One of the most dreaded statements you will hear from someone is, “I had the strangest dream last night…”
Because you know that it will be followed by a long, rambling and disjointed tale that you are going to have to pretend to listen to. This is because of The Dream Rule: While we find our own dreams fascinating, amusing, disturbing, etc…we could give a rat’s arse about those of other people (this is directly related to The Driver Rule: The driver in the car in front of me is driving way too slow, while the driver of the car behind me is a speed maniac on my bumper!)
OK, having said all of that, I’m still going to write about this dream I had.
Mainly, because it was a very specific nature dream: I was sitting on the banks of an impossibly blue river watching clouds blow by really fast overhead. I woke up from the dream and I had a name stuck in my mind: “Una”
So, out of curiosity, I looked up the Una River and lo and behold….there is one!
It looked just like what I saw in my dream. The crazy blue water? Due to limestone in suspension. Here is an explanation from PBS’s Land of Falling Lakes (which is in Croatia, not too far away):
“As water travels through the limestone, it dissolves the surrounding stone and bubbles to the surface heavily laden with suspended lime (calcium carbonate). The water then flows through a natural filter of moss and plants that grow in a luxurious carpet along stream banks. Under the right conditions — water and air temperatures play a key role — the suspended lime is deposited on the plants, entombing them in a hard glaze. Eventually, the lime-encrusted plants petrify, and the entire mass turns to a rock that geologists call travertine. Even small animals can become entrapped in the “living” stone. Then, new mosses grow atop the travertine and the process begins again.”
Cool, huh! (Incidentally, I really want that DVD…hint, hint) Here is a map showing the river’s watershed region.
There is a movement to get the Una listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, as it supports some unique and rare species and is (currently) relatively unpolluted. Check out this grassroots organization which boasts:
“The Una River is not unique only because of its unrepeatable beauty, but for being the only river in the world that has:
– ecological movement of children Unski smaragdi (Una emeralds), ecological alphabet, ecological identity card, ecological bon ton, ecological parliament of children, ecological town of children – Bihac.
“Ecological bon ton”?! Well, whatever that is, there are lots of good reasons to help preserve this river. It says it is home to the cave dwelling, sightless newt Proteus (which may be a candidate for Garfman to list…)and other unique organisms. (On a side note we’ll just label as “down the rabbit hole,” here is a long but interesting article you might want to read, as it does mention the newt and you can spend hours searching around this site!)
All this from one dream….
Lawnchair Naturalist 