dream or do ????

Everything has a reason, even the unexpected.

Having the land we have but not to much space to put our gardenstuff, chairs, tools and much more away, one day last autumn I said "why not build a little gardenshed on the new peace of land we bought"

With the help of some good friends , we started to do “something”, guided by just a small peace of paper with some "idea".
So, out of the blue, this little 8x8 mtrs. gardenhouse grew within four weeks, with a radionica (hobbyspace) for myselve, a huge fireplace for everyone to enjoy just like that or grilling whatever there is, and lots of space to sit and relax on even a shitday with bura or jugo(strong winds), pooring rain, but still that view on Mosor Mountain.

Must still finish in- and outside, the small roof over the terrace, tiles on the floor to be done, and maybe even two glass doors on the terrace "just in case", but its already a great new part of fullfilling our dreams.

wild Livno horses

First I must admit both pictures are taken by other people, of which the one with the swimming group is part of a series of pictures taken by the photo-club in Imotski and the winter one by the organisation that was taking care of the protection of this magnificant wild bunch.
www.fotoimota.hr/gallery/displayimage.php?album=244&pos=9 and www.divljikonji.org, both highly interesting and worth a compliment.

To tell a bit more about these horses, a group of about 200 wild animals, they live in the rough nature near Livno, a traditional and interesting town, not so far over the Bosnian border.

Coming from Croatia it's a good one hours drive from Split to Livno.

Like I told before and will tell over and over again, there are a lot of hidden treasures in the neighbourhood of Svinisce, and this is one of them.
Not only is Livno a highly recommendable goal for a day behind the Adriatic coast, with many old mosks, and a river coming out of "nothing", where "nothing" is a high cliff dominating the panorama of Livno, with high above, on top of the cliff the remains of an old Ottoman tower.

When small farmers in the last century (+/- 1970) where heading from the countryside to the cities to find jobs, many gave their horses back to nature, where they surprisingly well survided the harsh climate of hot summers and freezing winters.
At the moment the group totals about 200 animals, coming together or splitting up in smaller groups depending on season and circumstances.

Recently the town of Livno decided to start a protection programm, as these noble animals are fantastic to observe in their natural habitat, the impressive plains and mountains around Livno, and an excellent tourist attraction.

So if you're visiting Croatia and you love nature in its most natural shape, spend a day (or two) heading for Livno, and the horses that live there.
The trip is taking you up Dinara Mountains, leading into Bosnia-Herzegovina along Busko Jezero, a beautyfull large lake with thousands of birds.

If you plan to make it a one day's visit:
enjoy ending the day coming "home" at the Adriatic coast, looking at the sundown, drinking a glass of local wine, smelling the herbs around you, listening to crickets having their Mediterranian summerparty.

You won't be disappointed, you'll have once in a lifetime experience and just like me, you'll have another reason to come back to either Croatia or Bosnia time and time again.

PS :
(crossing the border in your private car (check allowance on leased cars) is no problem at all; just take your passports and international green car-insurance papers with you).

best wishes to all

However still a lot of new developments have to be showed (and there's a lot to show and tell), this is the moment for best wishes.
So here we go: best wishes to all, for Christmas as well as the year 2010.

Enjoy these days in happiness, friendly intimacy, reflection of a year gone by and a new one to get started.
A child was born, a new year is awaiting with 365 days, each day getting born again when the sun goes up.

Today rapidly turns into yesterday, so don't take anything for granted.

Merry Christmas and a happy Newyear to all.

waterballet

once the potatoes are growing and rain fails to fall, people come to their acres to add some water to their beloved plants.

with the well a few hundred meters way they pump this natural springwater up to their land and start spraying their crops.

only two sounds are heard, namely far away/below a soft noise of the motorpump, and closeby the falling of waterdrops spread in wide curves, almost like a ballet for man and waterhose.

the moment I saw the beauty of this simple and basic action I waited till the sun was behind Ante, the man spraying, and started to picture one shot after another, and this is the one shot I like most.
if you think life is only beautifull when there is ACTION, you're wrong !
the lack of "real" action and the relaxing sound it makes makes me feel happy.

