8/6/24 Podstrana to Guesthouse Bubalo

 

     Breakfast on the balcony , a tough life , but if it wasn't us , it would be someone else 😉

     We decided not to bother too much with Split , and kept driving - more coast to check out . Just out of Split near Split Airport is the town of Trogir . If you're going to have a look around , mark this town as one to check out . We drove in and found the markets were on , so one road was closed , so we drove further around finding superb old buildings and another marina , a bridge over an inlet and everything was so busy cars & people everywhere . Looked for a carpark but that wasn't happening either , so reluctantly we drove back out of town and kept going . The next 3 photo's were snapped from the car as we drove .

    Out touring the roads again and it took us inland a bit - not far though - and we passed a marina that was full of yachts - should have pulled in there for a look as well ! We got distracted by some road works another kilometre away , while we were stopped I noticed a road off to the left and a high hill - surely there must be a viewing point from up there somewhere ??? Another windy road , this time double lanes and all new , next thing , a carpark on 3 levels for about 150 cars . We checked the views , here's the marina we'd just driven past .

    The road carried on further up the hill , so up we went to another smaller carpark for about 20 cars , most for disabled spots . Walking up the steep driveway we could see some sort of monument ??? up on top of the hill and beside a telecommunications tower . Surprise , surprise , there was a cafe for a meal or a drink . Then there's a newly completed area around the monument , it's called Kip Gospe of Loreto, which converts to Our Lady of Loreto , protector of Primosten .

   Apparently there's lot's of pilgrimages made to it from those of that persuasion . It commands a view to die for from the top of that mountain , this is looking back toward Split direction .

    This is the view over Primosten , another spectacular view over the town and islands . Primosten has a lot of holiday apartments , and is building many more - there's money to be made from religious pilgrimages . It' also a very pretty nice place to go on holidays as well . 

    Here's a closer view of the marina , and that's just one of the jetties !!

    Time for us to leave the coast , roads are winding up & downhills and valleys and the complexion of the country has changed . The brand new apartment sand cottages have given way to farm houses and smaller towns , the odd castle ruins and lots of empty derelict houses , buildings & sheds . This is coming into Drnis . A lot of the building materials , rocks etc have been used to rebuild homes etc in town after wars & conflicts .

    This is Drnis , and has a thriving brown coal mining industry .

    Here's some of the derelict buildings alongside the road .

    The occasional fort also thrown in the mix , this one near Knin .

    This is coming into Knin

    And this .

    This next section of that road changed completely , to a manicured tree lined main road with ample footpaths and a park area , judging by the satellite map , Knin is also a major rail depot .

    We stopped an had some lunch at a little restaurant , another really good meal and we both had drinks as well , walked out after paying 16 euro - bargain .

    Mountains appear * disappear again as we continue our drive to near Plitvice .

    One little town had no-one living in it , all the houses and factories were empty and falling down .

    We took a bypass off the main road to Udbina , hopefully get to a supermarket before they closed , it was getting late on a Saturday afternoon , so we weren't sure if they'd even be open . Fortunately for us they were still open . This is the view around the adjacent valley .

    Continuing on after getting our limited supplies , we weren't too far away from our accomodation for the next 2 nights - Guesthouse Bubalo . I had read in the reviews " it was like driving on a road to nowhere" , so was prepared for an interesting drive in . Pulling off one road that wasn't terribly wide , we find ourselves going down a one car wide lane that would be better suited as a roller coaster , up & down , corners on the crest of the hills and long grass right on the edge of the road - hopefully we don't meet anyone - we didn't , who else would be coming up here ??? The road was bitumen - that was a bonus - there were many derelict farm houses & sheds almost completely overgrown . What seemed to take a long time , wasn't that bad and we arrived at our Guesthouse . We were greeted by the owner , who showed us our room , then the kitchen and then the bathroom - we had a huge bedroom , a separate kitchen & dining room and a bathroom off that . We unloaded and sat for a bit , what a day , coast to the country with a bit of everything thrown in between . 

  Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1wt4r3kw7j2sZrRbGk186Joc7rv3qNo0&usp=sharing