Walking in Para Wirra, Mack Creek and Forestry land. 27/8/19

We had a lovely walk (some on tracks and some not) today.  Twelve of us were keen for a bit of a stroll and, thanks to Doug, we had a lovely few hours.

We were blessed with no rain and not much wind, so it was very comfortable walking weather.

We saw quite a few orchid flowers,  lots of leaves with no flowers, and a few others as well so we know where to look in the future.

bluebeard - we saw lots of these little beauties today

sundew

Only saw this one once

The donkeys are starting to come out  

Helmet orchids

nodding greenhood

Gnat orchid of some kind

This one was just teasing us - maybe a spider almost ready to come out??

And the scenery was terrific too.

After waiting for the vital late arrival of Vicki (with cake)  we started out through the native forest with some felled pines , making our own track for a good bit of this portion of the walk.

morning tea at the new campground in Para Wirra

Lunch was at the Devils Nose Car Park area, before a walk first down into the creek-line , and then across the road into the Lady Alice Goldfields area briefly before taking the first track up beside a creek to the Humbug Scrub road and the little dirt car park on the other side, 

Then we were treated to some really lovely creek-side walking (complete with running water) on our way back to the cars. 

Walk leader in quiet reflection

Back at the cars, we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed a feast.

Delicious afternoon tea. (beats Cudlee Creek Cafe)

Another well spent few hours with good people.  Thanks Doug.

8/7/19 - last morning in Dubrovnik

On our last part day in Dubrovnik we decided not to go back into the old city.
We were pushing to be ready to leave by 1000, and had negotiated that we could leave our  bags behind and pick them up later (rather than lugging them around the place in the heat) .

We headed off to the Red History Museum to have a look as it had been highly recommended.  From the cheery welcome and explanation  to the very end, this was an interesting and positive experience.

It was probably so good for us because we had spent our time in the previous two weeks travelling through the former Yugoslavia, and hearing all the stories.  So this museum that showed what it was like to live in the former Soviet Yugoslavia was the final piece of the puzzle being slid into place.

Trevor trying out the hands-on experience in a Yugo made Yugo

Good map showing the countries that made up Yugoslavia.

essential reading...

the stats for 1948 in Croatia from the Census. Because of this poor state of affairs the people accepted Communism as a way to forge a new future.  Unfortunately the photo is hard to read. 
71.4% of men and 61% of women had no education past primary school.
15.6 % of the population were illiterate
In Dalmatia there were 11000 people per doctor - only 450/ doctor in Zagreb
Life expectancy 48 years (men) and 53 years (women)

Remembered all the reasons why I hate playing chess - Trev looks happy for a reason.

Soviet phone (red of course) 

One of the best explanations of why the Soviet Yugoslavia failed.

By the time we finished browsing this museum we were on a tight timeline for the bus.
We decided to have lunch at the local cafe (Provo)  near our lodgings one last time, and while we waited for them to take way too long to deliver our order I went up the hill one last time to retrieve our bags. Mato kindly assisted me to bring them down the hill to the cafe, where they sat while we ate our lunch hurriedly.

The rapid walk to the bus station had us drenched in sweat again. We arrived in plenty of time as it turned out, and had to wait for our bus to arrive (about 5min before it was due to leave)

The trip to the airport is quite long, so it takes about half an hour to get there.
We arrived in plenty of time for our flight.  due to the fact that we had a choice of a bus at 1440 or one at 1555 which was going to be unworkable to get there 2 hours before our booked 1755 flight.

As it turned out, our flight on Croatia Airlines was delayed, and we had plenty of time to use the last of our Croatian cash to drink wine and relax.  This was quite a large airport with very little happening.

And so , we said goodbye to Croatia  and headed for Germany on the first leg of our long trip home.

6/7/2019 - Dubrovnik - a new home for us

After breakfast at the hostel we packed up our gear and left it in the public area of the hostel, before walking down to the  bus station with Harry and checking out the bus times to the airport (he leaves tomorrow).

Once we had done that we had the times for our bus on Monday, so that helped us with planning.  We figured we could catch the bus just after 2pm and be at the airport in plenty of time.

