Today, I walked a bit across the stony seaside area around the small town called Rakalj ...
... but first, I drove about thirty kilometers to get there.
I visited this place many times through the years, but never in autumn, so it was quite a surprise to see that the coastal slopes are covered with a mix of green and colorful, deciduous shrubs which create a nice seasonal atmosphere, very different from the uniformly evergreen one found along the southern coast of Istra, where I live.
Two friends were there with me. We parked on the crest of the hill ...
... with the nice view of the sea ...
... and went walking around, each one in its own direction, following personal interests and fantasies.
It was late in the morning, high noon was only about an hour further down the timeline ...
... and the temperature on the open, stony terrain with not much shade around was getting from the comfortably warm to slightly inebriating hot. Soon it felt like summer.
Down in the bay, where the sea looked exactly like a surface of the rough watercolor paper ...
... only one small fishing boat was floating on the big blue ...
... and here on the dry stony hills ...
... grasshoppers were jumping before my feet.
It took a bit of patient observing, and then sneaking to find a couple of them and get close enough to take these shots.
These are the Aiolopus strepens grasshoppers, a common and widespread species throughout the Mediterranean. They inhabit dry, sunny places with low vegetation and their colors provide good camouflage in that kind of environment. Very often you can notice them only when they jump away.
These little red berries ...
... are the colorful fruits of the Pistacia lentiscus.
The leaves of this evergreen shrub don't do much for the autumnal atmosphere, but the berries are a nice red addition to the scenery.
The top of the hill in this photograph is pretty iconic. From a distance, it looks like some fortress.
The vegetation here is mostly green ...
... but I found a couple of small, contorted deciduous trees around the rocks at the top.
This one looked especially good.
A bit like a bonsai tree created by the winds and harsh terrain.
The top of the neighboring hill looks very similar. Only here the fortress is real. Or at least it was. In this photograph, you can see the remains of the medieval castle upon a hill.
The atmosphere is slightly more autumnal on this hill ...
... with more yellow foliage.
After photographing plenty of my immediate surroundings ...
... I decided to zoom in on some distant stuff ...
... across this long, narrow bay that looks like a river.
Some brand-new apartment buildings were recently built in the sea of vegetation on the other side of the bay.
Here the focus is back on the things around me. I mean, not so far from me. In that sense around me.
I took a few more shots ...
... with autumnal details surrounded by evergreen stuff ...
... and then, after two hours of individualistic rambling, after a bit of yelling and calling each other from hill to hill, we got together, me and my friends ...
... and walked a couple of kilometers as a group ... I mean, a trio ...
... towards the town of Rakalj.
Here, a bit further from the sea, the landscape is still stony ...
... but a bit different, with more signs of past agricultural activities along the narrow country lane.
Small properties with a bit of fertile soil are surrounded by old dry stone walls.
The trees are taller.
There is a nice mix of deciduous and evergreen vegetation ...
... all along the road. We walked only two or three kilometers, so we didn't reach the town. After the same amount of kilometers downhill, back to the car ...
... we drove away, arrived in the town ...
... and stopped there for a short walk and a couple of shots.
And that's it ...
... after some more driving, we were back in Medulin, our hometown.
As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work.
