One of the most attractive new additions to the Istrian tourist offering is nearing completion: Paleo Park, Bale’s answer to the world-famous Jurrasic Park is set to open in four months!
Paleo Park will be a part of the new, much improved camping Mon Perin, which currently undergoes a major enlargement, creation of the whole new tourist complex that will include the park dominated by the swimming pool shaped like a dinosaur. The dino-shaped pool will have the surface area of over a thousand square meters of water surface, and almost three times as much area for sunbathing.
Why the dinosaur? In 1992, an incredible discovery in the seabed of the cove near Bale uncovered that the dinosaurs once lived in the region. While it has been known that the dinosaurs have lived in Istria, this is still the only location in the world where dino fossils were found on the seabed. (Scientific geeky content: the most important remains found were of the Histriasaurus (get it? Histria-saurus, Istrian lizard!) boscarollii, one of the oldest species of the genus Rebbachisauridae, supposedly living more than 130 million years ago.)
In addition to the water park complex, the Mon Perin Camping will promote other content related to the prehistorical beasts that remain popular among the children (and adults!) today, such as the educational paths with posters about the history and characteristics of the largest animals ever to have walked the Earth, and models made in their natural size!
After more than six months of heavy machinery work, the pool complex has been almost completed, and now need to be completely finalised, Ivan Maričić, board member of the Mon Perin told Novi list. Now they need to finish the landscaping around the pool, as well as all 16 thousand square meters of the camping site. Of course, the paths need to be created and new objects need to be furnished as planned. Since they’ve had no major hold-ups or delays during the worst phases of the project when various factors could’ve impacted the project’s progress to a much greater degree, they are confident that all the work will be finished by late May or early June, so just in time for the new tourist season!
