A Week With The Clay's - Wachtberg

Whilst we were exploring Amsterdam I got a call to say my Auntie Julie was in Germany visiting her brother and sister in-law who recently moved over from America. I've not seen her for months so accepted without hesitation when she invited us to visit them. We drove 368 km across Holland and just over the border into Germany. We arrived at the Clay residence in Wachtberg, approximately 25 km outside of Bonn mid afternoon. We were greeted by Nigel, Auntie Julies brother and Murphy their Labradoodle. Not long after we arrived Auntie Julie, Michele, Nigel's wife and their 5 year old daughter Natalie returned from a girls shopping trip. We caught up over an amazing finger buffet of bread, cheese, meat and olives for lunch before heading out with the dogs across some farmland behind their beautiful house. In the distance Nigel points out seven hills on the other side of the Rhine known as the Siebengebirge and an impressive collection of castles adorning them. This makes for a pretty impressive view in the morning.

It doesnt take long for us to settle in, Auntie Julie kindly gives up her bedroom in the basement and moves into Natalie's room with her. Michele insists we make full use of the laundry room to get all of our washing done whilst we are there. Clean bedsheets and towels should help to make returning to the van just about bearable in a few days time. Jac is on bedtime story duty and Oscar and Murphy are sleeping on the sofa worn out from an afternoon of playing together. We enjoy hearty home made toad in the hole for dinner and spend the evening catching up. The prospect of a proper bed for the first time in 7 months is just too much, we are tucked up and sound asleep by 11. I'm not sure who is more excited, us or Oscar.

Jac, Natalie, Gavin & Murphy enjoying a bed time story

Auntie Julie & her brother Nigel

Murphy & Oscar asleep after playing together all day



Its the little things

The following morning Nigel and Michele take us to visit Rheinfels Castle in St Goar. The castle dates back to 1245 and is the largest and most imposing on the River Rhine it also ranks in the top three castles in Rhineland. We start a walking tour around the castle from the clock tower. The castle is huge and in 1692 withstood an attack of 20,000 French troops.  We spend the afternoon exploring caves, tunnels and staircases before heading back to the house to see what Oscar and Murphy have been up to. Jac cooks poached salmon, steamed vegetables and new potatoes for dinner and we open a couple of bottles of wine. We spend the evening watching Justin Timberlakes SNL videos and share some of our travelling photographs. 

A view of the Rhine from the castle

Gavin at Rheinfels Castle

Rheinfels Castle

A view along the Rhine

A view from the castle

 

L-R Gavin, Michele, Natalie and Nigel

The following morning we are up early and ready to make the most of the day with Auntie Julie as she flies back to the UK tonight. We head to a town called Linz, about 20 minutes from Wachtberg. We drive along the Rhine before catching a quick car ferry to the other side, it takes less than 5 minutes and costs 3€. We spend the day popping in and out of the quaint little shops in the town and looking at the beautiful little houses. We find a small pub to escape the cold and sample some local beer and some currywurst. Later that evening we drive Auntie Julie to the airport and wave her on her way.

Natalie kindly lends me her sweat band....



Linz, Germany



Linz, Germany




Linz, Germany



Saying goodbye to Auntie Ju

We return to the house where it's my turn for bed time story duty. I begin reading Natalie's book of choice, Puff The Magic Dragon. Less than 2 pages in she informs me I should be 'singing' the story not just reading it. After a slightly embarrassing 10 pages we are finished and Natalie attempts to comfort me by telling me my singing 'isn't that bad'. Next it's Gavin's turn, he's picked an equally challenging read, Dr Suess. A book of rhymes and riddles and although I dont have to sing this one it saw me tongue tied after only a cupple of pages. I muddle my way through to the end and Gavin seems satisfied with my attempts and happily goes off to bed. We spend the rest of the evening watching a film with Michele and Nigel.

The following day is a relaxed and slow paced as both the children are full of a cold. Michele takes me to the local shopping centre where I stock up on fleeces and blankets for the camper whilst Jac walks Murphy and Oscar and Nigel watches the children. By mid afternoon the children have perked up so Jac and I take them to the park whilst Michele spends the afternoon preparing a traditional Amercian Roast. Later that evening we sit down to dinner, a slow cooked beef joint roasted with chunky vegetables and red wine served with potatoes and bacon and butter brussel sprouts. For afters we sample four small desserts. Absolutely incredible!!