We messaged our airbnb host, Mato and waited at the Hostel until we heard back from him, and then walked the 700m or so with our bags to meet him just a little closer to the old city.

Mato was very helpful with the bags - taking mine for me and leaving me with the slightly lighter one of  Trevor's as we traveled up the 20 or so steps of the narrow laneway

looking back down the laneway

, through the green painted door

 and along an inner terrace

to his door in a wall at the end.

Our home for the next couple of nights was under his house - at the ground level,  with a small kitchen, dining/ living room (sofa made into a bed) , bedroom (with double bed) and bathroom with shower and toilet.

We have access to the terrace outside the bedroom window, which is shaded by vines,  by walking around outside.  We also have an airconditioner. (thankyou, thankyou)

view from terrace

Having moved across successfully, we headed into the old town again.  We had been issued with a "Dubrovnik Card" as part of the tour and this was for yesterday and today.  We used it for the town walls tour yesterday.   Since a number of other institutions were offering free entry with the card, we decided to make some use of it.

First stop was the Ethnographic Museum.  This museum was designed to show normal life through the times.  There were a lot of articles used in normal day to day life on display, but you could not touch anything. (olive presses, bee hives etc)

old shears

beehive

Beehive roof

The decorated eggs reminded us of Zita and I took photos to show her of the patterns on them.

We stopped and had some lunch at a cafe in one of the narrow laneways. This one was not much wider than the verge out the front on the footpath at home,  but had tables on either side between the stone buildings and still people walking through as well. 

I had to take a couple of photos of the amazing lolly shop  (we didn't buy any of the super sweet looking morsels)

We had a brief stroll through a church - but it was fairly plain and uninteresting except for the lovely stained glass window at the front.

The Maritime Museum was next.   This was recommended by fellow travelers, but it was hot, we were getting tired and I guess we are not that interested in boats.   The building tools were the most interesting part of it. What do they use them all for??

 As we walked past the clock tower I took a photo from the side of the green man who rings the bell.  There have been a number of these mechanical men over the years.  It must be a wearying business ringing the bell for years on end.

We met up with the remains of our tour group at the fountain  at 5pm as agreed and we all bought ourselves some early tea.  Trev and I had wraps.  We all sat perched along the step of a gutter in street,  slurping and dripping the sauce out of our very well loaded wraps and trying not to get it on us.  Some wet wipes to follow could have been very useful.  

There was a bit of discussion about the plan of attack.  The end goal of this foray was to see the sunset from the top of the hill that overlooks Dubrovnik. Harry had already walked up earlier in the day and said it was a really tough walk and difficult underfoot.  Michael was keen to prove himself and Trev would have gone with him, but the rest of us were not keen, so we all agreed to take the gondola up together.  The walk to the gondola was a fair walk as it was.

This got us up there in plenty of time to find a good spot for viewing the sunset.  The challenge is to find a view of the city and the sunset without people, buildings or gondola towers and cables in the way. We settled for a rocky outcrop on the sunset side of the cafe and official viewing area, which worked pretty well for us.  The sunset was fairly unspectacular, but passable and the only one on offer.  We enjoyed watching the little boats leaving their trails in the sunset and the last of the sea kayakers coming back into the safe harbor as night time came along. 

view from the top of the hill of the city

We sadly said goodbye to Harry, Michael and Kristen as they headed down the hill track, and stayed with Tracey to admire the city as the lights slowly came on.  

You can really make out the main street easily because of the lights.

  

Then we headed down on almost the last cable car to the bottom and walked through the old city one last time to get to our bus home.  Pity help the people who are here should a natural disaster  ever hit.  The narrow rabbit warren of lanes to get lost in and the limit of three exits for the entire city make it a real disaster trap.  

Having said that,  I love this city.  I could wander these old walled cities with the narrow lanes for days on end just people watching and admiring and wondering... but it would drive Trevor crazy.

After a farewell to Tracey at the bus stop (she headed one way and we another) we headed home to our comfy beds for a well earned rest.