Plitvice National Park, Croatia – 220 km

We left the hotel in Ljubljana at about 8:45 am. Once we negotiated the remnants of the morning rush hour in the city the first bit of the drive was on a freeway. However, we turned off the slab soon and entered more rural, agricultural country. People were putting in their gardens in some areas.  After an hour or so we found ourselves at our first border crossing. We needed to report to the Slovenian customs to exit and the Croatian customs to enter. Presentation of our passports was all that was needed. We didn’t even need to take off our helmets! We stopped for a coffee break - some of the group had small cups of expresso that looked like very concentrated caffeine. Later was a lunch stop. Lots of meat and potatoes in this country –Norma and I opted for salads.

Another stop was in Karlovac, a Croatian town that was heavily shelled by the Serbs during the Yugoslav conflict of the early ‘90s devastating residential neighborhoods as well as the city center, the city hall, and numerous other buildings. They are constructing a memorial which includes tanks and aircraft and interesting items like portable bunkers and armored vehicles made from farm tractors. Some of our tour guides lived through this period and it obviously still pains them. We have 3 guides: Primoz who also drives the van and takes care of our luggage, Matej who own the tour company and is the lead riding guide and Milko, our sweeper (last rider in the group). Milko, in particular was involved with the Yugoslav army prior to the conflict and got out just in time. He described it as such a useless event pitting friends and neighbours against each other with long lasting effects.

Tonight we are at a hotel in the Plitvice National Park which is world-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. In 1979, the park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage register. After registering and changing out of our riding gear we took a bus to the top of the lake chain and walked around the area a bit.

The bike we have is a very powerful, nice handling 6 cyl. BMW, perhaps not quite as comfortable as Whiskey Jack but is doing the job nicely.

Thought you may enjoy the sign on the side of our chase van.