even had a chance to speak to family via skype before heading out. It is a casual 20 minute walk to the main bus station where we purchased our tickets for Monday’s trip to Trogir. After being stung 10 Euros for a taxi to the wrong church(our meeting point yesterday) we figure we can walk there on Monday without too much effort as it is fairly flat. So as they say, seeking for further amusement we struck out to find the business centre of Zadar. We happened upon a large cinema complex with a market at the front. For about $1 AUD we bought more grapes than we actually needed. We then ended up in the port area and joined the locals for their Saturday morning coffee ritual. (Actually the best coffee that I have had since we left home.)
The highlight today would have to be the Museum of Ancient Glass displaying objects found the local area made in the second half of the first century AD. We were amazed as to the quality (extremely thin) and design of the miniature bottles, jewellery and food containers, plates, jugs, glasses etc. This museum if you only do one museum in Zadar is the pick; it’s well set out and not particularly crowded. I’ve never thought too much about when glass started to be used but it seems from the first century BC and probably much earlier, first from natural glass, there were a few lumps of this in the museum recovered from shipwrecks, and then man made glass.
We bought some lunch at a nearby bakery and took it to our room to eat. As you can imagine the nearby bakeries are getting a fair bit of patronage from Ewen. After lunch we went for a walk around the outside of the old town, checking out the gardens (several wedding parties were having photographs taken). We spent a few minutes listening to the sea organ on the way and then climbed the bell tower (totally deafened when it struck the half hour – good job it wasn’t 12 o’clock) and finished with the mandatory ice-cream. I was a bit disappointed that we did not make it to Pag to the lace museum (only open irregular hours out of season), but there were women selling genuine hand-made craft (crotchet and knitting). It took me a while to realise they knit the opposite direction to the way I was taught.
At present Ewen is indulging in another of the local customs – yes he is taking his siesta now! (no photo I am afraid!) The other plus side to this apartment is the corkscrew I found in the drawer, so I will indulge in yet another local custom very shortly too.
………
We took a very pleasant evening stroll down to the other end of the peninsular tonight to view the Solar powered light display. Would have loved to put a short video on the blog, but unfortunately the size of the file is too big.
Afternoon tea on the terrace at House Boninovo Dubrovnik
Today’s tour was to Mostar in Herzegovina. Again another early start. This bus trip heads north from Dubrovnik along the coast road. The views to the Elaphite islands are spectacular. In the channel between the peninsular and mainland there are countless fish farms for oysters and mussels. The delta region of one of the rivers in now converted to market gardens. There were several border crossings today, nothing interesting to report. Because of the bus size and the road conditions it was necessary to drive through Herzegovena and back into Croatia before re entering Herzegovena to get to Mostar. To explain further, Herzegovena has a narrow strip on land going to the coast which cuts Croatia into two parts.
We stopped at a little town called Poticeljia with Turkish architecture, domed roofs and again more steps leading up to a wall and fort. I have a feeling this was more a retail opportunity for the locals than anything else.
The road leading into the central area of Bosnia Herzegovina is flanked on the western side by the river and beyond that steep granite escarpment on a massive scale.
We were taken on a walking tour of Mostar old town, over the famous bridge (first completed in 1566, destroyed in 1993, and finally rebuilt around 2005-6). The old town is very commercialised. The locals supplement, or perhaps earn, their living by jumping from the bridge, at 25 euro per jump from any person or group willing to pay. The drop is about 20 metres.
We also saw a private mosque, and visited a Turkish house. I particularly liked the carved furniture and fine cross-stitch hanging on the walls.
Some of the modern buildings are quite a contrast to the old 0nes.
We have resisted purchasing any souvenirs this trip, especially when it all looks mass produced and on a closer look there is a “made in China” sticker inside.
While there are some interesting things to see in Mostar a day trip from Dubrovnick is probably not the best use of time. Half a day is enough particularly if you’ve already seen a walled town so it would be better to see it as part of a through trip to somewhere
Today we met a lovely couple from Perth. We lunched together and rather enjoyed a good dose of Aussie humour. We eventually made it back to our accommodation in Dubrovnik about 6.00pm and were greeted with a nice cup of tea by the owner. She left us to go shopping and soon another couple from Canada joined us on the terrace. We had a rather limited conversation in English as their native language is French. At this point a lady from Switzerland arrived and wanted accommodation. She spoke only Italian and German; so with my limited school German I explained the situation and told her to come back later. Ewen and I decided to go to find some dinner, and left the French speaking couple to deal with her if she came back. Not sure if she came back but the Canadian couple made some comment about appreciating our humour.
Wednesday 19th September 2012
Breakfast on the terrace this morning was a wonderfully relaxed way to start the day. Ewen was keen to ride the chair lift to top of the mountain above Dubrovnik and from here we planned to walk back to the old town. Ewen disappeared through a laneway behind the fort on the hill going to check out the technology on top of the tower and it took me about 20 minutes to find him. The start of the track down was somewhat elusive as well but eventually Ewen found it and we zigzagged our way down. Thanks for the use of your runners Bruce. The view was worth the walk. We enjoyed a sandwich and iced tea before heading to the maritime museum.
