Four days in Senj

In mid-July, 2010 we decided to spend a long weekend at the seaside, just to relax and fill ourselves up a little with sunshine! The choice was pretty easy: the area around the city of Senj was the closest seashore to Budapest, exactly 500 km which is about 5 hours of driving, no big deal.

As we planned it to be a low-budget trip, we decided to camp instead of going for an apartment. I’ve been to Senj twice earlier and knew about a pretty decent campground approx. 6 km south from the city. It was partly a diver-base operated by the Hungarian diving club Galathea, with a good family atmosphere and nice, shady spots to pitch the tent. We were lucky because we travelled on Thursday, meaning that we didn’t have to wait for hours at the Croatian border to cross. In July and August this phenomena happens mostly every weekend, because the shifts are usually from Saturday to Saturday, no matter from which direction your are coming from.

The Trip

The duration of the trip was almost exactly as Google Maps calculated it: 5 hours. Croatian motorways are all toll roads, you have to pay at gates. The price is bearable compared to the Italian motorways; from Gorican (the border) to the exit of Zuta Lokva (the closest to Senj, 256 km altogether) cost 89 HRK (12,5 Euro). After the exit you have about 30 more minutes to go, which is through a beautiful mountain pass with a winding road and a lot of slow trucks in front of you.

The City

Senj is not the ultimate tourist attraction of the Mediterranean, probably it’s most famous of the medieval Fortress Nehaj, which is also the symbol of the city. Other than that is has a peaceful little harbor, some narrow streets between old buildings and a not too fancy public beach right next to the port. I would say it’s a typical mediterranean town without any significant peculiarity (people of Senj please don’t hate me for saying this!). But it’s a perfect place to relax, eat great food and spend a few days in its friendly, peaceful atmosphere. (There is one disco, but if you’re up to hardcore partying, go to Zadar or Split!) 

Beside Castle Nehaj Senj is also famous about the wind Bora (sometimes called Bura), which can reach speeds up to 200-220 km/h in the area of the city. This definitely affects all on-water activities such as sailing and fishing, but often causes the closing of roads close to the shore due to the unpredictable strong gusts. We’ll get back to the Bora a few paragraphs later.

Campground “Ujca”

After turning south on road number 8 in the direction of Karlobag, in about 5-6 km we reach the sign of Ujca Camping on the left. We enter the campground through a narrow, steep tunnel (that goes under the main road), and leads us to a barrier, where we can find the reception.

The lower part of the camping close to the seashore is usually full, but we were lucky since a Czech couple was just about to leave. We quickly pitched the tent and jumped in the 27 Celsius warm water from the little concrete pier that is built for the 12-person Zodiac that is transporting the divers to the diving spots several times every day.

I have to say the water in our little bay was not crystal clear, I could see some sort of oil (fuel? suntan lotion?) on top of it, but swimming a little further from the shore it disappeared quickly.

Diving

Of course going to the sea without snorkeling equipment would be a sin, and there are quite a few things to explore underwater in the area. Of course if you’re used to the Great Barrier Reef, the Maldives or the Red Sea you’ll be disappointed, but compared to other regions in the mediterranean the area of Senj is considered a fair place to dive or snorkel. Close to the road you might find some tires, axles and other parts of different vehicles underwater, I even found an old, red BMW from the ’80-s in one of the little bays in the direction of the town (on the shore, somehow fallen off the cliff). Scary.

If you’re a qualified (and certified) diver you can rent complete equipment from the staff and they’ll be happy take you out to beautiful spots with the motorboat, there is plenty to choose from. You can also participate in night-diving, which even looked cool from the cliff above from where I was tracking them.

The Port

The port of Senj is as peaceful as the city itself, you won’t find any luxurious yachts here. It’s mostly filled with sailboats and small boats of local fishermen.

On one end there is a crane designed to place ships on water, behind the jetty you’ll find the public beach surrounded by great-smelling restaurants. We haven’t tested those during this particular trip, because we had more than enough to eat in our icebox back in the camping.

Shopping

We visited the supermarket twice though, which is a 3 minute walk up the hill from the harbor. It has quite a big parking area, so we left the car there, because it’s hard to find a spot closer to the shore (and you also have to pay for that). The prices are not too frightening, it’s definitely cheaper than Austria or Italy. I recommend buying those great big onions which I’ve never seen anywhere else, they’re great for a fresh salad!

