Day 41: Plitvicka, Croatia

Stats... 76.10km in 4hrs 16 mins. Our lady host knocked to wake us up at 8am and we got the impression they wanted us out a bit sharpish. So we packed and left asap. We cycled to the supermarket for breakfast and followed the slightly undulating hills over horrendous road works for several clicks. There was one rather long unwelcome hill that was a struggle. We stopped in a bus shelter for lunch and to hide from the heat and strong sun. We had to dodge several angry looking and sounding dogs that so far luckily have been on chains. We also saw a sign for beware of the bears for the next 8km and suddenly the dogs did not seem so bad! We made it to the National Park however the campsite on our map closed before the war apparantly so we continued 7km to the next one which was slightly infuriating at the end of a long day especially as it was in the wrong direction. At the campsite we pitched our tent on top of the brow of a hill with amazing views over a valley with a lovely clear lake which we headed straight for. After a quick dip it began to rain so we went to our tent for a siesta and wait for it to clear. We made dinner and had a few beers on our own bench and consulted the maps for our best route back to the coast.