B2) THE ISONZO RIVER AND ITS NATURAL PARK, INCLUDING THE CONA’S ISLAND

Joining this tour by A MOTOBLUES – Motorbiking North East you will be set thorougly in contact with nature and natural habitats. Starting from the centre of Grado, heading even more South-East, you will motorcycle on amazing coastlines and peninsulas, driving through villages like Primero, Isola Morosini, Fossalon etc. to end up to the Cona’s Island, where you are supposed to get off your motorbike and experience on foot a unique and charming natural park, which will cast a bizzarre symbiosis between you and the local wildlife. After our break, we will ride back to Grado and we’ll end our tour with a pleasant visit to the thermal-recreational facilities at  Grado’s Thermal Spa  Terme Marine di Grado , where we’ll have the chance to bathe in the clean waters of the area and take advantage of the impeccable services offered by recreational structures managed by GIT Grado .

The Cona’s Island belongs to the territory of the Isonzo River’s Mouth Natural Park: here we are in the highest tip of the Adriatic sea, just above Monfalcone, where the Timavo River mouths and where a noticeable coastline, rich of shallow waters and a particular lagoon structure take form. Very close to the Timavo’s mouth is also the Isonzo river’s mouth, which originates in the Giulian Alps in Slovenja and terminates its flow in the gulf of Triest, in a stretch of land between Monfalcone and Grado. This region, spread over a 2400 hectare area along the last 15 km of the river’s streamline, comprises the Natural Park of the Isonzo’s mouth and it was affected by substantial changes during the course of time, mainly due to the natural alternation between the action of erosion and of depositing to which the same river was subjected, as well as by the channeling and sanitation works carried out by man.

The natural park is contemporarily inhabited both by the local wild animals and by man. It is an area where several types of habitats have been created and maintained, thus permitting the co-existence of various animal and vegetal species, both autoctone and fit in by man, like the horses from the French Camargue. During the last years several contructions for the observation of the water habitat and for birdwatching have been built, which have been harmoniously fit in the surrounding setting, thus permitting the visitor to enjoy in full a stunning environment and a natural and unique atmosphere.

A MOTOBLUES – Motorbiking North East will introduce you to roads and tracks which are normally unknown to strangers and will lead you to the heart of Grado’s lagoon, which is made of multiple channels and water ponds criss-crossing humps and little isles; you can explore it by sea on the hunt for the characteristic “casoni” (humble houses, previously used by local fishermen, with their peculiar straw-roof and entrance door on the West side, in order to get sheltered from the “Bora”, the top-speed wind that originates in Croatia, in a village called Senj, and blows on the whole Adriatic coastline, almost up to Venice), but also by road, along the little roads and paths bordering the fishing ponds, just the way you will be doing that with us!