CLOUDY DAY AT THE END OF THE YEAR

It was a cloudy, humid day at the end of the year, the 28th of December 2022, and, like many times before, I went driving around Istra in search of something to photograph and post about. Some friends were in the car with me. Like many times before, we didn't have a clear destination in mind. It was a vague little trip. Having fun & rambling around were the only defined goals.

In this opening photograph, you can see the iconic remains of the medieval town called Dvigrad, but this wasn't the first place we visited.

Our first stop was in Vodnjan. In the large parking lot on the outskirts of town ...

... where we bought delicious apples and tangerines from a mobile store inside the truck.

At that point, we were only about twenty kilometers from our hometown. Here you can see the railroad and the little station that looks exactly like a bus stop, with the typical shelter made of glass and metal. I took a bunch of photographs from there.

(Enlargeable)

I photographed the windows on one of the buildings across the parking lot ...

(Enlargeable)

... and the tennis match that was being played in the small club on the other side of the rails.

In this shot, I zoomed in on the fruit-vending truck.

(Enlargeable)

This photograph was taken six or seven kilometers north of Vodnjan.

In the woods.

It was the second stop of the journey.

(Enlargeable)

The ground was covered with leaves fallen from the oak trees.

The forest was humid and silent.

Here you can see the fern and moss ...

... that grows on the rocks by the side of the road that leads to Dvigrad.

(Enlargeable)

This was the third stop of our tour.

(Enlargeable)

We didn't visit Dvigrad. I just took a couple of photographs from a distance ...

... and continued exploring the vegetation in the roadside area around my parked car.

(Enlargeable)

Here you can see the moss that grew on the roots that ended up partially above the ground due to the erosion.

This little snail was photographed nearby. I didn't have the macro lens with me.

This weird thing that grew on the barren branches is a fungus.

The Mucilago crustacea.

The fern that grows on the rocks is the Asplenium trichomanes.

Here you can take a last look at the plants on the rocks. I'm leaving this place soon. The following photograph ...

(Enlargeable)

... was taken somewhere along the road, twenty minutes after leaving the area near Dvigrad. I parked the car by the side of the road and took this shot. That's all I can say about the fourth stop on our journey to nowhere in particular.

Here you can take a look at the village called Chervari, photographed when we stopped for the fifth time.

(Enlargeable)

While standing by the side of the road, I heard a sheep bell in the distance and I saw this solitary sheep. The rest of the herd was hidden by the vegetation.

As I'm slowly zooming out ...

(Enlargeable)

... you can see more of the scenery and with each new shot, the sheep looks lonelier.

Here I zoomed in on some buildings in the nearby village.

Here you can see an old abandoned house on the outskirts of Chervari. This house wasn't visible in the previous photographs.

(Enlargeable)

The final, sixth stop, was in the long, narrow bay that looks like a river.

The name of this place is Lim bay.

(Enlargeable)

At this point, we were about fifty kilometers from home.

This seagull was resting on one of the buoys in the middle of the bay.

Here I zoomed in to take a better look at the bird. In the following photograph ...

... the seagull is taking care of its plumage.

These white lichens ...

... were found and photographed ...

... on the roadside rocks near my parked car.

There was a hole at the base of those rocks. A cave entrance. The red thing in the foreground photograph is some kind of pump, I think.

(Enlargeable)

I mean, I'm sure that is a pump. The hole under the rock was flooded. The rocky terrain on both sides of the narrow bay has many caves and cavities.

The yellow leaves of this tree that grows near the place in which I parked my car added a bit of vivid color to the gray, washed-out visuals of this post.

AND THAT'S IT. FROM LIM, WE DROVE DIRECTLY BACK HOME, SO THE POST MUST END HERE. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE JOURNEY AS I DID AT THE END OF 2022.

THE END