Off-roading In Croatia

Excitedly, we trooped in and off we went!

We started off exploring the more tranquil lakes of Dalmatia…

And then we moved onto the hills and mountains for a better view of the countryside…

The sun was slowly starting to rise by this point…

We carried on exploring the countryside, taking in the view of the little villages, the Cetina river and the rugged Croatian landscape.

We then stopped at one of the most amazing places I’d seen on our trip so far – the source of the Cetina river. The source is a spring which comes way down in the mountains. Divers have apparently tried to trace where this comes from but are still unable to figure it out as it carries on for much longer than the divers could go.

The water from the source is really clean too and bottled water is actually obtained directly from this spring.

We of course, stopped to have a drink or two…

I also clambered up the hillside for a better view… which by the way, is so much more impressive from the top!

The best view however is from the side of the church at the top of the hill. From here, you can get a sense of how huge and magnificent this spring is.

Next stop on our trip was Crkva Sv. Spasa (in English -The Church of the Holy Salvation) a Pre-Romanesque church.

Before heading off to see more of the countryside and hopefully make our way closer to lunch! 

Right before lunch, we stopped for some pre-lunch and wine at a country home…

The owner of the place grows her own grapes and makes her own wine – which we got to ‘taste’ a lot of!

We started, as every good Croatia meal should, with some apperitifs! I went with the cherry liquor which is sweet and right up my street. Lloyd went for the fig liquor which is a tad stronger and (in my opinion) harder to drink. Still, both light a fire in your belly and get you ready for food!

Pre-lunch, by the way, is pretty much the same size as lunch. In truth, I’m not sure what the difference between both is but I’ve never been known to over-think food so I tucked in straight away!

Below are the wines the owner makes, they make and bottle it for themselves and family but I definitely think they should share it with the world! It was pretty good and went perfectly with pre-lunch (by the way, we did end up having lunch in Sinj shortly after so I maybe shouldn’t have eaten as much as I did at pre-lunch but hey ho….)

We headed back on the road for the last lap of countryside sight-seeing before lunch.

Found ourselves back at the lake again, where we begun to attempt to take a ridiculous amount of photos for ye olde Facebook.

All in all, it felt really good to see a part of Croatia that we would have otherwise missed out on if we stayed in the city. The landscape across the country is absolutely fantastic and definitely worth seeing when you visit – especially so if you can see it with a local! Seeing the length and breadth of the countryside is definitely one of our highlights of our trip to Croatia and one I definitely recommend doing!