Marketing
The Una River - The sixth day, Part Two
You can come back on the previous part of this travelogue here.
The washing problem has been solved. The following were details about the realization.
Washed with soap from head to toe except for my hair and what was under my shorts, wiped with a towel and changed into a new T-shirt and pants I was ready for a dignified return from this journey.
As I stood so beautiful, well-groomed and fragrant, I saw across the street the Firehouse, all bathed in the sun.
I didn't have the will to climb again on the Knin Fortress again, but I wanted to go to the waterfall Krčić where I was last year. True, there is a good 4 km to get there, but they are mostly flat, without much uphill.
I took the already well-known road from Knin to the east, straight towards the Dinara, whose massif and the eponymous peak of 1831 meters I saw in front of me.
On the right side were the remains of the Kninjanka textile factory, which, according to Wikipedia, employed 522 workers in 1991.
I turned toward the abandoned factory to see it up close.
Although abandoned and devastated, it still enchanted me with its beauty. It was a real example to me of industrial architecture that would be a sin to let fail.
I returned to "my" road and after crossing the main road, I continued straight along the
narrow, but paved alley. (The main road leads to the left towards the Strmica place and the Bosansko Grahovo town, so where I just came from, and to the right towards the Sinj town).
The sun was mostly behind me so it ideally illuminated the above shots.
Arriving at the Krka river, I continued across the bridge towards the path to its wellspring. Here are shots of the newly formed the Krka river from the bridge upstream and downstream.
I continued on the hiking trail towards the water springs of the Krka river and the Krčić waterfall. It was immediately obvious that the waterfall was still imaginary because there was no water.
If there was water in the Krčić stream, as there is not, a beautiful waterfall would be seen in the image above. Thus, it remains for you to believe me, as I believe those who told me, because I have not seen it too, at least not live.
But not to leave everything to words, I found an image on the website SvjetskiPutnik.hr that shows what it would look like if there is a water.
If there is no water at the Krčić waterfall, there is it at the source of the Krka, which is about fifteen meters upstream from the confluence of the Krčić creek and the Krka river. By that, in fact, this place is special because the spring and waterfall is practically in one place.
The water spring of the Krka river is calm, quiet, silent. As if water comes out shyly from the bowels of the earth, or rather rocks. After a short murmur, it calms down again with a small lake of crystal clear water, preparing, I guess, for merging with the water that should come from the waterfall. When that waterfall exist, which was not in the case now.
Disappointed, I guess, that there was nothing from a rendezvous with the waterfall, the Krka river, here as a small child, hurriedly leaves the meeting place with a murmur…
… that in the end, after accelerated growth, it would spread into a real "normal" stream, we could even call it a small, yet real river. That was really, it was shown by the bridge, the first under which it runs. This bridge was also interesting to me because I leaned my faithful two-wheeled companion on its fence while watching the birth of a river.
I saw all this last year, and yet it was as if I didn't, because I was again surprised by my admiration for the scene I saw, which (again) looked like a fairy tale to me. And so, I suppose, it will be the next time I visit this place again.
Still, I noticed some differences between this visit and the one from last year. Unlike last year, there were people here now. Some were walking, some were chilling in the general impression of the atmosphere, and one guy was even bathing in that small lake before the bridge.
Maybe the reason for this is my subjective nature because I was here at the beginning of the journey last year, and now I’m at the end of it, and maybe the sun at the opposite end in the sky gave a different atmosphere, I don’t know. All I know is that this place, although the same as last year, now looks somehow different to me. Neither better nor worse than just that - the same, and yet different.
On the way back, I was walking straight towards the sun through that narrow, but still asphalted alleyway, so I found it an interesting play of light and shadow, and I shot it with the following images.
I returned to the town and rode by the main street to the train station. Considering that I didn't film it last year, here is a classic postcard image from the Knin town (apology for the slightly blurry picture, the technique failed).
At the station, I find out that my train was leaving a minute before midnight. I filmed it, by the way, the station, not the train.
On the other side of the station building, the one on the town side, it was lively and cheerful.
The plateau in front of the building is huge and far from a busy street, so as such it is especially interesting for young mothers with small children. While moms (both fathers and others) sit talking to each other, children p
I admit that this plateau in front of the station building, which I can freely call the square, impressed me quite a bit. In the early evening hours when the heat has subsided, this is becoming a gathering place where people, with or without children, come for a "cup" of conversation and gathering. Of particular interest to me was the lighting where the light was placed under the benches where people sit
Saturated with everyone and everything, I was a little tired of everything. I settled into the platform seat and, reading the newspaper, shortened the time until the train arrived. With the help of the speedometer (cyclo-computer) of my bike, I learned that today I was valuable, the most valuable on this journey, at least as far as the kilometres travelled are concerned. Today I have mastered as many as 86.