which goes for almost every moment we spend in our little paradise in the valley of Svinisce, just behind the Adriatic coast.

ah, and yes, those potatoes taste better than any other.
which goes for everything they grow there.

mate (nicola) moi priatel

Nicola is his name, Nicola Tafra, but everyone calls him Mate.

mate is our neighbour, and a very special character.
in his young days he and some friends played with a german explosive, which ended in a severe injury.

he misses one arm, is blind at one eye, and has a load of other marks on his body telling the story without words: after the war is over only innocent die.

anyway, here he stand in a tree, cleaning it from ivy, and in case you wanna know, the tree was ours and we cut it down later.

sorry Mate, but thanks for the help, than and later on till now.
a special character, a good teacher to me, and a great friend to us.

puno hvala !

there, deep down in the middle

one day, at Sveti Vid's day (one of the many holy days in roman catholic Croatia) we walked up the mountainridge between us and the Adriatic Sea.

walking up the mountain on a hot sunny day, climbing about 500 meters, took us a couple of hours of hard swetting work.
there hardly is a path, only what seems to have been a path, and even that "path" is rather a passage through bushes, over rocks, as it actually was the walk goats from the village used to make, till the "goats union" decided about ten years ago that where people started to use cars it was unacceptable to keep goats walking.

so these footpathes (or should I say "clawpathes") slowly disappeared in nature, as only once in a year they're used by pelgrims and I to walk to the tiny white chapel on top of the ridge, where a priest stood waiting in the open air, valley on the left and deep down on the other side even more deep the blue sea.
not being a churchgoing believer I stayed a bit aside, while a crowd of about hundred joined in his service, singing and listening to his good words.

and even the priest showed to be all human, as once finishing his "job", he took of his official clothing to join in a marvelous picnic, as each of the crowd had taken some drinks and food to this gathering.

fried chicked, roasted courgettes filled with melting cheese, home made dry ham, local cheese, good bread and of course, white and red wine from everybody's own wineyard, and even worse, the strong rakia and local derivates, with herbs, walnuts, cherries managed to get to the top of the mountain.
holy shit, no booze for me please, some small bites, a tiny bit of wine, a gallon of fresh water, that's all I needed, as going up was already heavy, but going down was double as long and twice as heavy, as I knew because I like to study detailled maps in advance.

a strong advice to hikers/walkers in croatian summersun is to at least take one liter of water, of possible even two, some sweet stuff, and a little handtowel, to soak and hang over head, neck or shoulders to cool a bit when things get hot and water is far away.

returning after an extremely nice social event, we walked the ridge, wide, rough and full of herbs for alcoholic picnics to come, slowly descending along a little mountainrefuge, following a rocky canyon filled with giant boulders and broken trees.
recently we had a massive rainfall during the night of about 150 liters per meter, creating a lot of problems, sliding hillsides, blocked roads and clearly visible here, a thundering stream of water gushing down to leave a chaos of rocks and wood.

all together going up and getting down again took an impressive five hours walk (ex. picnic), with somewhere in the walk the moment that I took this picture (click to enlarge), where deep down in the centre lies our own little hidden paradise, right to that white house.

anyway, great day, fine people, marvelous view, fantastic experience.

hvala na Sveti Vid *)

*) thanks to Saint Vitus, who died 15 of juni 313 AC under the rule of Diocletianus, who's palace is still a major monument to visit in the old Roman town of Split.

this is not our cat

how to say a cat is not your cat but is your cat anyway ?

she and her brother are so to say free cats, born in the wild, living a wild life in the wild.
and where her brother, a black and white slightly distant male, gets his attention a couple of houses away, this lady turned out to be charmed by our looks/smell/attention/food, and however I am not a cat's person, she decided otherwise.

being nasty during a couple of days, pooring water, making noise and silly movements, even not taking a shower for a period of time, nothing helped, so I finally fell for her persuation.

she liked us, came back and back again, and finally adopted us (not us adopting her, mind you), and forced us to give her a name.
so we did, and therefor she's now Sissi, after that princess once played by the late Romy Schneider.
(her black&white brother got the name Macho, which he is not, but he carries his name with pride).

