The sea sings to us

Time to head back to the mainland and press on south. THe dark clouds hanging over it in contrast to the bright sun on Rab (see photo) was not very encouraging but they had lifted by the time we arrived. We took the coast road which curved with every bay so it took a long time but enabled us to admire the autumnal red bushes and terracotta roofed villages nestling in the bays.

By the time we reached Zadar it was up to a record 18 degrees C! We paid for an hours parking outside the old city walls and wandered in, managing to catch the last ten minutes of the veg market to replenish our supplies. We also took in the attractive Roman ruins, (like a VERY SMALL Rome Forum) and Zadar's main attraction that had brought us 44km out of our way- the Sea Organ. Not much to look at- about five different flights of large steps laid out next to each other, going down to the sea with a line of about a dozen holes into the stone work above each flight. The holes are pipes that go right down to the level of the sea and everytime a wave slaps at it, a pan pipe like note is produced. All of the five times twelve holes are perfectly tuned so that every note sounds beautiful with each other and the effect is like being gently but clearly serenaded by the sea. I love the long sweeping bench nearby too made of dark wood and white stone.
There is another sculpture too- a huge glass circle at pavement level so you can walk on it with other outlying sattered tiny cicles too. Apparently this charges up with solar and tidal energy in the day and produces a light show throughout the hours of dartkness. I hoped to return later see this and catch some of the evnening energy of the town. This never happened though- we drove about checking out the three camp sites of the city but they were all shut so we ended up at a suprisingly plush international youth hostel. By the time we'd bought some groceries, used the internet and had some dinner and beer, chatting to the other Dutch overlanders also staying there seemed like a much better propersition! They had a landcruiser about four years older than ours, done up beautifully and were heading for the warmth of Turkey for about theree months. We exchanged numbers so we could text details of any open campsites to each other on our shared route!