Cold Summer Day In Baška, Croatia, August 2021

Most probably many people worldwide would think that Croatia, a Mediterranean country, would not have cold days in the middle of the summer, but that can be pretty wrong! There are some parts of Croatia which are pretty harsh naturally & can surprise even the most prepared! One of those places is Baška, Croatia...

Baška used to be one of the biggest shipyards in this part of Adriatic sea from where some of the best quality wooden boats & ships were build. It was also a traditionally fisherman village & some rumors say that Croatian pirates were also sometimes hiding here but also some pirates originated from Baška too!

Some 1,5 km inland from the Baška beach, which is also one of the most beautiful beaches in Croatia & even in larger scale comparisons, there's a another village called Jurandvor - by the mainstream history, a place where the 1st written document-monument was found on Croatian language & carved into a stone panel in Glagolitic letter. Jurandvor is also a place where my grandfather Nikola was born & raised, an energy engineer, who later on implemented the electricity system into Jurandvor for sure, but most probably into the whole Baška valley & many other parts of Croatia & Yugoslavia. He was really a great man, helping many people! His father, my great grandfather, was also born & raised in Jurandvor & his mother, my great grandmother, was born & raised in Baška. So, I have some strong family roots in these to villages & in Baška valley generally. In the valley there are 2 more villages: Batomalj & Draga bašćanska & the valley itself it's a paradise of it's own!

The valley has such a fertile ground that almost anything you plant grows very good & gives a lot of yield but most famous were tomatoes. They grow almost naturally & in the time of Yugoslavia the people from the valley were growing so much tomatoes, measured in tons & there was a tomato factory working & exporting tomato sauce & probably other tomato products.

There is so much stone here that we can export it! So people freely do many kinds of stone building interventions in the environment... I doubt that these stone constructions have any practical use but maybe they have had back in the old days.

I was fantasizing for few years about living the whole summer & maybe even longer in the valley & managed to find myself a 2 stores old stone house in Draga Bašćanska, 4 km from Baška beach. A perfect distance from the tourism infected Baška, all the bad smells, noise & crowd who come from all the parts of the world to enjoy these natural beauties.

It is interesting the microclimate of the valley - in the summer, during the long days, it's so fucking hot that you can barely survive, around 35 °C or higher in the shade & then in the evening it drops to 25 °C & possibly sometimes even lower - & I mean in July & August, the peak of summer! & that is for me perfect cause you can sleep like a baby, especially if you're living in a real traditional stone house, & fully practice all the summer joys during the daytime! Also the sea temperature rarely rises above 28 °C & usually it keeps down to 20-25 °C which really cools you down & refreshes you in the heat of summer!

I'm really fascinated with these stone constructions & how many people hiking here like to leave some of their hand-work behind. Very nice! You can also see how windy was that day by the white foam created by waves on the sea surface in the background distance & the next island across the sea - Prvić.

This is Prvić from another perspective - which I shot from a boat: https://peakd.com/hive-142159/@careassaktart/my-entry-to-monomad-challenge-32abaa21091af.

I shot several shots of these stone constructions so you can see that I was really fascinated. On one rock on the left construction you can see some words written in Slovenian - it says: "In love is all the power of the world!"

Here is the highest of structures in the distance - it is very possible that this one was made to really serve some praxis in the past but I really don't know for what...

Other people were hiking that day too.

I must admit that I have a direct crush on girls with curly hairs. So after climbing 300-400 m high on these inhospitable rocks, I saw this a bit older but so pretty Italian woman & just needed to record that sight. In general, when I see a woman alone in the mountains I interpret her as a very strong & determined woman which is very attractive to me. Later on we spoke a bit so than I found that she was Italian & likes to hike & she was there for the same reasons as I was but it was all the interaction we made, enough for me!

Fascinating are these dry stone walls stretching for miles all over this stone desert. Those walls were serving as borders between the people's properties.

I was climbing that day from the nudist camp Bunculuka up on the top of the hill & than hiked across the Moon plateau all the way to Vela luka beach. Why I decided to go up on the hill in the middle of August, maybe you wonder?! Cause the day before, or the night before, it was heavily raining & in the morning the cold mountain wind started heavily blowing & the temperature dropped to 25 °C so it was the perfect chance to go hiking cause it was not too hot even at noon, the peak of the day heat! Swimming was not necessary either cause it was not hot.

On the way I could see few of these dry canyons where most probably streams were flowing in the past & land work has been done & was possible even in these dry poor lands!

Some part of this wasteland are still covered with plants & dry grass which make them perfect pastures for sheep.

The wind was mercilessly blowing non-stop!

When I was finally able to see the other side & getting closer to Vela luka, the sight was astonishing! The high mountain chain that you can see across the sea in the distance is the main reason of the unexpectedly, harshly weather changes!

Also, on the shores in the distance you can see a settlement - that is a very famous town called Senj. Senj is mostly famous for pirates. This town had been given a very high level of independence by Austrian royal Habsburg family cause it was on the border between 2 rival empires/states: Turkish Empire in the North-East & Venetian Republic in the West. Both, Turks & Venetians were shitting in pants when seeing the troops of soldiers from Senj on the sea or on the land. Except being great warriors, they were also great sailors & boat builders & they knew both the surrounding lands & Velebit mountain & the sea & wind currents very well so they were unbeatable for a long, long time! There's a book Čuvaj se senjske ruke by famous Croatian writer August Šenoa which all the three nations should read to know the history from the side of the mighty people living in a small sea town of Senj pressed down by the big forces of Austria, Turkey & Venice. I hope there's a translation in German, Turkish & Italian!

That mountain chain is the longest in Croatia with many high peaks rising up to 1600-1700 m high & we call it with a very significant name - Velebit. "Vele" means big & "bit" means something like "being", it's a bit hard to translate.

Finally I reached Vela luka (= "Big port") beach which was protected from the direct wind & there I went swimming naked after 1,30-2 h of walking the rocks.

There is another valley behind Vela luka but much lesser fertile than the Baška valley.

You can see signs of human presence in stones everywhere there - on the top of this hill it's even possible there were houses but I didn't go up to check & really don't know much about it.

I especially like this detail here - like a natural concrete made by the forces of the Great Mother Nature & on top of it some human made stone wall again.

This is the valley behind Vela luka. On its other side it's another small bay protected from the wind.

There are even 2 houses built probably from the people who own the land around.

This is Vela luka. Beautiful place!

So just that I finish the story of Baška, Velebit & the wind which connects these 2: After the heavy rain instantly falling on the hot stones here on the island but also on the stony mountain peaks of Velebit, the hot stones cool down very fast so we get a big difference between the temperatures in the mountain heights & that on the sea level & also in the air pressure & exactly this difference makes the cold mountain wind start to blow strongly from the mountain to the sea! We call it bura & that is another thing of which Baška is known about.

I hope you enjoyed my travelogue presentation! Thanks for reading!

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