The maritime museum contained pieces of glass dishes and objects from ships that have sunk in the 9th and 10th century. Dubrovnik has been a port on the Adriatic coast for centuries. What was of particular interest were the navigation charts and instruments used by the sailors. They also claimed it was the skilled sailors from this area that lead the Spanish Armada to their victories.
Our attempt to take a trip in a glass bottom boat was aborted, as when the time came only an ordinary boat was available. We used the time to visit the Franciscan monastery and the church and garden nearby. Rather enjoyed sitting in the cool courtyard.
We took a chance with the local buses and managed to get down the main bus station to purchase our tickets to Zadar for Friday. Mission accomplished we returned to our wonderful accommodation and have been refreshed with a beer.
The other highlight of the day was hearing the Dubrovnik String Quartet who played in the small St Saviours Church. There were only seats for about 30 people. A very intimate performance indeed and wonderful music.
Early rise today to be ready for the trip back to Belgrade Airport at 7am. We did have some supplies, smuggled out from dinner the previous evening, for the trip but it was rather good to find the resort had provided us with a packed lunch. The trip back was uneventful and even so it took till almost 12.30 to get there. Bruce was doing his best to keep calm when we said goodbye and left him to check in at the Fly Dubai counter as we headed to the JAT check-in. Kristian had quite a considerable wait for his flight to Istanbul. We wandered around a bit and then thought we would go through security and passport control and spend time there instead. It was here we met up with Bruce and members of the English team and John from Norway. The queue was unbelievably long and snaked around several times. It was close to about 1.15 pm when we got through the formalities and caught a glimpse of Bruce waiting at this gate (stress eating- well that’s what it looked like.)Our flight to Dubrovnik left on time and we arrived here at 3.30pm. Our prearranged transfer was waiting for us and by 4.00pm we were sitting on the vine covered deck outside drinking real tea. House Boninovo is situated half way between the old town and the Port Gruz and although can be a little bit noisy with traffic during the evening; it was a real find and rather homely and ample room for cat swinging. The shutters on the window work well in hiding the washing from street view.
Walking tour at 6pm was followed by dinner in what Ewen has dubbed spaghetti alley, an outdoor restaurant in a narrow alley at most 2.4 metres wide, room for tables on one side and space for people to walk up and down on the other, covered with a canvas awning.
Purchased some fruit and a couple of croissants for breakfast on the way home.
Monday 17th September 2012
Another-beautiful-view-of-the-coast
We made it to the bus stop by 7.40am in time to catch our tour to Montenegro. The view leaving Dubrovnik was spectacular. There is an extremely narrow coastal strip with very steep escarpment immediately behind it and right on the edge you can see the old town and its fortifications. They obviously have to use every available fertile land for production and the terraced gardens stretched some way up the escarpment. It was a fairly rough road due to road works, and few more delays at the border crossings, but the view of Kotor Bay was spectacular. We stopped at Perast and wandered along the foreshore. There were a couple of groups of swimmers who were swimming behind speed boats across to the island in the middle of the bay. Ewen didn’t opt to join them. Thought the water was a bit too chilly.
Next stop was the walled town of Kotor. Any thought of walking around the wall went out the window when I realised it was over 1300 steps to the viewing area. We had a walking tour of the town, more facts and figure that I had no chance of remembering. Apparently they had very original names for the city squares, the square of flowers, the square of milk, the square of meat, and I expect the squares of fruit and vegetables. We did get a chance to visit one church, rather elegant with the white walls and pink brick work. The museum attached had some relics hundreds of years old, but what caught my eye was the lace that was still intact even though it was very old. There was not a lot of free time here as we had to move onto Budva.
Budva, like Kotor had buildings that were built by the Venetians back in 16th century and the only damage to them has been due to earthquakes and not the 1990s conflict. We(along with Alice a very sociable immigration officer from Hong Kong) opted for some seafood (mussels) for lunch and it was rather pleasant sitting under the big umbrellas overlooking the sea. Lunch was a bit too long and it left us with less than 45 minutes to check out the old town here. The three of us set off for a route march around the old town. Again more narrow streets, 3 more churches and a citadel. The view from the citadel was worth the 2 Euro entry and just had enough time to check out the library attached and make it back to the bus via the ice-cream shop by 3pm. Dare I say it was Jenelle who found the way back!!
Many locals are not happy with the extent of Russian development in the area; it is becoming rather glitzy and losing its quaint old town charm. There is the casino where James Bond – Casino Royal was filmed and an overdeveloped island called Sveti Stefan now rented by wealthy Chinese, maybe, there seems to be some about the actual arrangements.
The only entertainment of note on the way back to Dubrovnik was at the border crossing. It would seem the border police take great delight in stopping suave young males in expensive vehicles and spend considerable time examining every inch of their vehicle.
