Sunday 15 November
Up and organised and we buy some fresh veges from the camp owner who is such a lovely lady. She makes us a coffee before we go and has a chat. We feel they are very hospitable people here so we enjoy what they have to offer. We decide that since it is Sunday we can drive on the yellow non highway roads so we have no tolls to pay. We head out on the road and the fog has lifted a lot but not completely from when we arrived so we can see a little of the surrounds here. We stop at a little supermarket on the way out to buy a couple of things and then continue on our way. The roads are reasonably quiet which is good. It takes us several hours before we reach Trieste which is right on the border of Italy and Slovenia. It is an amazing place and as we drive along the esplanade approaching Trieste there are a number of campers parked along the water. For a short moment we contemplate staying here tonight instead of continuing on but we really need to keep moving and get into Slovenia today. As you drive out of Trieste you can look down the high cliffs at the many marinas that are featured around the coastline here. It looks like an expensive part of the country and there is a very large port as well. We head into a small town near the border of Slovenia called Koper which looks really nice. The camp stop is right near the motorway so very easy to find as it is already getting dark (It starts to get dark now about 4pm especially when it is overcast). The campstop is only 4 euro for the night and it has everything including toilets and showers, what a bonus. Plus it is fully secure with a card to swipe for access in and out. There are other campers here who are from Slovenia who help us to get our power connected as it is a little tricky. I feel a little uncomfortable with a couple of them as I feel there is some judgement happening as they stare without emotion at us setting up.
We love the look of this place so decide we will stay for an extra night so we can explore the town tomorrow. We ride our bikes into town as it’s flat and easy to get there with bike lanes. The town is cute and ancient. We stop our bikes and we spy a hairdresser. Scot wants to have his hair cut again so he heads in and checks it out. 10euro for a cut, so cheap so he has his cut and we head to a café for coffee. I would love to have my hair cut as it is getting too long but I can’t communicate adequately to any of these people so can’t tell them what I want so it is easier to just tie my hair up most days and forget about it. Coffee is at a little café that is making chocolate as well and we find it is only 3euro for 2 cups and 2 rounds of chocolate, very cheap. We head off around the little town again and come out at the shore where there is a marina. There is also a big port here, the main one for Slovenia. I need stamps and cards etc so we look for the post office which is apparently hard to find. On the way we have pizza again and another coffee eventually finding the post office.
Afterwards we head back to find our bikes and go back to the van for some things we have forgotten and then head back into town. We found a lovely café/restaurant on the waterfront so we find that again and sit and have a wine and beer – well several. They also serve snacks with your drink so we have some pastry cheesy baked things. It was dark when we left so we attach our lights and head back to the camper stop.
In the morning we need to do some laundry as it’s been over 2 weeks and there hasn’t been anywhere to do it, so I find a Laundromat in a small town down on the coast near the Croatian border. It is difficult to find but eventually we find it and prepare for the 2 hour wait for the laundry to wash and dry. We have our obligatory morning coffee and then sit and read whilst waiting for it to finish. By midday we are all done and back on the road to Croatia. We need to drive on the non highway roads as we haven’t bought a vignette for Slovenia and the fine is quite high.
As we leave Slovenia the police are on the border in the Slovenian side and they want our passports. This is a first, we haven’t had anyone wanting to look at them on a border since we left England. We confuse the hell out of the copper who has seen the GB number plate of the van and I then hand him NZ passports. He looks at me and asks where we live. Australia I say and he looks even more confused…lol. Underneath I am a little concerned that he will not like the 3 things that don’t seem to add up so I fill him in on what we are doing. I don’t think his English is all that good, but a lady copper sitting beside him seems to be nodding and smiling that all is ok. After several minutes and a few cars lined up behind us he stamps the passports telling us it isn’t a good time to go to Greece and waves us along. Then we are stopped at the Croatian border and have to show the passports again. They are ok, stamp them and off we go. Someone reminds us that as it isn’t usual to find police on the borders (actually the EU doesn’t allow this type of border control) it is likely due to the Paris bombings even though we aren’t near there. We decide that this isn’t a country to try and drive off the highways, but first we have to buy a sim card for the tablet. We get off the yellow road and head into the first little town on the seafront where I know there is a mobile phone shop. We walk around town and look for the shop but then find that the shops here open from 9 until 1 and then reopen at 4 and close at 6 or 7. It is about 1.15 so we have just missed the two shops we have come across, but thankfully we find another one that doesn’t close. The lady that serves us says they have to work 12 hour days and seems quite unhappy about it. I guess I would be too. I buy the sim without all the security of other countries and we head out of the town and head back to a highway.
