Though we found Borik the year before, we didn't want to go there because we wanted to see more of the coast. Going the north way would be too difficult, driving all the way from Rijeka, in the narrow space between the Velebit mountain and the coast, with the cliff being on our right side (one wrong move and you may be flying over), and there was no direct road to mid-coast, so we decided to take it from the lower end, through Bosnia. Of course we had some ćevapčići at Mrkva's on Baš Čaršija in Sarajevo, stopped south of Mostar on Buna, camped there again.
Went to Podgora, where the camp was on terraces, all of them almost bare stone, but all facing the shore. No shade but, hey, we came for some tan, right? Well, it was nice until the first serious wind. Dad had to pick a few larger stones and lay them around the tent, and then zigzag the nylon rope (which he otherwise used to tie the roofpack) across the tent lest it fly off. (or was that a year ago?)
We packed in the morning and made the next camp in one of the Kaštela. There are seven of them, and they are the string of villages on the coast WNW of Split. I think we were in Kaštel Gomilica (little heap castle). I got a serious sunburn, which mom said should be eased by spreading yogurt (croatian solid yogurt, not our liquid one). It did work, the burn has stopped, but I spent the time playing solitaire, and it shrunk my skin meanwhile. Just stretching my legs to get up was painful, specially below the knees. I got up somehow - can't stay like that, can I? - and washed it off in the sea. But twenty minutes after I got dry it started again, skin has soaked a lot of it. So I had to repeat a few times.
There I was translating for a couple of guys; one of them was hitting a really beautiful german girl... I don't know whether he had any success. She was laughing at all the right places, but I'm not sure she liked the guy. I'll never know.
Eventually we got tired with the shit literally* floating from the ships, the water was often dirty, so we went to Borik, giving up on the investigations.
(I first wrote this as happening in 1970, wrong.)(or not... I moved this into 1971 but then it does fit better into 1970)
Meanwhile, in a papirus boat, Thor Heyerdahl crossed from Marocco to Barbados. So if he could do it, then ancient Egyptians could as well. In current Egypt, the Asuan dam is finished. It will take six years to fill the lake.
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* notice how I took the word 'literally' literally literally.
25-VII-2016 - 28-VIII-2025