I won't go into catstories, so this is an exception, as the picture was sent to us by our family overthere, showing she lost a bit of weight.
not due to a lack of food, we take our responsabilities serious, so we left three bags of her favourite catfood together with instructions to our neighbour, thanks Mate !!, to at least once a day provide her a nice meal.

the reason for her weightreduction is that she finally got rid of a bunch of youngsters she was carrying during our recent stay.
we witnessed the intimate loveconnection between her and "William of Orange", a red male from a couple of houses down the road and however it was wham, bam, thank you ma'm, it was bullseye as well, as we saw our Sissi grow over a couple of weeks, and wondered when and where she would be a mother, and how the kids where looking.

dozens of times she tried to sneak into our little appartment, but each time I managed to prevent a total take over.

enough is enough, but a man's got to stand for his principles.
nevertheless we offered her many secluded spots, where she could safely give bearth, but never saw it happen as she was still going heavier with no birthmovements, and we had to return to our "beloved" NEEderland, cloudy, wet, noisy, flat, crowded and ongoing intolerant.
so finally she gave birth, under a golden sun in Godgven nature, with the tender care of us, even when we're "here" and not "there".

so, nice place, nice cat, and nice look over the base of our terrace, the sunny shadows and the smelly rosemary on the leftside in the border.
and of course, the newly placed suncover (thanks Richard and team), wrong colours perhaps, but hey, it was a bargain and its very practical.

so your up to date again, as much as I am.
ahhhh, those lazy summerdays in Croatia with no news, no nonsense, just nothing but a cat, fantastic...................

what you grow is what you get

it took me some waiting for a dry day, when the potatoes started crying for some water and as always, a bit of luck with my camera.
however, what's luck when you wait for that specific moment, look and look again, move in several directions till the light is right behind the object, and finally see what you want to see in the picture you want to tell the story of.

having agricultural neighbours working their small pieces of land on terraces up and down our own piece of land, growing potatoes, onions, olives, cabbage and melons, they take great pride in taking care of the best crop to get from it.

hardly any synthetic fertiliser being used, but ripened sheepshit in stead, combined with excellent ground and a bit of help to mother nature spraying the plants with water from a true natural well when the ground gets dry and the weather hot.

it's all there is to it, with a lot of tender love and care, of course !!!
everone regularly comes to his land in the afternoon, to work for a couple of hours to keep everything nice and tidy and growing well.
but it's all worth it as you get the best food you can eat, and so they care, like everybody in our valley including us, for their plants.

your foodquality is not something to get from european regulations, labels and loads of industrial nonsense, wrapped in plastic and commercials.

good food comes from good people taking good care of good plants on good ground !!!
if it looks like a melon, be sure that what you eat here IS a melon, and not it's green sister, "killed" before it even grew up to be a real tasty, sweet, sunripe, gorgeous melon.

stop reading here, go to your supermarket and tell those idiots that by killing your food they are killing you as well !!!!

plitvice ? krka ? no, it's Svinisce !

To tell the truth, its not in the centre of Svinisce, its about a ten minutes walk away.

If thats to much trouble for you, there's a road real close to it, so if you prefer to be driven, that's ok with me, as we've got a car on croatian plates waiting to be used.
Come on !
If you'r coming to Svinisce, at least be prepared to go walking.
And with walking I mean WALKING, as there are numerous walks, well marked and right through the middle of nature and on Omiska Dinara (the mountainridge between us and the Adriatic).

Wanna stay close ?
Our surroundings are pure nature, even with some ancient Roman footpath, and if you prefer a mix of nature and history, some stone structures from the pirate history of Omis (called Almissa in earlier days) are still to be seen.

What's more, above Omis there are two remains of castles, so enough to choose crossing nature over and towards historic remains.
And well, since I mention Omis again, its at the Adriatic, with a large sandy beach, and one small stoney bay after another if you do not like sand between your bums.

The picture shows the waterfalls of what they call a "potok", which means a small seasonal flood.
During the wet season they take the water from fields, hills and mountains into the Cetina river, once the summerseason starts they dry out to a miserable less than nothing.