Tried a different place for dinner, magnificent trout with almonds. Sorry no picture, but I can assure you it was good, along with fish pate. We are also becoming addicted to Limonada, old-fashioned homemade lemon drink made from fresh lemon juice, just like Pullos’s café in Goondiwindi used to make.
Been a busy couple of days, so this is the first chance to update.
Note, the next Region 3 champs are in Hongcheon, Korea, a scenic resort town in the NE (of Sth Korea, of course). Hard to imagine it was as far back as 2008 when we last went to World Champs there. 1st->6th September 2013.
Sept 20th, 2m ARDF
All of us were on 2m yesterday. If you thought the first day was steep and hilly, this was extreme ! Very steep hills all over the place not only makes it physically demanding, but the 2m signals bounce all over the place, giving many odd bearings. You are sure to climb more of those steep hills mistakenly, or perhaps just to get a decent bearing for once, which you wouldn’t orienteering.
All made it back on time. Ewen and Kristian down a couple of TXs, but still had value for money both close to the 150min time limit.
The podium was dominated by Czech Republic, followed by Russia and Ukraine. Others with an occasional mention were Hungary (Karoly who gave me a lift to Budapest placed in W60), Germany, Slovakia, Croatia, USA (Ruth and Karla in W70), Great Britain (a long strived for Gold for Bob Titterington in M70) and Swedon.
This time we bussed to the map rather than walking as it was a few km down the hill. Once you saw the map it was clear there was little point in taking bearings before you’d scaled the large hill ahead of you. In retrospect my bearings weren’t bad, but since they all seemed to point much the same way it was very demoralising and not confidenence inspiring. Turned out they’d cleverly aligned 3 of the TX’s such that from the top of the hill they do appear in a line. They all seemed much the same signal strength too (as the most distant was on a hilltop, and the middle one was obscured. This leaves you with not much of a plan of attack. There are 3 that all seem the same, and another that is down south of the finish, so despite it being strong-ish, ignore that one. In M40 you skip the other one so ignore that too.
I chose to head for the one that gave the most consistant directions and seemed slightly stronger, and take it from there. An unfortunate decision, as I managed to bypass the other 2 in that line-up (when they were off), and get clear over to the complete opposite corner of the map before I finally got my first control. Just under 50mins and all I had was one, and traversed uncountable number of contours !! Even worse, after all that high altitude clambering, I’d lost contact with the map.
Things got gradually better. I got another control, and then regained proper map contact after getting to a good intersection. Things are looking up, only 2 to go, and I now have a better idea where they are (or at least, know where they aren’t). Knowing where you are results in saner route choices and much more confidence, so I knocked off the rest of the course in 40mins, at least moving all the time, if not able to keep a fast pace on the mountains. Only another 12mins to scramble back to the finish beacon along a tree strewn creek. And a mostly downhill finish chute (long though!).
I thought my disastrous first leg would consign me to the nether regions of the results. Yet another ARDF event where things could have gone better. I was therefore quite surprised at my 16th place. Not a great result, but in the circumstances a bit unbelievable. Seems others had difficulties out there too. Many had more problems closing in on transmitters, whereas my problems were more strategic, and finding the transmitters went reasonably smoothly, once I actually started.
Kristian made some even worse decisions early on which meant he never had much idea of where things were. He finally got atop a hill and worked a few out, but he was not able to get his M21 5 TXs. He did, however, amke it back on time.
Ewen appeared to fare well initially, even finding one by accident, but spent a lot of time struggling with the more distant controls. He found 2 of the 4, but again just made it back on time. He has become an expert at stringing out those waiting for his return, and on the point that it seems all is lost, Ewen will appear in the distance.
Bruce’s 2m map board
There was meant to be FoxOr training this evening, but since the organisers were delayed searching for some missing competitors, it was delayed so much that most had no idea it happened. Apparently it started sometime during the closing presentations.
A busy day as immediately after the presentations and closing there was the Banquet. This was called a “HamFest”. Long time blog readers will know that we discovered, way back in Germany in 2001, that a HamFest is not the same thing as HamFest back in Oz. This has nothing to do with 2nd hand swapping of goods that will no doubt appear at the next hamfest, but much more to do with food, and beer. Banquet was held in the ginormous indoor sports hall as part of the hotel complex here, and I’d rate it above the MTBO one.
Jenelle: The banquet was a wonderful opportunity to say goodbye to the new people we have met, the girls from the Czech team, the young Chinese girls that James and I met at R3, and the old friends from our last trip in Croatia.
Sept 21th, 80m FoxOr Championships
Bruce
It was a bit alarming this morning as ordinary commuters hopped aboard our bus (one of many) going to the FoxOr. And then again at the next bus stop. What’s going on ? None of the other buses stopped ! Are we in fact the normal town bus that just happened to be parked amongst the others, and we’re instead on our way off somewhere else ? However, it did stop at the right place, so we all got off quickly just in case.
Now this event is one we should do well at, surely ? We’ve had lots of orienteering and FoxOr practice; should be a cinch, right ?
