Krka National Park
04 September 2022
Phil Heaton
After the squall, inevitably we were back to motoring, and this took us nine miles up the Krka River and gorge to the pontoon at Konoba Vidrovaca (restaurant) where mooring was free if you ate at the restaurant. For 200kuna (£23) the folk at the restaurant take you (and pick you up) in a RIB to Skradin where you get the ferry into the park. There are multiple falls and well- developed and maintained boardwalk and paths with good viewing stops. There are also a lot of visitors and stalls satisfying their needs for souvenirs, drinks and food.
There are additional ferry trip options above the falls and we took one to the island of Visovac where there is a Franciscan monastery dating from 1445. If you are into that kind of thing, the monastery boasts a collection of historical church linens and dishes …. It is a very tranquil place in the middle of the river lake but you only get to stop for 30 minutes. Still it was well worth the trip.
The food at the Konoba was good but we were not impressed when on the first night that we stayed they added £17.50 to the bill without saying anything – when we asked what it was for they said water and electricity on the pontoon. Since we hadn’t plugged in or used any water (we have our watermaker) they apologised and took it off the bill. We were even less impressed when they tried it again on the second night. Hm. Need to be careful in busy touristy places.
Our departure did not go according to plan and we fulfilled that old cruising adage “if you have not been the entertainment you have not been anywhere”. A gusty cross-wind did it for us, and we snagged an adjacent mooring line around our propeller. The thickness of the line was too much for our rope cutter and we were well and truly caught up … and close to the rocks ashore. The anchor was rapidly deployed to stop us hitting adjacent boats and lines were taken to two other boats to stabilise matters. Diving under the boat Phil could see that the mooring line was going to take some freeing and we needed to make the boat more secure as the anchor was not holding. Cruisers being cruisers, a couple of folk hurried to help and we got a line from the bow and one from the stern to a mooring buoy well off the pontoons. With a rope to the bow of another boat acting as a spring we could gradually haul ourselves towards the buoy and out of danger of causing any damage to MINNIE B or any other boats. The Konoba owner called up a diver as were going to need two on board and one in the water to get out of this situation, and sure enough there was a successful outcome albeit our wallets were a bit lighter having to pay for the diver and a replacement mooring line.
One valuable outcome though has been to solve the question of Norma’s Christmas present 2022 – it will be a bow thruster …
We were next heading for the big and popular Dalmatian islands of central and southern Croatia and we were somewhat unsure about what we would encounter and whether it would be very different from the small northern islands.
With some strong northerly winds forecast we decided to find a suitably sheltered anchorage and on Sunday 21st August we tried our luck at Grebastica near to the Ostrica Wall which was built in 1497 – called “the Chinese Wall”, it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but interesting none the less. However, the holding in Luka Grebastica was poor and we were not comfortable so we carried on for the 11nm to Luka Rogoznica where the holding was very good. There was a nearby landing for the dinghy and those vitals for cruisers, plenty of waste bins (including recycling) in the town, along with two supermarkets and a fresh produce market.
Again, applying our policy of Friday movement, we stayed until 26th when we headed for Stari Grad, Hvar.
Gallery photos when we have better wifi.