However, wet or dry, the structure of it is most interesting, and the scenery where it goes down to the canyon is most beautifull, which made filmmakers use it for some famous Winnetou films.

In earlier days (before carworthy roads) a footpath brought the men from the village down to the town of Omis, where they worked for a bit of money in a couple of factories (carbid, cement and such, of which most have disapeared).
And after a hard day of industrial labour they walked up the footpath again, sometimes even with heavy loads on their back, to home for a meal and a bit of rest.

Was that the day than, hell no, as each had his own peace of land.
The work in the field was waiting for another bit of hard work. And as I write below (see item about domaci products) the only way to have the best of the necessary food and wine is by taking care of it themselves, so they did, and still do.

Compare us "overstressed" modern technocratic people to those folks than (and still) and you'll understand that it was'nt or is'nt an easy life under the sun.
Still I am certain that although life's not easy, it was and is of a much higher quality !

And THAT is still a fact nowadays in this and many other valley around, being the reason for me to like life here so much more !

Pick your moment in the seasons, as whatever moment you take, it will conquer your heart, just like it did mine.

As this is life as its meant to be !!!
(not easy, but fullfilling).

"domaci"

One of the commonly used words in Croatia is "domaci", meaning its home made, traditional, organic, non industrialised, e.g. pure taste.
As an example of how domaci braid should be baked traditionally, one must start with the best flour, and this is how that is made.

Walking sevenhundred meters upstream of this watermill on three spots the clearest natural springs erupt from under a steep rocky mountainwall.
And when I say the clearest, I truly mean THE CLEAREST, ready to fill bottles with.
Hard to get in a picture, I could look through the surface of that water into the deep and clear blue, coming straight from inside the Dinaric Mountains.
In no time these three wells feed a small river leading to this traditional watermill, in the family for hunderds of years (the friendly man told me).
For those who want to know, the place is called Grab, and lies close to the upstream section of the Cetina river.

Here between waterpowered millingstones the flour is milled in such an authentic and slow way that as a result the best thinkable flour is produced.
Why ?
Because the whole grain is milled, really slowly, and as it goes slowly there is no heat involved that "kills" the quality of the grain.
That's why !

And that's why from this flour the best bread can be baked in a traditional oven on a stone floor, heated with a woodfire. And doing so, its with every right to be called DOMACI (meaning traditionally homemade).
Sad enough, the word "domaci" nowadays is also in use for industrial machined foodproducts that have NOTHING to do with its original meaning.
Believe me for once (if not always), once you tasted that bread, you'll never pick one of those sponges packed in a plastic condom from a superstore again.

And that goes for a lot of TRUE domaci products, being meat, vegetables, fish or drinks in Croatia, simply because Croatian people like to do a lot themselves, keeping chickens for eggs, having their own vegetables and even once in a while their own pigs. (not to mention producing their own olive-oil, wine, and after the wine destillating their own pure rakia, basis for many strong drinks).
Just ask for it, as everbody knows and is gladly sharing with you where to get the real stuff (like I just told you).

So if you're looking for something else than Mc. This or That or "more of the same" wrapped in a fancy paper and empty phrases, just follow me to DOMACI CROATIA.
Cause if you like real life this is the place to be.

ps:
Sure there are highways, airports, internet and airco's too.
But not only that, thank God.

FIRE !!!!!

Cold nights, so starting the day means: FIRE........

Februari and march are not part of what they call summerseason, so starting up a winterday means starting a fire first.
(If you prefer sun at The most beautifull Adriatic Sea, stay away till may).

Cleaning that nice glass window of our charming little woodstove is easily done by using one of those "nylon" kitchenpads used to clean dirty dishes, slightly moistured in advance and dipped in a bit of last nights ashes.
A couple of minutes later the window is a window again, the cold ashes taken out to create space for a new day of warmth, especially when strong stormy winds and rain are keeping us inside.

Some firestarter, a peace of Slobodna Dalmatia (the local newspaper), some thin dead cherrybranches (even better: grapecuttings), and a block or two of oak, and there we go again.