Well, have to say the outstanding result from today Jennelle T, who thought she was hopelessly overtime, but in fact had miscalculated the time, and ended up 5th in W60. She managed 3 controls, and probably could have done more, but the time limit panic meant she was back in good time. This feat is with a borrowed 80m sniffer from the Brits, as our ARDF club one couldn’t be coaxed to cover the frequencies needed. Jenelle hasn’t used an 80m sniffer before.
Jenelle: I have been severalmeltdowns this week as to whether I could use an 80m sniffer, so with about 10minute tuition from Ewen after last night’s banquet, I was still melting down this morning. This probably explains how I short changed my finish time by 20 minutes. I took a rather leisurely walk down the finish chute with a short run to the control and didn’t even bother to check the results board. The only casualty was my only pair of shoes that are now drying out. Not sure how many creeks I crossed.Special thanks for the loan of the equipmment from David (It worked like a dream) and the SI stick and compass from Bruce.
Ewen and Kristian both miscalculated how far they were from the finish, and both overtime by a few minutes. Kristian was most complimentary about Greg W’s sniffer, so he may have difficulty getting it back, especially after the various mods we’ve made to it over the last few days.
I was back in time, in fact in better time than I thought (18th) because the start was in fact 2mins after our advertised start time. However I had to skip two FoxOrs, one heartbreakingly only a couple of minutes detour, as I headed to the finish, due to lack of time. The reason I was lacking time was I had in fact no working DF gear at all ! Yes, I managed to do all but 2 controls at an International FoxOr with no sniffer at all. I did wave it about a bit near controls, just to let the transmitter sitters think I was doing something, but in fact I was watching them, looking at where they were looking, watching other competitors, or pretending to search while I waited for some M70 competitor to finally puff up the hill and lead me in.
Basically at some point after the 2nd control, my headphone socket ended up irretriveably inside my 80m sniffer. It’s perhaps ironic that I had decided to not use the FM headphone link today, as it had given me some issues on the sprint event, and had elected to go the simple headphone route….. Mind you, my sniffer could barely hear the FoxOr transmitters more than 10m away anyway, so it was of limited utility, even when it was working.
The “watching”, or in foxhunting parlance “following from in front”, backfired badly twice though, as I followed a likely looking competitor away from the FoxOr instead of towards it. I had no way to know they had already punched. Even worse, in the 1st case I had to relocate after I finally figured out I was following the wrong horse. This all was the main reason I was running low on time.
Back at the hotel Kristian and I had a beer or to two, in one of the many pubs/cafes, with the British who were drowning their sorrows (they hadn’t had a great day at the FoxOr either). Some really interesting discussions about getting people interested in ARDF, how the Czech’s did it, and how trying to get typical Amateurs to try is largely a waste of time. With all those I’ve talked to in various countries, diffculties in growing the sport appear to be universal. One of the Brits works teaching english in the same town in Czech Republic Jiri Marecek lives, and there seem to be many parallels with the Bendigo O.C. success in promotion in orienteering. Not too large a town, easy access to terrain, only a few (or one in Jiri’s case) school to target. Lots of events.
Time to pack up the bike and get ready for early morning departure tomorrow. I never did get to do the downhill ride.the A deep fog moved in temporarily, obscuring the fact the lift was turning, but I eventually managed a conversation, with lots of hand waving and about 2 words of English, with the lift towie. Found it closes at 3pm (it was 3:05pm) and takes only 200 Dinar (A$2) for a single ride up.
It’s been fun, hope you’ve enjoyed following our adventures.
Oh and Strugara of the blog title ? For those who made it all the way down this far, it’s the name of today’s FoxOr map.
This event has 5 transmitters on 3.52Mhz, running on a 12 second cycle which you can find in any order, followed by a spectator control on 3.54Mhz and then a second group of 5 transmitters on 3.56 Mhz on the 12 second cycle, followed by a homing beacon near the finish. The number of transmitters to be found in the second group depended on your age group, with Kristian needing to find all 5 and Bruce and I needing only 1, 2, 4 and 5 although, getting carried away with things a bit, we both also found 3. Bruce started the event a few minutes after me and as I expected Bruce caught up near the end. I was hunting the homing beacon at this stage and decided to give him a run for his money. Bruce however was hunting transmitter 2 and thought I was doing the same so, as he was having equipment troubles, decided to see where I went. This did not end up well for Bruce. Bruce is once again having stern words to Bruce.
A great short sharp event!! Not sure yet what the winning time is but Kristian did it in 30 mins, myself 36 and Bruce 39.
Bruce: Around 15mins for both M21 and M40 winning times. NB: I really did think #2 was that way, 180Deg out….
Some time was spent in the afternoon washing and drying Bruce’s right running shoe. Why, well I only brought spikes to Serbia and the sprint required running shoes. Bruce kindly lent me his old running shoes with the request that I try not to get them wet. Well I only got the right one wet………. Hence the washing and drying at great expense to the environment. Another unconventional use of the hair dryer. This job was somewhat important as Bruce had managed to get his right shoe wet also, leaving him with no dry shoes.
