Franjo Sablic - Unsung Hero

Franjo or Franz as he was known was quite simply mad!

Franz was responsible for organising who did what each day at the Eco centre in Croatia. He would make sure no one was at a loss for things to do - even if it meant lifting donkey poo (thanks Franz!).

He seemed to work at the centre 7 days a week and 12 hours a day (mind you he did have 3 kids back home including a baby so the eco centre might have seemed a blissful paradise in comparison).

After work he would organise things like boat trips or guided bus tours but when he had to be he was strict in making sure everybody knew what they had to do - His catchphrase was "After eating is Meeting!" and boy did he make sure of that.



Franz doing his Sami Selio impersonation.

A couple of other things about Franz.

He is a coach for a local kids football team and is fanatical about the game (well betting on it anyway)

He is licensed to hunt wild boar. I will do a minor Ray Rant here. Wild boar were introduced to the Island in the 50's or 60's so that rich hunters could come and hunt when ever they wanted. (they are not native to the island) They have bred out of control and cause immense damage to the land and even kill lambs and sheep. The locals are powerless to react as they are not allowed to shoot the boars (only the hunters are allowed and they do not give out their licenses easily). As a result of this some locals have tried to illegally poison boars by placing out poisoned meat. This has also resulted in deaths to griffin vultures and was one of the biggest reasons for their decline on the island. The hunters keep the boar population high by only killing a certain numbr of boar at a time - Franz is the only hunter trying to actually limit the population.

Hvala Hrvatska

My Second Port of call on my Conservation Travels was Croatia at the Eco Centar, Beli, Cres. Here is what I learnt on this trip.

1. The first and most important thing I learnt was that there is no alcohol allowed to be consumed on the premises! However there was a bar 50 metres up the street and you were allowed to drink there (infact I was virtually forced to by some people) and they were showing all the European Championship football games. Drink and footie is there anything better?

2. I learnt that I cannot speak Croatian. The very first word I had to learn was Hvala which means thank you. My attempts to pronounce this one little word caused nothing but confusion and mirth to the Croatian locals. Attempts included Ha-Va-La, Viola, Fa-la and even Koala. All failed - trying to say hv without a vowel in between is beyond my limited language comprehension. One word was very simple to say in Croatian -pivo (beer). I only ever attempted cheers once - Zivjeli as I nearly swallowed my tongue trying.

3. The health and safety used on Cres is slightly different from the National Trust. Whereas steel toe capped boots are required for manual labour on National Trust holidays in Croatia any footwear will do - especially when building stone walls. I believe they use the rule that if you drop a big rock on your foot then you are unlikely to do it again anyway. Also hard hats are not required when bringing cement up and down a mountainside as they may inhibit you hearing a rockslide heading your way. For all their limits on health and safety no one got hurt once. If you have no protection you tend to think more about what your doing. For example one day I thought to myself 'You know I'm a volunteer who actually paid to do this so why the hell am I holding on to the side of a cliffface looking for bird feathers?'

Me and my stone wall which I built myself (OK! Which I helped build!)










4. If you are going to stall a minibus on a road with a 20 degree incline full of fat Italian pensioners try not to start rolling back towards the edge of the cliff. Also when hanging out the back of a Lada 4X4 being driven up the same road try to keep your feet off the ground!






5. Althought griffin vultures only eat carrion you cannot help but feel a bit apprehensive when going into their cage to feed them - especially one of them called Koleda who has a particular liking for sheeps eyes!




6. Vultures eat a lot - as seen from one old eating station on the island.






7. You get to appreciate how precious water is when you live somewhere where all your water has to be delivered by tanker every day. The old motto when going to the toilet applies:

If its Yellow, let it mellow. If it's Brown, wash it down.
Just as well I was not drinking Guinness then! If its black....?


Here are other images from my trip - in no particular order:

Shaun of the Dead?

Beli at night

Secluded Inlet

Eventually the Scotch revert to character


You want me to go up there!

Made it

Christelle shows Franz a new rugby move

Boat rides are great

Beli Harbour

Its tough work here in Croatia

Aaah! Kittens



We men! We drink!

I'll stick with the women

Lizard
A final Pic

A great place - its just a pity Croatia lost the footie on the final night :(

Griffin Vultures of Croatia

First of all I nicked the photo above off the internet. I'm afraid that in my two weeks in Croatia I never got a decent picture of a vulture which is a bit daft as there were two cages with birds at the back of the eco centre I was staying in!

Appendum: I did take a photo of Koleda on my phone while feeding him so here it is:





A few facts about the Griffin Vultures of Croatia:

The griffin vulture is the second largest bird in Europe with a 3 metre wing span (its f"@king big!) and weighing 6-13 kilos. Its range goes from Spain in the West right through to India in the East.

In Croatia the birds are even bigger than normal weighing up to 15 kilos. This is because unlike nearly all other Griffin Vultures in the world the ones in Croatia nest on sea cliffs - sometimes very close to the water. Basically 10,000 years ago there were no islands of Croatia - just mountainous valleys. Then the Ice age ended and the Mediterrenian and Adriatic filled up with water.

So one morning 10,000 years ago Mrs vulture wakes up and goes; 'Adam and Eve! Who the hell left the tap on last night!' (Obviously they said this in Croatian not English and I know that the tap had still not been invented but you get the gist). So junior vulture and all his generations afterwards grew up having to fly out over the sea in order to get their thermals (that's hot air uplifts not warm underwear). As a result of this they have had become bigger than normal griffin vultures.

Now to the Eco Centre:

The Griffin Vultures of Croatia had been in steady decline in the 20th century due to various reasons and in the 90's only the Island to Cres had any birds remaining on it. Here too they were going to die out. So thats were the Eco Centre came to the rescue. It was established in 1993 and since then through its efforts the birds have gone from a low of 20 pairs to over 70 pairs. They have also started recolonising other nearby islands. If you have time checkout their site - its very good. Eco Centre