If you want to buy souvenirs like refrigerator magnets, little clams, necklaces or stuff like that, it’s worth walking around the port (but on the other side of the road), where you’ll find stands filled with these kinds of goodies. I tried to bargain, but the man was not really into it, he said “price is price”. Anyway, I tried.

The Bora

As previously mentioned the Bora wind is a quite common phenomena in the Senj area. It’s a north, north-eastern katabatic wind, meaning it blows from the shore towards the sea. That is the reason why it’s so dangerous; if a ship, a surfer or even a swimmer looses control and gets blown towards the open waters, than man he’s in trouble!

The reason I talk about the Bora is primarily because we had personally experienced it, fortunately not the extreme, 220 km/h type. On the dawn of our last day we woke up around 3-4am when our tent started rattling and shaking, which got louder and louder and didn’t stop. When we climbed out around 9am we saw dust everywhere, trees leaning and small objects flying. Wanted to have breakfast, but even the slice of bread got blown off from the table while I was reaching for the butter. It wasn’t an easy process, but we managed.

Swimming in the water was nearly impossible because of the rapid 10 degree decrease in temperature in just a few hours, even the divers were cursing while entering the 16-17 degree water in their neoprenes. We tried though, but couldn’t get further than 30 cm depth. The air temperature didn’t change much though, it was warm and sunny, just the water got stirred up quite a bit due to the constant strong gusts.

Castle Nehaj

The only thing left for the last day besides swimming was visiting Castle Nehaj, the pride of Senj. We couldn’t have picked a worse time to do that, since the fortress was on top of a small hill over the town, directly in the way of the Bora. On the way there we learnt that the road on the shore was closed for all vehicles except passenger cars, so at the border of the town tens of caravans, trucks and motorbikers were waiting in a huge parking lot for the weather to clam down.

When we parked the car at the side of Castle Nehaj we felt something like the walls are gonna fall down on us any moment. Fortunately it was build a couple of hundred years ago (1558) for circumstances just like these, so we didn’t have to worry even a bit. With its 2 meter wide stone walls we felt like in our mother’s womb while hearing the roaring and screaming from the outside.

The ground floor serves as a restaurant and bar, with some photos about the renovation and restoration of the castle in 1966. The first two floors are mainly exhibitions of old guns, canons, costumes and paintings spiced with some descriptions about life in the castle and battles on the sea, while the third floor is open-air, where you can walk around on top of the four walls. For me this was the part where I said it was worth it, the first two floors were not particularly interesting. The amazing view on the sea and on the city of Senj was unique, we also had a clear view on the treeless, rocky side of Island Krk right in front of us.

Walking around on the top of the fortress was no child’s play in a windy situation like the one we had. Sometimes when a stronger gust struck down I felt like somebody tossing me to the side of the wall with great force, making photographing the panorama quite a challenge.

Sometimes we moved squatting, hiding from natures forces at least for a few moments. It was more fun than dangerous though, if it weren’t safe the staff would have closed the third level from the public during these hours. Anyway, we managed to take some pretty funny pictures up there!

Places worth visiting near Senj

One of the “must see” places in Croatia are the Plitvice Lakes (Plitvička Jezera), which is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1979. The unique beauty of the place lies in its 16 lakes connected by several waterfalls, all this in a beautiful forest inhabited by wolves, bears and other rare species of animals. The National Park is open to public all year round (8am to 7pm), the entrance fee for adults varies from 55 HRK to 100 HRK due to different seasons. It’s worth spending a whole day there, don’t just “drop in” for a few hours, it makes no sense. If you feel tired afterwards, instead of driving back an hour and a half to Senj (approx. 100 km) you can stay in any of the three hotels in the park or at their huge, well equipped campground containing also bungalows and space for 500 tents.

If you’re in love with mediterranean towns, it’s worth checking out the town of Crikvenica, just 30 km north on road number 8 along the coast. In size it’s a bit bigger than Senj, but has the same, friendly atmosphere. The most famous building in the city is the monastery of the Pauline Fathers, built in 1412. Due to its favorable climate Crikvenica was officially qualified as a health resort in 1906.

Finally if you’re in the area it might be a good idea to visit one or both of the two main islands of the northern coast of Croatia, which are the island of Rab and Krk. The only way to access Rab is through a ferryboat, while to Krk you can use the bridge built at the northern part of the island.