Later in the afternoon the organisers arranged a picnic. Now Serbian picnics are not like the traditional English picnic with tea and cake. The food is largely, actually entirely, replaced by beer. And a very good brass band. The beer came in 2 litre bottles “250ml gratis”. The Czech team provided some impromptu dancing, clearly they had been there for a while before we got there. We joined in for a short time as the sprint and some red had left me a bit weary.
Jenelle
The start today was not far from the front of the resort and again we filed out through the narrow door and only a short walk. We secured the only picnic table in sight, thanks to Kristian and no sooner had we settled in, they started calling for the equipment as of course AUS is always first. After all the AUS team left I headed to the finish line to resume my cheering duties. It is such a terrific atmosphere as spectators cheer in their respective runners. I made an attempt to run with Ewen beside the finish chute and lost the flag in the process. I left it to Ewen to run to the finish with Bruce, and together they escorted Kristian to the finish line.
Ewen failed to mention that some pressure had to be applied for him to join in the Serbian dancing and I am not ashamed to admit that it was all I could do to manage one bracket of the music. Seeing how well they run as well, maybe it is part of their training regime. I felt about as active as the friendly Serbian bear that resides here.
Bruce
The sprint was fun, despite our mediocre performance. We had never done one of this style before though. We should try something like this at home. If nothing else we need practice; it’s more instense than even a 5-in-5. My 80m receiver needs work, or more accurately, it needs replacing altogether !
Note to self: If wearing shorts and a knee brace, ensure the other knee is protected from the nasty scratchy velcro, or you’ll be forced to run the rest of the sprint in an odd bow legged fashion or risk removing skin.
Time for another short ride this afternoon, this time to a neigbouring ski area and back. Got the other shoe wet this time, so yet more hair dryer action.
The wine was sucessfully opened finally at the picnic, thanks to the swiss army knife form Ole, the Region 1 ARDF chairman.
I ended up in a rapid card game at the picnic with a bunch of German’s, some Chinese juniors and a Polish youth. Took a round to get used to it, as the rules were somewhat opaque to me at the start, but I got the hang of it and it was quite additive. Also, since it used special cards with symbols it was essentially lingual neutral (but being able to count your cards in deutsche helped save time). Kristian got a game right at the end. Anyone played Jungle Speed ?
Note we are updating this blog from2 different hotels, so plese excuse any weird inconsistancies that may crop up.
Seems like the fires over the hill, for which we’ve seen the water bombing helicopter,and aircraft flying over, were apparently started by a cluster bomb explosion during mine clearing on Mt Kaponik. One worker was killed in the explosion.
Hope there are a) no unexploded bombs on the competition map and b) that the fire is brought under control !!
Kristian has headed off to endure another team leaders meeting, which may happen, or not, and may happen on time. Or not.
Model event day. Very simple event. Two 2m transmitters, one of which changed into a homing beacon at some stage, and two 80m transmitter, plus homing beacons. The 2 and 80 metre transmitters were colocated. After hunting on 2 metres there didn’t seem to be much point in hunting on 80 so checked that the 80M sniffer gave sensible directions and called it quits. After giving Jenelle some 80 DF coaching we went back to the hotel for a shower before lunch. After lunch Ewen investigated the ARDF “spare” 80m receiver to see if it could be made to cover the frequencies proposed for the sprint event later in the week. After some discussion with Bruce it was decided that it might not be possible with the available resources.
The opening ceremony was advertised for 4pm but as usual with these events it was nearer to 4.30 before things got underway. There were the usual speeches by various dignitaries, including the president and vice presidents of the IARU and the competition was declared open.
Jenelle
There was enough time after the formalities to check out the pool, rather a challenge aerobically, after about 20 laps (each lap 20 metres) I called it quits. Didn’t feel very comfortable to join those reclining on the lounges on the pool deck.
Wednesday 12th September 2012
Jenelle
Early start today. At 8 am we set off for a walk to the start about 20 minutes away from the main entrance to the resort.
Bruce
The problem with start quarantines is that if you luck a late start it can be a long-long wait till you head out, and since my start time was midday this proved to be the case.
Read on if you really want to know about the course J. Hills, and valleys, lots of them, and unavoidable. Starting at 1800m (higher than the very very top of Mt Buller) this proved quite a challenge physically. My knee wasn’t too much of an issue except for climbing over the many fallen large and small pine trees spread all over the place, including across tracks.