We want to get as far down Croatia as we can on the highway, even though it isn’t cheap driving on the highway. The alternative isn’t pretty though, the ‘yellow’ roads as we call them as they show on the map as yellow are the next best thing to the highways but these ones go right over the mountains and we don’t know how good these roads will be in Croatia so we can’t risk it. It is also getting late In the day and since it is starting to get dark at 4pm these days it is much better to be on the highways driving in the dark. We have a small camperstop pegged out at Ogulin so as we approach the town we exit the highway and head towards where the camperstop is. It is often funny when we find small places like this the roads are often very tiny and can only take one car at a time. This is no exception and we head through these roads that are very narrow and appear to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
We contemplate stopping for the night at a little restaurant that we pass but then realise they also have rooms so will be a conflict them letting us stop in their carpark for the night even if we eat at their restaurant. We eventually find the camperstop and there are a lot of people already staying there whom we are told are speleologists. In fact the camp is called Spelio camp and they cater for up to 10 countries that come exploring caves in these areas. They are very friendly and start chatting to us. One guy we chat to had been to every other country except NZ where he plans to go in a couple of years time. They are lovely people but we let them get on with their night and we check in and set up the van. We have our washing to fix up and bed to make so before the bed is made we check to make sure that our hws leak is still ok and the van is dry under the bed, which thankfully it is all fine. I make up the bed and it is a reasonably early night.
The Speleologists are up early and getting organised and we also get ourselves organised. We want to get down to Zadar today. The wind has been howling all night and was so strong that the van had one of it’s struts knocked away which we have never had before. It is still blowing a gale and as I take a look at the weather forecast I see that someone was correct in telling us that the weather was about to change in a few days. The good weather we have been having is coming to an end and the forecast for this current location is 4 days of snow with temperatures of 4 down to -4. Oh shit we don’t need snow to travel in so we need to get away from this area real fast. We head off out of the town on the little narrow alleyways we went in on and Scot spies several sellers, some selling large bags of cabbages (god who would buy 15 cabbages at a time?) and other veges but one is selling honey so we circle back and Scot jumps out to have a look. He comes back after 5 minutes happy with his purchase but he has been severely ripped off. The guy saw him coming and charged him 70kuna for a jar of honey (that’s aud15) which is a huge amount for someone to be selling on a little stall In this country. (however we see later where it costs this in the supermarket and it is delicious). Anyway I guess it is probably the only sale he will make that day so if it buys him some groceries that is ok.
The landscape around this part of the country is barren, scrubby, rocky, nothingness. Nothing grows and I guess you can really do nothing with the land either. We head south and start discussing that maybe we need snow chains for the car as if the forecast is for snow in a couple of days we have summer tires and we could be in trouble. So Scot checks the legal requirements of Croatia which we should have checked before now and finds that legally we need snow chains in our van if we are pulled over by the police who do random checks. Along the sides of the highway they have many signs with tires with chains on as well as many signs showing snowflakes and reduced speeds in case there is snow. As I am driving I am travelling very slow as the wind is severe and the wind socks are being blown sideways. We travel over many viaducts and the wind blows the van around quite a bit. I dislike driving in these types of conditions but I can only hope the wind eases at some stage. Having said that strangely we head through a major tunnel through a mountain about 5.5km long and when we get to the other side it seems that the wind isn’t as strong and at the sun even starts to come out. We decide that regardless of it all we need to find snow chains so stop at a couple of service stations on the highway to see what they have. We eventually buy some – very much cheaper than other countries so at least we will have something for a worst case scenario.
