The morning bus brought us back to the trail by 8:30am. It took us all day to hike 10 miles due to trail conditions. The wind howled all day as we bushwhacked and climbed over fallen trees. We finally get to the hut and it is either being remodeled or demolished. It's a shell of a shipping container with no floor. After walking around looking for the cistern for water, we see a sign saying it's 3 minutes down the trail. We were in luck. There were tenting sites near the water and a picnic table. All in the trees and out of the crazy wind.
We lay in the tent watching the nylon sides bow and flap with the gusts. The discussion is serious tonight. At what point do we give up on this trail. I sit looking at the maps with a red line marking the trail. We found these maps off the official trail website. Shadow has descriptions of each section on his phone. I read the phone, then correlate what I read on the map. To my surprise, our plan to get to the next town is not possible. If you simply look at the maps, there's a red line that goes into a town. If you read the description, it says that due to landmines from the war, you must use a different way to another town. The red line in this section is for the future trail... We knew there was a section coming up where we needed to take a train around, but this one was a surprise. Just for the fun of it I continued all the way to Bosnia. Sure enough, the red line of the trail crosses at a non-bordered crossing!
So back to our discussion.
The Via Dinarica just posted that the Croatian section of the trail is not finished or officially open, which a total change in everything we read before getting here. Do we call the whole this off and do something else? Do we stop hiking the Croatia section and go down the Bosnia where the trail is officially open? If you are a long-distance hiker and you are reading these, you know that once you skip a section, there is a switch in your brain that moves. Luckily we have enough food to get to the new destination, but then what? Now you are way off the trail with no way to get back. Needless to say we are totally frustrated. Big decisions are being discussed tonight.
Today we will have been in Europe for 2 months. For almost 2 months we have been hiking. Tomorrow we hike out to the closest town and make a new plan. Ideas are being batted around. Maybe another hike somewhere else. Maybe become normal people and be a normal tourist. Our time is limited here so let's go have some fun.
6 miles we walked out of the National park and down to Starigrad. A another seaside town busy with families on holiday. We find a room before heading to the sea for the afternoon. It's hot. Desert heat. This area is known for filming knock off John Wayne movies with characters called Old Shatterhand and Winnetou.
Karlobag, Croatia
1 comment:
Decisions, decisions! Can't wait to see what you guys decide.
And that first pix is amazing! Award winning!
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