Have a look at the map to make some more sense of this bit. Conveniently our start corridor (for 80m) turned northwards, which was where I’d planned to head anyway, away from the finish to the south (the finish was actually near the hotels). Got TX#3 that direction at 13mins, and then a long trek to TX#1 way up in the NW corner. I lost a bit of map contact, but my route wasn’t bad in retrospect, but possibly slower as I’m more confident if I know where I am exactly. Some others, including Ewen, did TX#4 (near the dam wall NW of start) 2nd, but my plan was to do that next (3rd) since I had TX#5 placed way down south near the finish. My order wasn’t bad as it turned out. My route TX#1 to TX#4 was very steep and probably not optimal as I ended up in a creek valley that was hard to get out of. Luckily I saw the large dam wall near TX#4 and relocated. Headed south to TX#5, up a very steep hill track I staggered up. I punched and headed to the finish. Caught up with Kristian who was just finishing M21 80m and punched the finish just behind him. He started quite a while before me, so though I was a bit slow at times, 72mins for all the ones I needed (don’t get TX#2 for M40) seemed not bad for me. But. Took me a while to notice, but when comparing splits with Kristian it seemed I hadn’t punched at TX#5 at all, but instead at a 2m transmitter (they run the courses concurrently with different age-groups doing 80m or 2m) number 3. I have yet to see where TX#5(80m) and TX#3(2m) were actually located, but I don’t think far. This was a bit upsetting. Bruce had some strong words with Bruce which are best not repeated here.
Bruce: My 80m map
Kristian did fabulously well to get all his 5 TXs for M21, back in time, still fighting the final leftovers of bronchitis. Ewen found 3 or his 4 TXs, having to skip the last one near the finish due to time constraints. Frustrating as he thought he wasn’t far from it, but with only 3 mins to spare from the 150min time limit, this wasn’t advisable. The single person cheer squad did well to welcome us home.
This afternoon, after a late lunch, we fiddled about with 80m receivers to make them cover the range required for the Sprint event tomorrow and the FoxOr later (sorry Greg, we made changes). Yet to work on the ARDF club one which is physically more difficult due to heatshrunk hidden circuitry. The model event for the sprint followed the usual model of zero information about where and how, and only about 1.5 hours late. Suspect their organising team is very small indeed.
We have a problem. A significant problem. No corkscrew. As you can imagine, this is a disaster, as we cannot possibly take all the wine we bought home with us due to luggage limits. Even the waiter in the restaurant wouldn’t let us use one. Some initial confusion when he first brought me a pepper grinder, but then he understood. No ! I’m sure there was a reason, but it was in Serbian.
Another brilliant day for our final day of our Best of Serbia tour. Last night we enjoyed the lights of city of Nis from our vantage point at Hotel Alexander and this morning the view was equally as good.
We enjoyed a later start this morning (9.30), and headed for Mediana, yet another Roman site in varying stages of restoration. On display were some replica weapons, a catapult and battering ram. Unfortunately the museum wasn’t open (yes it is Monday), so we just wandered around the site, checking out the remains of different buildings. There was a large area covered with sand to protect the underlying mosaics, this was surrounded by a box hedge and even some rose gardens.
From here we attempted again to see the Skull tower, built by the Turks from dead Serbian fighters during an uprising in the 18th century. We could just see it from outside the fence, probably a good thing it was closed on Monday as well. There was also another fortress in the centre of Nis and this necessitated the mandatory climb to the top of the wall to take in the view.
Fortified with a light snack we set off to findĐavolja Varoš ( Devil’s Town), geological formations (sandstone pillars with rocks on the top) not far from the Kosovo border. It turned out to be quite some distance from Nis and along with road works it took till almost 2pm to get there. Like most tourist maps the map of the area was open to interpretation but the path was easy enough to follow. The creek that flowed through the area was most unusual. The water was clear, but the dirt under it was bright orange. The brochure suggested it had a ph of 3.5 which I think makes it very acidic. At one point there was a Red Spring bubbling through the ground. The view from the top of the observation deck was stunning, the recently commenced night light show would have been even better. The sign not to lean on the safety rail was a bit disconcerting. The light was quite eerie walking back through the forest now that the sky has begun to cloud over.
As we were pressed for time we opted for a quick lunch, although it quite a while to work through the monster roll with ham, kaymak (soft white cheese) and hot peppers. Bruce was keen to ride down the valley road, so he set off on his bike about 4pm. It took Danny, Ewen and I about 14 km to catch him in the van. More windy road and detours for road works slowed progress, but we were reassured when we discovered we were on the road to a town called Brus (pronounced Bruce). Another 50 km of windy, uphill road and we eventually arrived at the ARDF site just before 7pm.
Bruce: Brus was otherwise not particularly notable 🙂
A note to Zlatan: Dany has been consistently good humoured, despite some long days driving, translating numerous menus and signs and answering our many questions. Today was another sterling effort by Dany, considering once he left us he had to head back down the mountain for the return trip home.
After sorting out some SI stick numbers at registration we checked into our hotels and had dinner which was excellent. Yes we are in 2 separate hotels which is pain. We will be able relieve this a little as Bruce and Ewen have handhelds. A minor problem being Bruce didn’t bring his battery charger, to save weight. This has now been fixed with the unconventional use of a hair dryer and a laptop power supply. The hotels are about 4 star standard so very comfortable.
It was very enjoyable meeting up with people we had met in Croatia, Bob and David from the English team and John from Norway. Also spoke to one of the Chinese girls that came with James and I on the street orieteering in Maldon for the R3 last September. She was quite excited that we recognised her and gave me a big hug. Someone else to cheer for.