As we near Zadar, we discuss what we are going to do after Croatia. It has been a major problem as to whether we still go to Greece and how we get there since we can’t travel through Albania and Bosnia. We make a decision to go back up the coast road a little since it is supposed to be the better scenery and there are multiple camping places there that we are likely to be able to stay at. After half an hour driving up the coast which is just lovely we come across a little camp that we have seen on our map. It is right on the sea front, no one is there and we know it will be incredibly cheap. So we check it out. 110kuna, aud23 for the night and the lady has 13 cats. I am in straight away. We both still miss our little boy Freddy (I am the worst) so I take any opportunity to have pats and cuddles. We set the van up and sit the chairs by the waterside and it is so pleasant and peaceful. The cats eventually make their way over to check us out and before we know it, we have 13 cats hanging around in the hope of an offer of any food or titbit we have. I get around this by feeding them my yoghurt and they all get to lick my fingers like cats around a cow teat. They all love this and are in cat heaven. There is nothing else actually but maybe a lick of salt and a small piece of chip we are having with a wine but they hang around in hope. Some are cuddlier than others and there is the littlest most adorable kitten that I just can’t resist. As the night falls on us we don’t want to give up our little bit of waterside peace so we get out the blankets and stay where we are in the dark. The cats are quite happy and I end up with two on my lap and two on the bottom of the blanket with the others quite close by. I am in my element and would love to sneak just one of them in the van away with us, but the hassle would be more than it is worth. Even Scot gets one on his knee for a cuddle. Eventually it is tea time and I reluctantly move inside. Several of them stay outside our door all night and are still there in the morning.
Since this is a rare treat for me, I get up early with my tea and breakfast and blanket and sit back in my waterfront seat with the cats around me. The morning is still and peaceful. I even get Scot to come out and enjoy the morning much earlier than he likes to get out of bed. After a couple of hours just sitting, being, enjoying the solitude and peace we need to get moving, so the cats that are now cuddled up on both laps are moved and we get organised to leave.
Last night we discussed our next moves. Originally we were going to drive down to Dubrovnik in Croatia via the highway and then go back up by the coast road and take a ferry from Trieste down to Greece since we can’t drive through from Croatia (Our insurance won’t cover us if we do). This was a good option as a lot of the ferries that sail in this area have stopped for the year due to lack of business. In the summer you can take a ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari in Italy and then down to Greece which would have been ideal. However our original idea of a ferry from Trieste has changed overnight. Now we are going to take a ferry from Split to Ancona in Italy and then from Ancona down to Patras in Greece. Although the cost of the ferries is high we take into consideration the cost of tolls, fuel, camps and the days travelling it will be if we have to drive all the way around from Croatia back to Italy and it will be almost as much and time will be getting away on us. So ferries it has to be. So now we have 1 week to get down to Dubrovnik and then back to Split so that we can get the ferry to Ancona and then down to Patras in Greece. Great idea. The only other issue we have is how to get across Bosnia Herzegovina down to Dubrovnik. We aren’t allowed to drive the 10km stretch so we either don’t go or we take a ferry across to one of the islands so we can drive down there. We don’t know yet.
It is so lovely on this part of the coast on the Adriatic sea that we decide to drive across to the next peninsula from where the cat camp is to a town called Pag and there is a huge camp there that is still open, but is very cheap at the moment and we can see that part of the country. It doesn’t take us long to drive down that peninsula, but it is rocky, desolate and in most places totally deserted. There are the occasional settlements, but it is funny. There are hundreds of people who seem to be building their own little homes, but a lot of them look like they are never finished. It seems as if people build until they can live in their small dwelling and that is where it stays. The bricks look unfinished, there is no rendering, paint or even gutters or anything. Even the windows look like they are just sitting in holes and haven’t been put in properly. There seems to be a lot of people just sitting around, doing stuff around their properties, sitting drinking in cafes, bars etc. We find out from the camp lady that when places close for the winter these people have nowhere to work and nowhere to go and life becomes very difficult for them. Only the lucky ones keep working on through the quiet months. We stop in Pag on the way and have a look around the town. It is mostly closed down and a lot of the buildings are shuttered for the winter. It would be a bustling place in summer for sure. We head out and over a large hill to a camp on the sea front which is huge but essentially deserted. We do wonder why they have stayed open at all. There are probably 1000 campsites plus cabins etc here but there is one other camper and us and perhaps a couple of people staying in cabins. Not really worth being open for.