Sometime after 10 PM, he and she came across, young, with bicycles with which they started from Biograd this morning. I paid tribute to them after thinking in my mind about the route they were riding, but it seemed to me that it was similar to my today's kilometres.
After 11 PM, in the already deaf time of the night out of sheer boredom, walking back and forth on the platform, I took one shot of the sleeping station.
It seems to me that my cell phone fell asleep, while it was filming that image, so it turned out blurry. And yet, here it is, so judge for yourself!
Out of some monotonous lethargy of the dead of night, we were suddenly awakened by a voice over a loudspeaker announcing the arrival of our train at ten minutes to midnight. Immediately, me and the two of them accepted the bikes and took up position to enter the train. After finding the wagons with the bike label, helping each other, we brought the bikes to the compartment for them.
And there was a crowd, a big crowd!
All the places on the hangers were occupied by bicycles. I haven't had a chance to experience this so far! And not only that but on the floor of the wagon were a young man and his - dog. And while the young man slept or squinted the dog sat in disbelief looking around at a situation that was in no way consistent with his environmental memory record. I guess the leash and the boss at its other end infused him with the last atom of confidence with which it should stoically and calmly endure all of this.
And even now we have come with our bikes !? I admit that I was a little scared to park my bikes and take my gear off, just a step away from the frantic look of a frightened animal. Still, it remained calm.
We found places in a nearby compartment, although only for sitting. We adjusted to each other and tried to fall asleep. It was hard for me to calm my spirit and evoke sleep after such a turbulent day.
I closed my eyes, fell asleep and woke up a million times. Somewhere in that "close my eyes-open my eyes" cycle, in the "open my eyes" phase, I noticed that the train was standing at a station. I went out into the corridor, opened the window and read the sign on the board: "Vrhovine!"
(The Vrhovine place was located in the region of Lika)
Instantly, the memory brought me back to the time when I rode my bike through this place. I promised to myself that in the future I would do it again with the obligatory stop by this station to remember this present moment of this dead of night.
Arriving in Zagreb, just after 6 AM, followed the already experienced procedure from last year: getting off the train, improvised placing of saddlebags and equipment on it, driving by a platform a hundred meters to another train, futile search for a wagon with a bicycle compartment, and improvised placing of the bicycle in the wagon next to the locomotive.
The image below, which I took while sitting in the wagon seat, shows a piece of my bike.
The wagon was huge, or so it seemed to me due to the complete absence of passengers in it.
I arrived in the Nova Gradiška town after 8.30 AM, where my wife met me by car and drove me home.
End of the journey!
Instead of a point on i
As far as I am concerned, I think that with this ride I have made the voyage worthy of attention and respect.
I could now write sentences about how this is a lot, a lot more for me than just cycling, how I am (too) rich for new experiences and lived moments, how I am (too) proud of myself, how I am persistent, but not stubborn, how ...
Instead of praise, I would like to mention one small line, perhaps overshadowed by the enthusiasm of too many experiences, but not completely irrelevant.
Throughout the journey of this 2021:
- I was not attacked by any beasts or vermin (not even mosquitoes)
- I was not attacked by refugees
- I was not attacked by Bosnians (let alone Bosnian women)
- I didn't cut myself, hit, burn, break, freeze ...
- I didn't have any problems with the bike
- I had no problems with myself, or with people, or with animals, or with the technique...or in one word, I had no problems
Every book, no matter how thick, if it is good, will be too thin in the end!
Every song, no matter how long, if it's good, ends up being too short!
Every movie, no matter how long, if it's good, ends up being too short
Each….
That's how I felt with this journey, now that it's over. It turned out to be too short for me, another day would be very good for me!
Now it seems to me that a mixture of self-pity and self-shame overwhelmed me cause of excessive and unnecessary worries about how and what I will do during this past journey.
And one more thing, so I'll really end with this description, which is too long.
At the time I am writing these lines, which is November 2021, it seems to me that in addition to the Coronavirus, there is a virus of apathy, pessimism and negativity among people. That is why I was detailed and extensive in describing the larger, but also the small smaller and the smallest experiences from this journey. I probably often exaggerated in that, for example with euphoria and keenness.
I did it on purpose, despite these viruses!
Post je objavljen 15.01.2022. u 19:02 sati.