We are quite settled in now with the flag flying out our window and post card on the door. I can even have my early morning cuppa of green tea, but Ewen is having withdrawal symptoms due to the lack of English Breakfast tea (there is herbal sweet stuff, as normal here, and sometimes Earl Grey (ugggh))
Bruce:As the model event was so short this morning,I had plenty of time to go for a ride before lunch. After some adventures finding someone appropriate, I got a map that included cross country ski trails, so that seemed a good enough thing to try. Not bad riding, except the map was wrong (we have come to expect this from Serbian maps; certain Rogainers would thrive), and the pine tree or 4 across the trail I had to stop to lift over. I’ve discovered, I think (may have got lost in the translation), that the chairlift takes bikes on Saturday, so there might be a chance for some MTBing after the FoxOr.
Bruce: Incidentally, the food has been pretty good here so far, way way above MTBO uni caf standards.
Bruce: PS: I finally looked on Google maps at what I’d attempted to ride the other day at Silver Lake; looks like I’d have got through, but I’d lost all confidence. I also didn’t even know the lake was that shape, so I’d have worried about riding “away”from it on the northern side. The southern route I took doesn’t appear on Google at all.
Devil’s Town), geological formations (sandstone pillars with rocks on the top) not far from the Kosovo border. It turned out to be quite some distance from Nis and along with road works it took till almost 2pm to get there. Like most tourist maps the map of the area was open to interpretation but the path was easy enough to follow. The creek that flowed through the area was most unusual. The water was clear, but the dirt under it was bright orange. The brochure suggested it had a ph of 3.5 which I think makes it very acidic. At one point there was a Red Spring bubbling through the ground. The view from the top of the observation deck was stunning, the recently commenced night light show would have been even better. The sign not to lean on the safety rail was a bit disconcerting. The light was quite eerie walking back through the forest now that the sky has begun to cloud over.
Breakfast (do rucak) at the Serbia Tis Hotel was exceptional and stood us in good stead for the day’s activities. First stop was another Roman walled city Felix Romuliana on the Roman road. It was established by Galerius in conjunction with Alexander the Great. We spent some time here exploring the ruins. There was evidence of Galerius’s Royal quarters (including his bath house and private chapel) and also a larger chapel with steps and the footings of the columns at the front, a larger bath house and barrack block. An outer wall around the original city was built later when Galerius’s mother, Felix Romuliana came to live there.(Nice to know he was looking after his mother.) The mosaic floor was covered with sand to protect it, but the drawings and patterns were on display. Replenished by icecream we drove up to two mounds above the city. It is said this is where Galerius and his mother made their ascension to the after- life. This practice was abandoned after the conversion to Christianity.
We headed south from here to Sokobanja and prepared for our assault on the Sokograd fortress. Following reconnaissance by scouts Ewen and Bruce, the fortress was finally claimed by the Victorian ARDF group and the flag proudly flown. It was at least another hour before we could celebrate our victory at the “Cave Restauant”, a cool and shady retreat on the banks of a creek. Not sure just what path we were on (two creek crossings and only one wet foot), but tough enough to do justice to the good food and drink consumed and excellent preparation for the coming week’s activities.
About 5.30 we left Sokobanja and took some back roads before entering a Toll road and finally arrived at our hotel overlooking the city. In the cool of the evening we walked into the main city area and purchased a light meal, a burek and a drink each, totalling the princely sum of about $3 AUD for the three of us.
Bruce:Cleaned that pesky black dust off the bike and went for a short night ride through Nis just then. Fabulous night. The weather forecast for Kaponik and the RadiO is looking a little less inviting, but we’ll see what happens ! Check out the view from this hotel room below. Dogs are barking like crazy at who knows what.
Cool, clear breezy morning and no sign of yesterday’s misty rain. The trip to the museum was declined in preference to a walk / ride around Valjevo, while Danny went to have the van washed. It was eventually 11am before set off for the trip across central Serbia to Smederevo. This area reminded me of the “patchwork quilt” farmlands around the Darling Downs (QLD) and the Southern Highlands of NSW, except the blocks are much smaller. (I know this description is not much use to the Victorians on the post list.)
The windy roads seemed to take quite some time to navigate and this necessitated the purchase of emergency rations (ice cream) to sustain us until we reached Smedervo. The anticipated trip to the Roman wall and little town did not disappoint. We spent some time here exploring and climbed to the top of one of the towers for a spectacular view of the Danube and the surrounding area. To add to the occasion there was a special festival for the town. Not unlike a country show, with people sporting big wads of fairy floss and something that resembled battered sausages on sticks (I’m told that’s a QLD thing too!). There were also many stalls with pigs being roasted on the spit, with every conceivable vegetable to build your own tortilla or roll. Bruce and Ewen opted for the fish soup and I discovered some rather tasty baked treats. There seemed a certain fascination with vegetables used as decoration, with a cauliflower sporting a red capsicum slit several times and placed on top as a hat. The displays of supersized vegetables caught my eye, as well as the handwork. Live music and girls in traditional dress added to the festivities. We gave side-show alley a miss.