Gavin at the park



Ready to try our first American Roast



Those cakes...

Today we are up early and preparing to leave. We gather our things and try and restore some order in the camper. It's going to be hard to settle back in after a few days in a spacious house with unlimited hot water and a washing machine. Our time with The Clays has been brilliant, we've had some much fun and they've been the best hosts. They've filled us with amazing food, shown us some beautiful sights and given us the most comfortable nights sleep we've had in months. We can't thank them enough.

 

Saying goodbye to The Clay's after an amazing stay

 

 

 

 

Plitvicka Jezera National Park - Croatia

After leaving Krka National Park we travelled north into the mountains. We wound around narrow roads witnessing some of the most spectacular views. As we drove through the occasional village it is safe to say we witnessed our fare share of odd behaviour. We pulled up to a wild camp we had intended to stay at and were greeted by an Ostrich peering over a fence at us. We parked the van and got out to investigate. As we got closer we could hear all kinds of squeaks and squawks. What we stumbled across next was really quite strange. There was a pen with four alpacas tucking into a fresh bale of hay, two donkeys, two Shetland ponies, four little piglets, a wallaby, an owl, two monkeys a deer and a flamingo. Right in front of us. There was nobody around to talk to just this fairly odd mixture of animals chilling by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.    

An unusual welcome committee

Two Ringo's

The Parrot



Fluffy Alpacas

Two Shetland Ponies

Two Donkeys

One of four Piglets

Billy Goats Gruff

After taking a few photos and making a little donation towards some food for the animals we continued on our journey. As we crawled uphill and around a bend we spotted an old man perched on a donkey moseying right along the mountains edge. Scarily close to the edge in fact. The donkey was laden with what looked like a lifetimes possessions and a small dog followed. We stopped to take a picture of the old man and his pets, he was more than happy to oblige and gave a right rye smile for the camera, bless.

The happiest man on earth. And his donkey <3

After an eventful journey we reached our next stop, we spent two nights at an Auto-Camp in Muškovci. It was so peaceful and at times annoyingly quiet, but beautiful all the same. Breathing in the crisp fresh air and feeling the morning dew on the grass has been a thing of the past for the last few months although the sun had burnt away all that freshness by about 9am we enjoyed it while it lasted. After a relaxing couple of days we got straight back on the sightseeing wagon and set of for Plitvicka Jezera National Park.

120 km north towards Zagreb we reached Plitvicka Jezera National Park (NP). The park was awarded NP status in 1949 making it the oldest in Croatia. It has become one of the most valuable features of natural interest in Croatia and wider Europe. It is the largest National Park in Southeast Europe extending over 29,500 hectares, forest covers 22,300 ha whilst 217 ha are covered by water and the remaining 7000 ha are occupied by villages. There are 16 lakes linked together by cascades and waterfalls fed from numerous brooks and streams.

We paid 70kn for parking and claimed half price admission (55kn) because of flooding. There are eight walking trails to follow ranging from 2-8 hours. We brought a map and set about exploring. The first trail we followed was centred around the largest lake Jezero Kozjak, three smaller lakes, Milanovac, Gavanovac and Kaluderovac and Veliki Slap, the largest waterfall at the NP and lasted 3-4 hours. We took a boat from west to east on the Jezero Kozjac and began our trail around the Milanovac Lake. A short distance in we realised most of the paths on our trail were closed due to flooding although we were desperate to see the Veliki Slap so we decided to walk it anyway. We ducked under the yellow tape and continued along the trail. We wound around crystal clear ice cold lakes and along flooded pathways sticking close to the foot of the rocks when we couldn’t see the paths edge.  The wooden pathways were slippery underfoot and the rapid like waters were spilling over onto stairways and bridges although the pathways were quiet so we were able to take our time. Jac kept an eye on Oscar as I clung onto handrails for dear life frequently losing my feet in the fast current.

We reached the Veliki Slap and were the only ones there. Towering 78m above us it was breathtakingly beautiful. We were showered in fresh cold spray from the waterfall whilst we stood trying to capture it from every angle. Its hard to do it any justice with words and harder to capture the enormity of it in a photo, this really is one of those things you need to see to appreciate.

