Mixing climbing and hiking, the European tour signed by Upendo Vibes ends in Croatia

CROATIA

Croatia was the perfect conclusion of an extraordinary journey. Four months of living in a van visiting 24 countries, covering almost 22,000 km for a total of 119 days. Together with Greece, this place made us appreciate the "vanlife" in its most beautiful aspects, giving back to us the wildest vision of a life on the road. We spent the last month of travel enjoying the warm temperatures and appreciating the possibility to finally spend more time outside. Every night we could sleep in a different place, living in a kind of “same house - different garden” dream. Everything around us became a new place to invent our routine: where to stop, how and where cooking, which views to look at, where taking a shower.

We left Italy in February as a true novice in this field, without any experiences of living in a camper. But slowly we changed ourselves becoming adapting our needs to this new way of life, finding always new solutions and understanding where to put the van in the evening in order to have shade in the morning. (which, for the records, it's a great achievement)

Croatia was the pinnacle of this second part of the journey. We found out how gorgeous it's having e a solar shower (a bag that heats up in the sun during the day, with a shower attached) to be used in the strangest moments and spots, avoiding even the need to always search for an equipped area. It may seem nuts, but it is in the littlest and most simple things that you understand the beauty of life. We have inexplicably found it even in a shower, in the moonlight of a Croatian night.

Similar was the feeling of an afternoon we have spent walking far and wide across a small island, that suddenly turned into a climbing day. A pair of approach shoes, a rock that lends itself to boulder shamelessly, a craving for climbing. We started playing on the rocks in the easiest and spontaneous way possible: on an island, in costume and with a pair of TX2 leather at the foot.

For all the hiking lovers, a place that I would totally recommend is the Plivtice Lakes National Park, in the centre of Croatia.

With its 16 lakes that give rise at dozens of waterfalls and little streams surrounded by forests rich in vegetation and wild animals, this park is definitely something unique. The waterfalls are probably the part which impresses most, along with all the shades of green that fill your eyes at every glance, passing from the saturated green of the vegetation to the emerald green of the lakes’ water. You can visit the park entirely through a path of wooden walkways of about 18 km that follows the lakeside and passes close to the streams (sometimes even above). We then walked through the forests, even managing to enter some caves that we found near one of the lakes. Choosing the longest route, we were able to enjoy the whole park in about 4 hours of walk. Given a large number of tourists in the summer season, we recommend visiting it in a less frequented period, perhaps in the fall, with the additional magic of the warm colours typical of that time of year.

Croatia offers a lot, naturalistically speaking, and has given us so much.

What we used: TX2 Leather. Even for unexpected climbing sessions, fun is guaranteed. Of course, you will not make your best performances in these shoes, but for something easy and not demanding, when climbing shoes are missing, these approach footwear style could be considered as a worthy replaced.
Santiago t-shirt: these shirts are exceptional. Comfortable, fresh, breathable and suitable for any type of walk. Perfect then to be taken on a trip, as they wash and dry really fast. Available in light – almost pastel colours, they can also be worn as leisure clothing.

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