From here we headed for Viminacium, a Roman city and Military Camp. This dated back to the 1st and 2nd century AD. (It seems the Romans were quite widespread in their travels) While waiting for the guide I spied the perfect outdoor setting for the vine covered gazebo (see previous blog). We actually got to walk around the excavated mausoleum with genuine skeletons exposed and then down darkened corridors to the frescos dating back to these earlier times. The scenes were still visible, but the glass protecting them needed a good dust. (No photos allowed here) Other parts of the dig included the porta (entrance) and the therme (heated bath house). As you can imagine there was some discussion about how everything went together.
Still more driving, and finally at about 7.30 we reached our destination of Veliko Gradiste on the banks of the Silver Lake and the Danube River. The accommodation is excellent and dinner at a water side restaurant was most relaxing.
Bruce: Shortly after the van overheating episode a couple of days ago, the brakes did seem to be doing a bit of squealing, but since it didn’t appear to have much relationship to the use of the brakes, so I relegated it to a background concern. Then later the right front wheel started to make grounching noises. I muttered stuff darkly about brake pads, but Danny didn’t seem to want to be concerned. Peter C may recall a trip back from Jindabyne with the brakes on my Subaru making noises hauntingly similar to those I was now hearing. Yesterday the noises got worse. I explained my possible diagnosis a bit more emphatically to Danny, and later, once we got to the Hotel, I put together my headtorch to have a look. Yes, the outside of the RHS disc was badly scored. Therefore, whilst Danny had to go off this morning in search of a mechanic, I went for a ride around the lake. It was supposed to be 13km around, but perhaps I took the scenic route right beside the lake, as after 10km I got to a small village, Kisiljevo, still on the East side of the lake I’d started on ! The track had gradually degraded from a pavement, to a nice track, to a grotty black sandy corn field thing that made the gears grind, so though I was glad to get somewhere, the 13km wasn’t looking likely. 5km after tjhe village I gave up when the ashfelt road turned to dust again and decided to retrace my ride back. As it was, Danny had only just got back after my 27km “brief” ride, so I was able to have a quick shower before checking out. New pre-loved brake pads fitted, but no disc machining possible, so it’s a sacrificial pad pretty much to last just the next few days.
Bruce: Silver lake at dusk
Saturday 8 September 2012
Weather Report: Fine, sunny, no cloud, winds light to variable and some haze.
Last night’s accommodation at Villa Dincic was very good, the rooms were large, cool and extremely quiet making for good sleeping conditions. Breakfast was just a short drive away. I a slowly getting used to the idea that yoghurt comes under the drink option at breakfast, making it a bit difficult to add fruit to the cup.
The van needed more attention this morning, new brake pads on the front passenger side. This gave Ewen and I the chance of a walk along the lake, while Bruce attempted to circumnavigate it. Stall holders were already setting up their wares, and one fellow was roasting capsicums, given the pile we saw last night, he had a fair job ahead of him. We were joined on our walk by a small companion who followed us for quite some time and took on anything with 4 legs.
This was the obvious place for a weekender, some under various stages of construction. There must be some highly artistic plumbers here, (perhaps you could try this Eddie), There were also private jetties on the bank and gardens (Apart from the roses and geraniums, this pompom bush was also familiar), On the other side of the lake there was a training lane for rowers. No bike path for the coach, just a speed boat instead. (Special note for Phil Ainsworth).
Danny returned with the van and we left about 11am to travel the road alongside the Danube to see the Iron Gates. First stop was the Fortress at Golubac. It is hard to believe something so old is still standing; nobody knows who build the original and when, but additions were made in 15th century. The archways were only small and large trucks only have centimetres to spare as they passed through. There was a set of stone steps up one side but from here the path disappeared. Further up the road we visited a museum showing relics from 5500 to 7000 bce. This archaeological dig commenced in the 1965, and from this discovered the floor plan was approximately based on isosceles triangle with one vertex cut off. In the centre of the floor was fire pit with a stone surround. A replica of this type of building was outside the covered complex. Original early 20th century Serbian houses were also on the site.
A quick lunch today at 3pm of soup and bread , an empty soup bowl on a large plate topped with linen napkin and spoon appeared first, there was a high degree of anticipation as we waited for the food trolley to appear with steel jugs of hot soup. All 3 varieties of soup received our mark of approval. We left here about 4pm and the road travelled along the Danube past an amazingly steep narrow gorge, which I suspect is what is referred to as the Iron Gates. It was difficult to stop in places so we let Bruce out to run back down the road to get a photo, just like a foxhunt. We had a quick look at the Iron Gates Dam and ship lock. No photos allowed here either.
At 7pm we were still heading to our evening stop at Zajecar and light was fading.
Bruce:It happened yet again, Murray. Over dinner, any mentioning of my hotel room for tonight, with an extra seperate longeroom, complete with (live) potplants and longe chairs, was not to be tolerated. I heard dark mutterings about cat swinging and individual beds. I also just noticed the spa bath…