After all the excitement we decided to find a table to sit at a eat our pre-packed pic-nic. How super organised and money conscious we have become!! We sat in the sun studying the map and enjoying our marmalade sandwiches before heading off on another trail. We were both shattered and walking around with sopping wet trainers but wanted to see as much as we could. We squelched back to the jetty to wait for the boat back down the Jezero Kozjak.

Our next trail was around the 7 smaller lakes, Gradinsko, Galovac, Malo, Vir, Batinovac Veliko and Okrugljak. We saw smaller waterfalls and made our way around most of this on narrow wooden footpaths crisscrossing back and forth over the lakes. After a long day of exploring these enchanting lakes we decided to head back to the camper and find somewhere to stay for the night. We drove to a small Autocamp 2km down the road and stayed there for the night. We paid 10€ each for a pitch with electricity and use of the toilet and shower facilities.

The following morning we woke to rain and thunderstorms so decided to stay in the van and eat our own bodyweight in toast. By early afternoon the weather had cleared up and we made our way to Zagreb, the capital and our last stop before leaving Croatia after almost a month.




A wooden pathway from above

Taking the boat across Jezero Kozjak

The boat stop on Jezero Kozjak

Plitvicka Jezera National Park



Plitvicka Jezera National Park

Deserted pathways

Oscar sniffed out this frog

Water cascading over the walkways

Water cascading over the walkways

Veliki Slap

Jac & Oscar posing at the Veliki Slap

Closed pathways

Plitvicka Jezera National Park

Plitvicka Jezera National Park

Krka National Park - Croatia

After waving goodbye to Kelly and Lloyd in Dubrovnik we drove 27 km north where we stopped at Slano, a small village known for olive, herb, fruit and tobacco growing. We stopped along the way at the Bacina Lakes just outside Dubrovnik and arrived fairly late in the evening so didn't get to see much along the way. The only thing we saw when we drove into the village was a man sat in the middle of the road on a chair. Fishing down a drain. At that point we decided we'd stay one night, no more! The following morning we packed up and left for our next stop Stobrec. 7 km outside Split and the first campsite we stayed on when we arrived in Croatia almost a month ago. We stayed in Stobrec for one night before heading the Krka National Park the following day.

 

Bacina Lakes, Dalmatia

Bacina Lakes, Dalmatia

Bacina Lakes, Dalmatia

 

We travelled 92 km north west to Krka National Park just outside Šibenik where the River Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. The park was announced as Croatia's seventh national park in 1985 and was formed mainly to protect the river. It is now used to host an array of scientific, cultural, recreational and tourism activities. The park boasts 109 square kilometres along the River Krka which is 72.5 km long making it the 22nd longest river in Croatia. We parked the camper (for free) and paid 110 kn each for admission (unless you take the bus you probably wouldn't need a ticket as nobody checked ours). We took a bus 1 km down to the entrance to the Skradinski Buk the longest and most famous waterfall on the River Krka, also considered one of the most beautiful calcium carbonate waterfalls in Europe.

River Krka

River Krka

River Krka

Skradinski Buk

Skradinski Buk

We followed the 2.5 km walking trail around the waterfalls, following winding wooden slatted pathways weaving back and forth around the river. Oscar had his nose to the ground the whole time and was in and out of the shallow water when he could find it. The recent heavy rainfall has obviously increased the depth of the river as in some areas it was spilling over onto paths and walkways.



Krka National Park



Whilst wandering around in full tourist form, backpack and camera included we read about the different inhabitants of the park including the European pond turtle and the Hermanns tortoise. There are various species of snake such as Grass snake, Dice snake, Balkan Whip snake and the Four Lined snake as well as several species of lizard including the Dalmatian wall lizard and the Balkan green lizard. There are also twenty species of fish, eight species of amphibians and forty six species of mammals residing in the park.



One of the many wild flowers growing in the park



Birds on the River Krka

Heavy rainfall has caused water levels to rise dramatically



Krka National Park



Krka National Park

The waterfalls were amazing and unlike anything either of us had ever seen. There were small collections of waterfalls cascading through what looked like hillsides and there were grand waterfalls causing complex water systems that had pulled down trees. We walked across a large wooden bridge where we were sprayed with ice cold water from the waterfalls. Probably the most beautiful place we have visited to date. We spent the majority of the day at the park before heading back to the camper and setting off for our next stop 122 km north east.




Krka National Park

The spray created a rainbow over the waterfalls



The church of Saint Nicholas made from deposited calcium carbonate

Enjoying the sunshine at the national park