European Vacation # 4 - Kayaking

We had two days of kayaking on this trip – day 4 on a river, day 6 was sea kayaking.

We headed south to the “Wild West” narrow canyons of the Zrmanja and Krupa Rivers.
We stopped at the medieval Krupa Monastery along the way. Built in 1317 by monks from Bosnia, it is the oldest orthodox monastery in Croatia.
The frescos in the monastery are from the 17th century. After 1622, when the Kurds arrived in Croatia, they were not allowed to have the paintings on the walls of monasteries or churches, so the monks covered them with white paint and cement. In the 1970s an earthquake revealed some of the paintings. In 2010, the government began restoration work on the frescos.

The silver portraits came from Russia in 1789.

After our lunch stop, we arrived at the river for an afternoon of refreshing fun on the clear green waters of the Zrmanja River. We were outfitted with wetsuit bottoms, helmets, and life jackets; then given a brief paddling instructions. Tobey has canoed quite a bit, so I felt pretty confident about our ability to stay afloat our sit-upon kayak.
We had several small rapids before we came to the medium rapids below. We managed to stay IN the kayak and not dump through any of them! YIPEE.

When we got to the large waterfall below, everyone got out of their kayak, took all of our gear, and then the kayaks were lowered over the falls so we could continue on our way. Ivan took a wrong step in the water and broke his foot/ankle. A couple of the younger guys in our group helped lower the kayaks while Nikolina went below to tie them off at the bottom of the falls.

Once all the kayaks were down, she released them one at a time and they floated down the small rapids. Chris, one of our fellow adventurers, caught the kayaks one at a time, pushed them over to the rest of us. Tobey helped load gear, then we moved down-river. When we arrived at our last waterfall, Ivan asked if anyone wanted to ride to ride over. Tobey was the first one to say yes. Once again, my hero! One person from each kayak carried their gear downstream while the other went over the falls. Nikolina, along with a fellow who lives next to the falls, helped move the kayakers into position since Ivan was injured. Tobey was the first to go over the falls and my heart did a bit of a flutter! Not one person, however, flipped their kayak.
On Day 6 we did sea kayaking around Vrgada Island, which was a much more relaxed day!
Croatia has more than 3,500 miles of stunning coastline dotted with 1,700 islands of all descriptions. We took a small ferry to Vrgada. This lovely island has no cars, no hotels. We hiked to the top of the island for a view of the bay and the surrounding islands.

It was beautiful, but hot! We found a little bit of shade in front of the church at the overlook.



After lunch (did I tell you that we were fed well, and often??), we paddled around the island. It was much easier – no helmets, didn’t need to wear life jackets, and the water was warmer! Another beautiful day!