We park up and take a walk along the pebble beach which looks divine to swim in but for the temperature of the day which hasn’t really got over 14deg. We suss out the camp and what is here and eventually Scot decides he is going to have a swim in the Adriatic sea come what may, so in he gets. It isn’t really that cold, we have swum in colder but I decide it isn’t for me so I take the photos and watch the sunset that is developing. I hate having to do paperwork but I have received an extra bill from the Swiss hospital which I am not going to pay and need to send to the insurance company. So thankfully I have a printer and I can print out the claim forms etc and then scan the filled pages back in ready to email back off. Yes it is strange having a printer in the van, but I don’t know what I would have done several times if I hadn’t had it.
We then decide to go to the restaurant we have been told is open (god knows why) so we can have a pre dinner drink, but find that it is in darkness. After checking with reception they say it closed because no one came. Hell I wonder why they even bothered to say they would open with 4 lots of people staying but we were a bit cranky that they didn’t bother to stay open when they said they would. Never mind, money saved and dinner in the van.
The morning is pleasant and the bad weather that is supposed to arrive hasn’t come yet thank goodness. We get organised and leave the camp heading for Split. It is a long drive off this little peninsula that we are on so an hour and a half we are driving through Zadar and on our way on the coast road down to Split. It is a great road and we get to see some of the lovely little settlements around the coastline that makes Croatia such a desirable place for the summer. The houses are virtually the same in a lot of places, that cream colour with orange roof tiles – the real Mediterranean style look. Lots of marinas & wineries we see around each bend in the road. We find a little place to stop off the main road beside the sea in a small village and have our lunch. The sun starts to shine and it would be a lovely location to stay in the summer, but we have to keep driving. Eventually late in the day and just as it is getting dark we reach Split. In the distance we can see the huge cream highrises all looking a mirror image of the other and so many of them it makes for an amazing site. Shame it is getting dark so we have no photos and we can’t see how Split really looks. There is a lot of road works going on as they need to widen the main road going by the outskirts of the city limits. Scot is navigating and he finds it difficult to work out how to get to the camp place we are staying tonight. He figures one way so we wind our way through these dreadful, narrow, badly surfaced back streets that supposedly lead to the camp. I get the feeling that we are going to hit a dead end at any time as the roads do not seem like ones we should be travelling on, but we keep on going. We do reach the camp and at a later stage realise there was a really easy way to get to the camp but on the map sometimes it seems like you can’t turn off the main road you are on so have to look for an alternative. It does get us seeing some interesting roads I must say. It will be an easy exit out in the morning thankfully and won’t be back via the strange roads we came in on.
This camp is on the river and security let us in and we find a spot. We will check in and out at the same time in the morning when we leave. We head out for a walk along the river front as there are a few bars close by and it would be nice to have a drink before dinner. After checking out several of the bars we realise that everyone is smoking inside in all of them and we can’t handle that so it looks like all is lost, but we spy a little pizzeria close to the camp and give that a try. It is fine and because it is so cheap we end up buying a pizza for dinner as well as having a drink. The pizza is lovely and the guy serving is such a nice fella we end up leaving him a good tip for such great service. They earn nothing here so he is so grateful but for us it was only about 7aud so would only be a glass of wine at home, but for him will pay for a few groceries. We head home for an update to the blog since we have free wifi.
Oh and Croatia is our 23rd country. We have just turned over 55,000 miles in the van which we have now done 22,000kms in our nearly 8 months travel. With really only 3 months left and 3 countries left to visit we are very much on the tail end of our holiday.