With ventilation- and smokechannels of the woodstove wide open, within fifteen minutes our small and well isolated house is in "sauna condition".
Than the airinput goes back to its lowest point and by adding a block of wood each hour or so, we create an atmosphere where camels and coconuts can easily survive and so do we.

So close to the Adriatic winter aint realy harsh, so surviving winter aint a big thing here.
Snow does sometimes drop but never stays long, and getting your balls frozen of is not the best reason to visit this part of the planet (but it's worth a try).
If you're coming over to see snow however, that's easily arranged, since only half an hour away lies Biokovo Mountains (National Park), where thick snow covers its top and icy winds blows not only your balls of in less than a moment.
Lucky part is that you can melt down again between the palms of Makarska after returning (see Google Earth for details).
And about an hour away, over the Bosnian border, there's much snow and even good downhill skiing is a realistic goal for a day of fun.
So liking it hot or cold, the choice is yours.


For those interested, good readily cut and chopped (oak and similar) firewood, delivered free of charge, costs about 60 euro's per "meter" (not exactly a cubic meter, but who cares since four of those meters take us through winter in a mild way.
And NO, I aint gonna bargain about that price, as its a fair price for a lot of work, certainly on a cold and stormy winterday !
So I gladly pay that price.

(Some Croatian language: shout VATRA in case of a FIRE).

even on a cloudy day

However not the sunny view most people know the Adriatic of, this cloudy scenery is also great, at least in my opinion.
If you do not agree, let me know in the section called "leave me a note" on the right side below the weatherforecast.

April just started, so spring slowly arrives, as did the birds, and in a couple of weeks it will be the Mediterranian at its very best, with loads of flowers.

March gave lots of strong winds (bura as well as jugo), loads of rain, even some snow on "our" Mosor Mountains.
Sure we had a couple of superdays too, with gentle weather, strong sunshine and no wind at all.
Using those better days I "discovered" some great spots in nature, even swam in a mountainriver (by accident), found some amazing places you will see when you visit, and did a short tour by car in half a day bringing me from palmtrees to snow and back.

Plans are going as expected, so at the end of this year this will be the superview from our new house to be built.
Can't wait to see clouds like these from that place, even on a cold day after the winterseason.
Be our guest if you like views like this, but give us some time to accomodate.

somewhere between Sestanovac and Zagvozd

Do enlarge this picture (by clicking on it), its a nice one.

Was my previous item about Carnival in the Netherlands, this one brings you (and me) back to the silent beauty of a thousand spots in Croatia.

Driving from Sestanovac to Zagvozd at the nothern slopes of Biokovo National Park, this is the silent scenery you'll see in wintertime.
(From Omis to Makarska, between the two up the mountains at the left, heading for Zadvarje; you can't miss it).

With a couple of evergreen trees and the rest in wintercolours, a little rock apeared on my left with on top of it a little white churchtower between the permanent green of cipres trees.

And with those gentle clouds against a blue sky, this my favourite picture at the moment (screen on my Dutch pc).

With all the noise around me during carnival (see item below), this brings me into a relaxed state of mind.
In a couple of weeks I am (we are) back in Croatia, and although its still winter overthere too, I am sure that spring comes sooner there than it does in our northern hemisphere.
And spring in Croatia is abolutely THE most beautifull season to visit Croatia.

Everywhere you will discover exiting flowers, and not one of them at a time, but thousands, covering meadows and slopes, at the banks of rivers and ponds, between rocks and bolders, sending their message to you.
Colourfull and full of those typical mediterranean smells of thyme, sage and all those others.

Sit back, its still a bit early, but if you can efford, go for The Croatian Spring !!!
(cheaper than cheap flights: http://www.germanwings.com/).

carnival in holland

OK, shoot me for not writing about Svinisce this time.
On the other hand, why ignore the fact that I am a Dutchman, even worse, a Brabander, known for their Bourgondic way of life.

And hey, being in Holland (The Netherlands) till our next trip to Croatia (soon to happen), I might as well show you a tiny bit of one of the most famous regional carnivalparades in this part of the world.

Most of them during daylight, our tiny hometown does it different since 22 years, having that parade in the evening.
Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aezCF_jdBJM to see it all in part I.
At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXV1FoOltI8&feature=related, you can see part II.
(With very special thanks to Matty Machielse putting it on YouTube).

