Author: Franco

Paklenica National Park

There’s that warning phrase again, National Park. Paklenica National Park covers the area of torrent flows of Velika Paklenica and Mala Paklenica, and their distinctive canyons carved vertically into the south slopes of Velebit Mountains and the broader surrounding area.

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

Plitvice Lakes

Today we headed out of Slovenia and into Croatia for the first time.Our first stop was to be Plitvice Lakes, “declared a National Park in 1949” [the blurb said]. A new Country is always quite exciting. This really did feel

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

Bearing Up

I was seriously disappointed with our morning. We were heading for the Postojna cave, which is one of very few homes to Olms (Proteus anguinus), fully aquatic, blind, pink, cave salamanders existing only on the Dalmatian coast. Their colour leads

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

A Change of Plan

Today we were supposed to be heading into some high ground again but our guide, MIlan, had been keeping his weather-eye on the forecast – well, that’s a good place for it – and suggested a change of plan. The

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

Mount Mangart

Day 3 on the itinerary [day 2 of doing anything wildlife oriented] and we were off to the mountains. To be precise, we were off to Mount Mangart in the Julian Alps. Our route was an interesting one since it

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

Lake Bohinj

Yesterday we had an excellently timed flight (12:55 PM take off) from Stansted lasting about two hours to Ljubljana. A couple of firsts: first flight for me from Stansted and certainly my first time in Slovenia. The timing made our

Posted in 2016 Slovenia-Croatia

Andalucia: the Alhambra

According to the Rough Guide to Spain, the Alhambra Palace at Granada is: … one of Spain’s architectural wonders and most visited monuments … The Alhambra was on Francine’s bucket list so, being only about 90 minutes away by car

Posted in 2016-05, Spain

Andalucia: Canillas de Albaida

All our previous Explore trips have been spent at several locations but this was a so-called centre-based trip at a single hotel for the duration. Here it is, on the left side of this square. On the right of the

Posted in 2016-05, Spain

Andalucia: the Fauna

Fauna, it has to be said, had been notable mostly by its scarcity back up in Jalón prior to our Andalucian visit. Dragonflies had proved particularly difficult to find, despite my best efforts. Also, rather curiously since we had quite

Posted in 2016-05, Spain

Andalucia: the Flora

As I mentioned previously, I wasn’t a great fan of trudging along, especially up, wide stone 4×4 tracks in the mountains but it give Francine some good views of the flora and gave her time to pause without getting lost

Posted in 2016-05, Spain