Kornat natuonal park September lovely

[Jamesuk]

We just sailed up to Rovinj, Rab and Pag... All nice towns. We sailed to some small little villages around Pag and went under 3 bridges Novigrad,Nin and another place or two. We then set sail for Kornat island and have been blown away by how peaceful it is here in September. We just ate an amazing fish Turbot (German: Steinbutt) which fed 4 with plenty of beautifully cooked potatoes and grilled veg.

We were the only people in the resturant which had wifi amazing when 3g is hard to come by in places and electricity and water are a struggle to buy.

All in all brilliant, back to Zadar Sunday :-(

Restaurant is called Mola (i think) on the island of Smokvica

Anyone else here enjoying the quiet cruising ?

 

[Sinnot]

Currently in Makarska, with plenty of berths available. During peak season it's virtually impossible to get into unless you get here before 2pm. It seems last week was the last week for charters. Only saw a handful of boats on the sail down from split yesterday. Nice.....

 

[charles_reed]

The Kornati national park is a horrific example of human destruction of the environment.
What were green scub-covered islands have, by repeated clearing by fire, been reduced to bare karst.
To me profoundly depressing - it says a lot for Croatian shrewdness that they've been able to convert this ecological disaster into a tourist attraction.

"Look upon me ye mighty and beware"

 

[TQA]

In the late 80s I cruised from Pula down to Albania and back. I remember the Kornati islands very fondly. Not much there and not much available anywhere as it was still an Iron curtain country. I remember stopping off for a meal at a small restaurant on an island. I asked for the menu and was told that they had bread potatoes and fish. OK I said that is what I will have. An hour later I inquired as to when my meal was arriving, soon I was told, he has gone to catch the fish.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

We cruised through the Kornatis in August and it was completely the opposite. We couldn't find a single restaurant berth or buoy available! Enjoy yourself!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

The Kornati national park is a horrific example of human destruction of the environment.
What were green scub-covered islands have, by repeated clearing by fire, been reduced to bare karst.
To me profoundly depressing - it says a lot for Croatian shrewdness that they've been able to convert this ecological disaster into a tourist attraction.

I have to agree with you. Neither my SWMBO or I find the Kornatis beautiful in the sense that a national park should be but they are striking for their bareness

 

[Metabarca]

I think the islands were actually de-forested under the Venetians and the bora blew any soil away. Fires must certainly have played a part, however. But it can never have been a sylvan paradise: the karst is typically bare, partly because of the bora, partly because of the lack of water (which immediately percolates through the rock) and partly because of the lack of soil. The area around Trieste was like a desert until the Austrians planted 30 million pines in the late 19th century and caused a 'chain reaction' leading to the area being very wooded now.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I think the islands were actually de-forested under the Venetians and the bora blew any soil away. Fires must certainly have played a part, however. But it can never have been a sylvan paradise: the karst is typically bare, partly because of the bora, partly because of the lack of water (which immediately percolates through the rock) and partly because of the lack of soil. The area around Trieste was like a desert until the Austrians planted 30 million pines in the late 19th century and caused a 'chain reaction' leading to the area being very wooded now.

Cruising through the Dalmatians generally, we wonder how anyone could make a living out of agriculture of any kind on these islands. Not only as you say, is the soil very shallow but it is full of rocks and stones. You can see everywhere how farmers have attempted to removes these rocks and stones from the soil and built walls with them (presumably to act as wind breaks to stop the little bit of soil being blown away). Certainly attempting to eke out a subsistence living on these islands from agriculture alone must have been very hard; I suspect that making a living from fishing must have been easier

 

[RichardS]

Cruising through the Dalmatians generally, we wonder how anyone could make a living out of agriculture of any kind on these islands.

We cruised to Mljet last month and the whole island is densely wooded, apparently because the ruler of the island a 100 years ago declared tree felling illegal for some reason which I can't remember. Perhaps the Mljet residents nicked the wood for their winter fires from the surrounding islands!

Richard

 

[charles_reed]

I think the islands were actually de-forested under the Venetians and the bora blew any soil away. Fires must certainly have played a part, however. But it can never have been a sylvan paradise: the karst is typically bare, partly because of the bora, partly because of the lack of water (which immediately percolates through the rock) and partly because of the lack of soil. The area around Trieste was like a desert until the Austrians planted 30 million pines in the late 19th century and caused a 'chain reaction' leading to the area being very wooded now.

Apparently the final devastation occurred during the period 1859-90, when the islands were used as a staging area for transferring meat on the hoof from the Croatian mainland to the Italian market.
As el Serenissima was wound up by Buonoparte in 1805, I think it scarcely fair to blame the Venetians (if anyone poor Maria Theresa could be held responsible)