6,500 KM CYCLE; DAY 56, Karlovac

Thursday 26 July Karlovac, Croatia. 0 km. Total 3165km
Day 56
Karlovac. Rained off.

Another storm last night. Constant flickers of lightning, making it seem like daylight. Loud thunder. Lie in the tent and even through the tent walls the flashes are too bright to look at. Rain all night. I keep waking up and still it is falling.

We decide to stay walk to town, after a disappointing restaurant breakfast consisting of two slices of bread and jam. Green Parks, shady areas. Areas beneath chestnut trees are dark and mysterious now under the low sky.

Back at the rainy site we drink cold beer for elevenses out on the rainsoaked terrace. The campsite is spread in front of us, three Germans skin diving in the shallow river, hens pecking in the grass, the site keeper who earlier I saw scavenging in the bins has put on a Russian hat and is standing in the rain, lighting a cigarette. It keeps raining all day from a dingy sky.

Postscript

We travelled in Croatia before the time of the Croatian War of Independence and it is sad to see the houses and places we passed through now deserted and derelict as people fled their homes during the conflict.  I wish I had taken more photographs of this moment in history.

Aventures Bicyclétales blog shows some images from a more recent time in Karlovac on this page