Scott Creek walk 30/7/19

Hi all,

Trevor and I are back and we really enjoyed the walk yesterday.
Although Carol was unable to be there we really appreciated the effort that she had put in to prepare the walk and that Richard and Ellie were happy to lead it anyway.

It was a cool crisp morning and by the time we hit the first track the bottoms of our pants legs were wet (Beda's waterproof legs probably were too) .  Beda was wearing shorts as usual..
We only got a tiny fine sprinkle on us just before lunch (hardly noticeable).

We were very pleased to catch up with the other walkers after too long away. 
There were 16 walking.

We had only a few small back tracks to find better routes, (not surprising since Richard hadn't actually done this particular walk before)

I was keen to find orchids - we only saw one patch of greenhoods - but Doug pointed out lots of different orchid leaves on the route, and I have marked them on my map (mostly) so that I can come back some other time and look further.   I'm quite excited about this prospect as the orchid learning curve is quite steep for us at the moment,

I'm aware that trying to stop and look on a walk is not ideal, as it means I am constantly playing catch up at the back.  I try not to hold up the walkers too much .

It was good to share hot chocolate with the gang at Blackwood Golf Course afterwards too. Thanks all for your excellent company and thanks to Brian and Carol for making the effort to meet us for a cuppa and chat .

I've got a track of the 13km walk and a few photos here for your enjoyment. 

morning tea

old stone staircase

huge fungi

old camellia tree

drifts of scented beauty

the wattle was out

orchid leaves- mosquito?

lots of these beauties on the ground.

5/7/2019 Kotor to Dubrovnik.

We had an earlier start today as we headed to Dubrovnik from Kotor.
We left at 7.45 in order to beat the other buses coming form across the bay on the ferry. In this way we saved time at the border checkpoint.  It still took us about an hour to clear the border checks. (which is quite fast apparently)

As we drove along the coast road back along the bay we passed fish farms (circles  of mesh cage) out in the bay. 

We tracked the coast pretty well for the entire trip, descending  down into Dubrovnik and stopping at the lookout just outside of the city to look down on the amazing walled city and take photos before we had even arrived. 

Here we are staying at the Sol Hostel  It is a Hostel because the rooms are slightly too small to be allowed by hotel regulations, but our room seems fine to us. Lovely and modern. We were able to borrow a kettle and some cups form reception so that we could make ourselves a cup of tea (even better)

We left our gear in the common area, and headed into town, learning how to use the local bus service to get to the old city (we have been provided with a 24 hour bus ticket to get us to the end of the tour).  Ivan took us through the old city , through many narrow streets (very busy) to the entrance to the city walls and we walked up on to the walls from here and completed a full circumnavigation.  It was really interesting to look out over the old rooftops, see what has been done with the houses, see the narrow laneways and watch the couple trying to work up the nerve to jump from the rocks into the water far below on the coast side.  We also saw the hundred or so sea kayaks leaving and entering their pretty bay and going over to Lokrum Island.

narrow streets

St Blaise - holding a replica of Dubrovnik in one hand

the main fountain supplies lovely free water to everyone (constantly running and supplied from the nearby hills) 

this is how it is done.  His girlfriend never jumped. 

After a well deserved icecream (we were shown the best place by our leader - "Dolce Vita" we decided to go and visit the Rector's Palace.  The rector was basically the President and the Palace showed how they lived.  There was also a display of Roman coins here, which we had a look at.

with the ever-present cat. 

The "walk of shame" stairs from Game of Thrones

We walked back to the hotel to have a bit of a break.  We had planned to meet for the last time for a dinner together. 

Ivan took us back into town on the bus for another seafood meal.

None of us really wanted it to end so we took some time to walk around to the outside of the walls, where there is a small area where you can sit and watch the water.  As the music played in the background we enjoyed each other's company for one last time in this ancient city, and then finally strolled home again.

stained glass at night

city walls at night (Thanks Harry) 

4/7/2019 Kotor walking

It was going to be a sizzler of a day and the old walls of Kotor were calling us to come and climb them, so it would have been sensible to get up early and be on our way, but we slept in while we could and ambled down to breakfast at 9am, having found that there was no water for a shower yet.
We found our leader, Ivan, quietly sitting on his own waiting for us to turn up and chat.

By the time breakfast was over we finally did have water, so had a much appreciated cool shower and dressed, then headed off to town (and the walls).  The result was that we were walking up the walls on a very hot day  at almost the worst time... and boy was it hot!!  It was also humid, so I looked as though I had taken a shower by the time we were only a fraction of the way up.

The building of the walls started in the 9th century and by the 14th century a protective loop was complete around the old town They are more than 4km in length and reach a height of 260m (felt like lots more) . At the top of the ramparts is the fortress of St Ivan/ St John , which is reachable by walking the walls. There is also an old chapel on the way (Our Lady of Health).   There are some ruins of an old village part of the way up, which we could see from the top, looking down, but we never found a way to get to them.

Walk through here and turn left to get to the walls

this is what the track looked like

view from part way up

Looking down on the chapel

Sweaty tired people part way up

almost at the top

Cat snoozing behind the grid and beer for sale on the way up and down.

narrow steps and path on the way down.

where shall we eat???

Good choice ...- Not the man, (ALTHOUGH HE IS A GOOD CHOICE TOO)  - The cold drink. 

We deviated from the main path we had used to come up from the old town, and took a side path off to the powder magazine, finally emerging closer to the far side of the old town, down a series of narrow stairways and paths right past people's front doors and into a square with a few open air eating places - where we decided to take advantage of the cold cider on offer and treated ourselves to one each with lots of ice and some pizza to go with it. .

Profile of our walk. Quite a hill. 

I had to chop off the top (near our hotel) to capture the clearer view of the town and walls walking.

We then wandered through the old town  and ended up on the very far side again having made it up on to the wall close to where we wanted to be, but finding no way of getting down from there.  We would have been very unsuccessful invaders.  From this spot high up , looking down at where we wanted to be, we then  headed away from the direction of home along the narrow tops of the walls, and past a few spots we were not sure if were public or private.   At one stage we ended up walking through a spot with lots of plants. We found the sign saying "private" as we walked out under it.  This made for a long walk home in the heat.

looking down to the right from the walls

Look back... oops.  - We just came from through there. 

Hooray - we made it out.  

After the extreme walking and heat, we enjoyed quiet drinks with harry after a nice tea together. and a relatively early night.

Tomorrow we travel again.