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| Cres Harbor |
Cres is the
largest island of Croatia, by .5 square kilometers, but only has a population
of 3000. The town was deserted, many were finishing the olive harvest outside
of town. The area floods easily, so the ground floor of most houses are used
for storage of wine and olive oil, the living area is on the first floor and
bedrooms on the second. We visited the 11th century Lady of the Snow
church based on a 4th century legend of snow falling in Rome. The
island is very rocky and dominated by hills. Between the length of the island
and its height, it has three different climate zones and over 1400 species of
plants.
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| The rocky terrain |
In the afternoon, we visited the Griffon
Vulture Center. Griffon vultures nest about 10 meters above the sea in the
cliffs on four nearby islands. The griffin is one of four European vultures.
The eggs take 2 months to hatch and then the young remain in the nest for 4
months. Many of the young on their early flights, fall into the sea. Here they
drown or if they reach the shore may starve since they don’t have enough
altitude to take flight again. Here is where the center rescues them with the
intent to release them back into the wild, only 8 of the 82 birds have died.
But Griffon Vultures have a 90% mortality rate before maturity in 6 years. They
can live for 50 to 60 years, but only produce one egg per year.
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| Griffon Vultures |
We returned to walk the beach and stopped for Kacotici
cookies and wine. After dinner we were entertained by the Artemis Beach Boys.
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| Cookies and wine on the beach |
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