Not being the biggest town in the southwest of the Netherlands with about 2500 inhabitants, it has every reason to be damned proud of such a giant parade.
With about 22 huge and large vehicles, all with loads of lights over giant crazy sculptures in flaming colours, its better than "those" parades in Disneyland.
On this special night a crowd of at least 20.000 people from all around enter our little village, to enjoy this magnificant show.

I could not keep you uninformed about this, but its a promise next item will be about Svinisce and its surroundings again.
Do'nt want to boost visits or tourism to Standdaarbuiten, which for the other days of the year is nothing compared to Svinisce and less than a hole in the clay, happening to be our hometown (just kidding).
Sorry Zwammegat, as your name is during "Carnaval", but Svinisce has it day after day, and you are just a "one night stand".
But what a night it was again !!!

looking from Croatia into Bosnia

Click on the picture to enlarge, or read on below.

the story to the picture above

Sorry, but this aint my sharpest picture.

Using a Canon Powershot G3, which I am happy with in general, this is just a bit to much for that little digital camera.

One of those days I was driving round a bit, and found a small but excellent road heading up the mountainside from Slime, between us and the sea.

Told it before, between us and the Adriatic is a mountainridge, called Omiska Dinara, which is about 600 meters high.
(And that's the perfect barrier between our supersilent valley and the crowded coast in summer).

Driving up, direction Konoba Tadici, I reached a marvelous panoramic view at about 400 meters high, overlooking Croatia till the Bosnian border, and as you can see deep into Bosnia's snowy mountains.

Surrounded by impressive rocky slopes from higher above, deep down at my feet I had a marvelous view over it all, with several snowcovered big mountains, among which "my" Blidinje National Park in Bosnia.
Like I said before, where in close reach (max. two hours drives) of everything I like, with our own Biokovo, Mosor, the Adriatic, the Cetina-river and so much more.

Back to the story behind the view:
Here, at this Konoba Tadici, newly built with lots of space for larger groups of visiting tourists and a wide terrace to sit down in amazement, there are a couple of things that make a visit worth a lot more than "just" this view.

Mr. Tadic is the owner of a lot of traditional old stone houses, one filled with hundreds of those airdried "prsut" the superior tasty "prosiutto" the Croats are famous for.
Next stone house is filled with another couple of hundred "pig bottoms", hanging from the ceiling another year till they are perfect.
In another house (and there are many more) a large fireplace waits for peka dishes to be stuffed and roasted under hot burning coal, and to safe you from death by distant delight, I will only tell there is still another house, with a line up of grills, ready for a group of lambs to be grilled for the hungry.
Not to mention there's a lot more, with more stone houses, terraces filled with grapes, small meadows, and to much to tell in this little blog of mine.

Believe me, this is another "hotspot" for lazy moments, overlooking it all at a late afternoon, when the sun coloures all that beauty.
And before that moment, I am absolutely gonna walk all hikes going up, between and down all slopes, cliffs and forest hidden secrets.
What a beauty, and how happy the man (me), sitting there with wife and friends, enjoying a meal at that place, till late in the evening.
Can't wait to make it happen, do you ?

safe sealife

No words this time, or just a few.

Publishing this picture taken by a diving friend with excellent underwatercam, all I have to say is "be carefull out there".

As even sealife does it safely, why would'nt you.
Have lots of fun anyway, as life is to short to worry to much !

(this is NOT a sponsored message).

no fire, just sun

Faantaastic view in the late afternoon over the landscape nearby.

Not the only moment we are delighted by what we see here, as from the early morning till late in the afternoon we have our lucky views.
Even on rainy days, which we had a "few", when clouds take away the peak of our mountain Mosor.
As even than "something" happens all the time, worth to enjoy sitting outside silently.
Unless its raining cats and dogs, but even than its enjoyable, from the inside looking out of course !

The change of light, colours and shades over our mountain, clearly in sight at one moment and masked with white clouds rising from the Cetina river gorge deep out of sight at another moment, its the best theatre to watch at any moment of the day and night.

