Day 1: Meeting point Senj
We meet at a hotel in the town of Senj. Senj is the windiest town in Croatia, where winds can easily overturn trucks and buses, often reaching 200 km/h or more. Due to the frequent and strong winds, wine is not grown here, as it is on most parts of the Adriatic coast, as vines cannot withstand the gale-force winds. Instead, plums are grown here, which is why schnapps is more popular here than wine.
Day 2: Senj – Velebit – Bear Sanctuary – Rab
Departure at 9:00 am. Every day before departure there is a short briefing with information about the day ahead. From Senj we drive to the mountain pass Vratnik and over the ridge of Velebit. We visit the village of Kuterevo, where there is a sanctuary for orphan bears and other bears that can no longer survive in the wild. After visiting the bear protection center, we drive through dense forest to the Veliki Alan mountain pass and descend to the coast, where the ferry takes us to the island of Rab. Dinner and accommodation await us there.
Day 3: Rab – Dabarski Kukovi – Baške Oštarije
Departure is planned a little earlier on this day, as we have to catch the ferry to the mainland (this is subject to change and depends on the current ferry timetable). We climb Velebit again with our tour group, where we experience the landscape change from dense forest to a predominantly rocky area when we reach the 10 km long mountain ridge with the impressive name Dabarski Kukovi. On arrival in Baške Oštarije, we descend back to the coast, where our day ends.
Day 4: Panos – Nikola Tesla – Majstorska Cesta – Winnetou
From Karlobag, we climb up Velebit once again to the mountain peak of Panos, where a military radar station was once located to monitor almost half of the airspace of the former Yugoslavia. In the town of Gospić we will replenish our supplies of food and other necessities and then drive along a paved road to Sveti Rok, where the “Majstorska cesta” (Master’s Road) awaits us. The road takes its name from the German word “Meisterstück” (masterpiece), as it was built in a very short time at the beginning of the 19th century and the gradient is nowhere more than 5%, which is still above the standards of modern road construction today. What is important for Germans is that this is the filming location of the first Winnetou film based on Karl May’s book, which is why many Germans also call the road “Winnetoustraße”. There will also be an opportunity here to switch on the four-wheel drives in the cars. The route then continues to the Adriatic coast, where we will spend the night.
Day 5: Tulove Grede – Zrmanja Canyon – Obrovac
Departure at 9:00 am. We ascend Velebit from the sea side via Majstorska Cesta, passing Tulove Grede on the way. The first Winnetou film was shot at Tulove Grede. After the ascent over Majstorska Cesta, we cycle on paths through meadows along the ridge of southern Velebit, from where we descend to the Zrmanja river. We follow the Zrmanja River to Obrovac, a town on the river where the water is already brackish. Overnight stay in Obrovac.
Day 6: Knin – Dinara – tank wrecks
A somewhat longer route awaits us on a paved road to the village of Otrić, from where we take the service road of the Zagreb – Knin railroad line and pass under Croatia’s most photogenic viaduct. At the royal town of Knin, we ride up the Dinara mountain. We pass a military training area and drive to a place where there are wrecks of tanks from the Homeland War of the 1990s, which are also used for target practice. We then take the same route back to the city and our accommodation.
Day 7: Krka National Park – Lake Vrana – Zadar
From Knin, we head towards Krka National Park, which we will visit and hike to some of the beautiful viewpoints. After a loop around the Krka National Park, the route takes us along Lake Vrana, the largest lake in Croatia. It is 13.5 km long, on average about 2.2 km wide and about 4 m deep. It is used for fishing, and the northern part of the lake is one of the most important ornithological reserves in Europe, as it serves as a resting place for migratory birds on their journey to Africa.
The last overnight stay is in Zadar or the surrounding area.
Day 8: End of the journey
