The first few km’s hiking from Izvor Kupe are nice, then I hit another paved forest road. The thing goes on and on and on. Endless asphalt. Endless turns. Endless forest. In the heat of the day. There is zero traffic, so I listen to some upbeat music on my phone. Then this road hits a bigger road. Again endless asphalt, topped with cars. Oh what joy is hiking out here.
At the convenient store in Crni Lug I buy myself an ice cream, soda pop and a bag of crisps. Bread has sold out at the end of the day. I then continue hiking to the entrance of Risjnak NP. The hotel is closed due to renovation, the restaurant is open (including WiFi, yeah!). Since camping (or bivouac and hitting bears, see sign on entrance ticket) isn’t allowed, I stayed at a sobre (room) just down the road.
Running up to Schlosserov dom
I’m in a shower, wearing my cloths and backpack. It’s raining, cats and dogs, and frogs and the whole arch of Noah…The hike up the mountain to the hut is a nice one, I did not see of lot of though. At the dom they’re only serving beansoup, only beansoup sounds delicious to me!
It doesn’t stop raining, so after waiting for a while I hit the trail again. That evening I arrive soaking wet at dom Lepenica – a little off-trail. This hut is only open in the weekends, but I guess it’s ok if I use the garden. It’s got pick-nick tables, a stream running next to it and a campfire area (don’t use the wood that’s laying in the garden, that’s meant for heating and cooking).
Bushwhacking, again
A few km’s after leaving the dom and back on the Dinarica, it’s obvious this trail doesn’t get used a lot. At a some points it’s pretty OK hiking, at other points I’m up to my chest in the bushes, the nasty, stinging ones. At again another point I’m even up to my head in the bushes, yeah that was fun!
After passing over the A6 highway I was done with the bushwhacking. I found an old unused road and hiked to Fužine.
Fužine
In the small town of Fužine the lady of the tourist office helped me find a place to stay – a nice and quite hostel (a group of Buddhists were heaving a silence retreat). The convenient store is, again, well stocked for buying resupply on the go and there’s even free WiFi in the town centre. Tomorrow I’m taking a zero. My photo camera is broken and I’m taking a bus to Rijeka to buy a new one.
More photos on Instagram. This blog has blog has been written on trail and on a mobile phone.
