You’ve probably heard that Croatia has the best preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world but who would have guessed that Brijuni National Park is also the home to Croatia’s very own Safari park – who needs to fly to Africa?

Whilst perhaps lacking some of the big five, the Safari Park on the island of Brijuni was founded by General Tito, the president of Yugoslavia from 1953 until his death in 1980. In fact he used the island as his holiday home and lived there for some six months of each year.

He received and entertained many heads of state including the Queen of England and a number of African leaders. As was customary in that era, heads of state often brought exotic animals as gifts.

The head of India gifted two elephants, one of which is still alive at the Safari park. She lost her mate some seven years ago and is 45 years old. Perhaps the saddest Elephant you will ever see.

As well as the Elephant there was the sight of a new born donkey. Just an hour old in this photograph.

 

 

 

Zebras and other animals roamed around both inside their enclosures and along the walkways – the enclosures weren’t perfectly maintained – to put it politely.

Brijuni is also home to a full sized golf course, hotels, a Mediterranean garden and an Olive tree over 1600 years old. The ancient olive is one of the oldest trees in the Mediterranean, a fact that has been proved by research carried out on samples of this ancient olive tree

This was an excellent day out. We had previously visited Fazana to buy tickets two days prior, but because the prices were due to increase on our chosen date of travel, we were unable to buy any advance tickets although we were able to make a reservation on the 11:30 ferry which we were assured would have an English guide.

Note there is an “official” Birjuni travel shop and this is the only outlet where one can buy return tickets for the boat and associated tours. There are lots of other traders selling tours of the Brijuni area but we concluded that these were just cruises with no ability to disembark and explore the island.

 

The tickets were 200 Kuna and this included a return ferry crossing, guided “train” tour of the island and then the opportunity to explore unguided.

Following the guided train, we chose to hire Electric Bikes. What a great decision – they were amazing. The concern that they would reduce exercise was completely unfounded. It just means you can go further and faster with the same amount of effort. Note: Add to the “wish list”.

Later in the afternoon, post a waterside beer, we launched the drone and grabbed some aerial footage of Brijuni.

 

 

 

Evening was another very excellent and great value meal at Polidor campsite restaurant.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a chill day. The afternoon was spent around the pool. Early evening we launched the drone to take some stunning aerial footage of our campsite and the coastline between us and Funtana.