We spent a good deal of the weekend indoors so that a. I could work on Navorama, and b. we could get away from the stifling heat outdoors. We've been making short trips out in the evening, but today we decided we should stop wasting time indoors when we're in a location we're probably not going to see again for a long time, and head out.
We still had to cover work and school, which we did this morning, but after lunch we left on a 'mystery trip' (as far as the kids were concerned). We had to take a detour via Rijeka, the nearest big town, to pick up a new headlight bulb as we'd noticed the day before that one of them wasn't working, but this was done fairly quickly, and soon we were on the road properly.
The first leg of the journey was back along the motorway we'd used to come in from Zagreb. Eventually though we turned onto another motorway heading parallel to the coast, but inland - we'd decided to take the longer but easier route on the way out, and the shorter, twistier route on the way back. It was about an hour and 45 minutes from Rijeka that we turned off onto a smaller road, and soon found ourselves in rural isolation. By this point, the children were starting to ask where we were going, but we just fobbed them off with 'to see some scenery'. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to get away with that though, as the kids were asking why the scenery around us wasn't good enough to stop at (it was pretty spectacular).
After a few miles it started to become a bit obvious where we were going, as we were in the middle of nowhere, and the only signs around were to the bear sanctuary. We turned into the car park and grabbed a quick drink and snack - the journey was pretty hot, although the temperature had dropped by nearly 10 degrees since we started, and in the shade it was actually quite bearable (no pun intended!)
The bear refuge is run by volunteers, free to enter (although donations are very gratefully accepted) and quite relaxed. It's best to visit early in the morning or later in the evening (it's officially open until 7pm, although there are generally people around until later). Basically you turn up at the volunteer centre, someone directs you towards the 'young bear enclosure' (where there are currently three bears younger than 8 years old), you can watch them/take photos etc. while a volunteer is on hand to tell you all about them, then you go back to the volunteer centre and are directed up the 'old bear enclosures' where there are currently 5 more bears, up to 35 years old. Then you can go back to the volunteer station to buy some trinkets, produce and make a donation if you want.
We loved watching the younger bears being playful, curious, splashing about in the pool and play fighting. Some of the bears in the sanctuary are orphans, some are from zoos etc. and some were picked up because they were getting too reliant on getting food from humans/visiting village bins etc. The older ones were more distant (both physically and in spirit), but very impressive, and we managed to catch feeding time, which meant they came a lot closer to us than I think they would have otherwise.
We stayed for a few hours, and bought some elderflower juice, marmalade and some trinkets, and made a good donation (we'd already decided that we would donate the money we would have spent on a bear watching trip in Romania) which they were incredibly grateful for, and insisted that we didn't pay for the trinkets. We also bought a massive pot of honey from a layby on the way home. We went back via the shorter, twistier route, and wow, was it twisty! It started off easy, with a gradual ascent, but the descent by the coast was several hairpins, bends and crazy roads, just as the sun was setting - it was magical!
The rest of the drive was along the coast, right by the sea with a beautiful view over the islands and the ever deepening sunset. It was unfortunate that my camera was broken and that Felix had forgotten to bring out his 'proper' camera, but we still enjoyed the moment. What a day!
Published on Monday 30 July 2018
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