Training Log Archive: jennycas

"I don't think we're in Croatia any more, Toto"

For starters, it was 1 degree at Adelaide Airport this morning and George was late to meet me because he had to melt ice on the windscreen first. But the day turned out beautifully fine so I managed to get the washing dry and prune the rosebushes before going for a ride. It's definitely winter here; the trees along the creek have dropped their leaves. And I am a bit out of practice at riding, but it was lovely to be back in my valley.

On the subject of Croatia, when I went to show George the orienteering map with "extreme terrain" I realised that I had left it at one of the free internet terminals in Changi airport last night when writing up my week's runs :( I have looked up the results from the day which I ran and seen that I was 3rd on the day (in 35A), so that wasn't too bad.

Yeah, so I orienteered in 4 countries, which was great fun, and passed through 7 in total on this trip. And I managed not to get too homesick (probably because of having friends to spend time with), so I may even do something similar another time. Really don't like long-haul flights, though - have had at most 4 hours' sleep since Thursday so am getting a bit vague now.

C • riding 1

Thurs midnight out of Frankfurt = 6pm Fri into Singapore
10:30pm Fri out of Singapore = 6:30am Sat into Adelaide

For a day which didn't even completely exist, this seems to still be very long...but is flowing entirely smoothly and included an upgrade to premium economy because the plane from Frankfurt was full.

Short run around Fuzine from the hotel/lodge (a bit bare, and situated near a huge timber mill - this is a timber town and I'm guessing that disparaging forestry wouldn't be the done thing here) to take some photos of window boxes in the village and to stretch legs before a day of travelling.

Rijeka (Krk) to Cologne with airberlin, then train to Frankfurt, a couple of hours wandering around the city and a very nice dinner before train back to Frankfurt airport and a midnight flight to Singapore. It was weird to hop on the plane and hear people speaking English not German - in Croatia there were German tourists everywhere so that's the only language I have recognised for the last few days.

Ich mag airberlin besser als Lufthansa!

What's this activity called orienteering? I'd almost forgotten about it! But seriously, last week was good practice for running around sinkholes. These were both scenic and scary; the organisers had promised extreme terrain with 10m cliffs but it wasn't quite as fearsome as that, although I did take it pretty easy, not having felt so well during the day (a few winding roads didn't help, although the ferry crossing from the starkly barren island of Pag was pretty impressive). Starting at 5:30pm was a novelty, but it was coolish in the forest and I really enjoyed myself. Some less-than-optimal route choices, including one where a track marked as major simply disappeared, and pretty slow going because I was afraid of putting a foot down a hole between the rocks (and it was rocky). Gosh, the forest was beautiful - fir trees made it mysterious, and ferns & moss beautified the rocks.

Sorry not to be doing the other days of this event, especially the old town sprint on Krk on Thurs (although the airport being conveniently situated on the same island makes it easy for Blair to drop me off on his way to the sprint). Didn't stay to check the results. We went in search of pizza - which was excellent - and got to it before the Kiwi juniors descended on the place.

East along the foreshore/harbour from Borik with Blair, past some exceedingly expensive boats (one with a helicopter on deck) to the old town in Zadar which is on a peninsula meaning even more waterfront to run around. I was really taken by the 'sea organ', a series of pipes under steps, into which the waves wash and from which the most amazing music emerges at random. It's absolutely haunting, the sound is enhanced every time a ferry goes past, and it drew me back there twice later in the day. I would have gone again in the evening to see the light spectacle of the 'greeting to the sun', which is synchronised at night with the waves, but legs were a bit weary from touristing all day. We caught a ferry to the nearest island, lunched there, swam off there (a tiny island all of 80m off its coast being the drawcard; it was so shallow that someone who wasn't me practically walked there). A perfect touristing day and I managed not to get sunburnt :)

More of Plitvice lakes in the morning, before the tourists got going (or at least, in the opposite direction from most of the tourists), and then a drive to Zadar on the coast through some country which reminded me of the Flinders Ranges, apart from the abandoned farms from the war, and then a zigzag from a mountain pass down a starkly barren escarpment. Glad I wasn't driving! I went for a run late in the day, west along the beach from our accommodation in Borik. Could hardly move for beachgoers. Afterwards I joined them, and christened my new swimsuit in the Mediterranean!

Around Zagreb from our hotel near the station. Started out through the city with Blair, also started in the general direction of uphill, which I really struggled with, probably being dehydrated from the 4-trains-and-a-bus minor epic yesterday afternoon from Pecs to Zagreb with no airconditioning, and also still flat from last week's cold. Had to rest for 5 min at the top of the hill until my heart rate went back to normal, then came back down a beautiful green valley and past a few neat fountains in the park/square, which I later photographed.

The afternoon was spent meandering around the Plitvice lakes with Blair. Now all the descriptions in the guidebooks and from people who had been there, raving about how beautiful the lakes and waterfalls are, still didn't do them justice. It's limestone country with sinkholes surrounded by lush vegetation and I liked the tiniest lakes best of all. I took possibly hundreds of photos in proof of this :) The boardwalks are slightly rickety and precarious yet they hold up with foot-traffic of thousands of people every day. Entry fee includes the bus/train which drops people at the end of the walks, and the boat across the lakes; the whole set-up is pretty organised. If not staying in one of the big hotels then private accommodation in guesthouses is the best option, and they are really nice but sometimes something is lost in translation, even on a booking site in English...

Apparently "two-bed room" does not, as you might expect, mean a room with two beds, but rather, a bed for two. Or, in this case, a bed big enough to sleep about 4 - so that I never even knew I was sharing. (But we were both pretty excited, the next night in Zadar, to score an apartment with 2 whole bedrooms for 80 euro/night. I hadn't had a room to myself for nearly 2 weeks!)