The players in this never ending play (if we see them) are smaller and bigger birds, far away or a bit closer but never really close.
Some even do not even show, but prove their role in the whole by "singing" from a hidden spot behind the curtains of the night.
And if you say those big owls do not sing, right you are, but totally wrong at the same time, as to me its like sirenes calling me for a walk into their territory.

Not being totally stupid, I never follow sirenes voices, but sitting silently outside I do enjoy theire low "oehoeing" in the evening.
Hope however to see one in near future, which should be possible as those birds have a span of easily 1.25 meters wide.
But as they are such damned silent flying hunters I have to have a bit of luck.
So wish me luck, just as I share my luck with you.

What a view !

timeless history

"Rocks, rocks, rocks", who wants some of these rocks ?

"Yes, for me please, I just LOVE them", I just recently discovered.

About twenty minutes by car from our place in Svinisce, there is a place called Gata, and passing that in N/E direction the road will pass a wide open country loaded with rocks.
(which is normal for Dalmatia, as it was created from rocks after God finished all other countries and dropped what he saw as left overs).

After you leave Omis, a nice road lifts you up high over the impressive canyon of the Cetina river, and from there it turns to the right.

Follow that road, its nice, and buy some mortadella, a softdrink and some good bread at the little Studenac store on the left (as its Inga, the wife of a good friend running it).
About five minutes further, STOP the car, take that little road to te right or just put it aside the road.

Here I started a walk into "no mens land" that showed like a rocky puzzle in advance.
What the hack, as all puzzles get into place after a while, so I jumped from one to another.
Stepping, stopping, jumping, it showed to have been (dis-)organised over centuries by people, taking care of tiny patches filled with a couple of grapes, a few cherrytrees, a small grassy spot for one, two or three sheep, maybe even a cow.

"Rocky Dreamland" I called it silently to myselve, as this was the feeling I had going from one spot to another, discovering small signs of cultivation all the time, created over timeless history passed.
A metal ring jammed into a huge rock, a small path between the piled rocks, and there, look there, a minimalistic stone house, smaller than a couple of square feet, the roof cracked, but clearly manmade to hide away during rain or at a tired moment after having lunch with a firm mouthfull of "domaci" (homemade) wine.

Within about ten minutes I totally forgot that I ever left the car, and the further I stepped and jumped, the more I loved it.
Each and every moment I chose myselve a next step or stop, looking further, seeing more in what looked like a never ending dreamscape.
Never was in Autralia (why should I), but for a moment felt like an aboriginee must feel in his most divine surroundings.

God was not making a mistake dropping all these rocks here.
He did it with a purpose and on purpose, and thank God, I got the message.
And if you're not totally blind, deaf and dumb, you've got te message too.

As when you want to feel totally free, step away from the road and start "humpjumping", the new tourist attraction I just invented.

mix some snow and some palmtrees

Normally it would be a silly suggestion, in this situation however the mixing of snow and palmtrees allready seems to have been done.
So start looking for the clever way this picture has been photoshopped, as a combination like this looks very impossible (is it ?).

Snow, and not just a thin coat, but a thick layer, even on this sunny side of the mountains, no kidding.
As on Biokovo Mountains at twelvehundred meters (fourthousand feet), you'r in the middle of it, up to your knees if you like (or dislike).

OK, its middle of winter in Europe, so there should be at least some snow to give you the idea global warming is't as bad as it seems.
But this is not Switserland, France or Austria, skiingcountries for the millions.

Here in Makarska, at the coast of the Adriatic Sea, walking along or sitting between the palmtrees, sipping your espresso in the afternoon sun, regularly you can allmost touch the snow, as this is a normal picture overthere in this season.

And remember, as I am still trying to prove "Svinisce, the hidden treasure", this is only about thirty minutes away from our silent valley, and another fifteen minutes up over a nice mountainroad, till you really are in the middle of that snow, looking down on this palmtree shaded bay at a blue sea.

Sorry to say, for a nicer swim you'll have to wait till end of april or middle of may.
But who cares, as the espresso is excellent, as are the fantastic cakes with it, if you know the place to go for it. And I know !!!
Just ask me.