Croatia Trip September/October 2015 Last Post

Day 33  Sunday 11/10/2015 - 95826 on Speedo

Sunday dawned bright with the promise of being sunny later so we went for a walk to find out what was around us. Basically Carnon the town was one big holiday resort with nearly every house, at least near the beach that we saw being holiday apartments. Walking away from the beach we found the town and public library, which although closed had wi-fi but only ten minutes free which is good, enough to download emails but not enough for uploading the blog. The daily rate was really expensive so we didn’t bother.

There was an enormous Vide-Grenier  (Boot-Sale) in progress so we had a little wander through but as usual nothing was priced so few people were buying. I really can’t understand that, the last one we did with the Hobby-Lobby we priced everything and nearly sold it all. At least it gives a starting point for negotiation and when we were retailers if something wasn’t priced rarely would anybody ask the price.

So we wandered back to the van and on the way found a “FON” wi-fi network to connect to and managed to upload Post 10 to the blog. Hope you received it OK.

Judy wanted to visit an art shop in Montpellier so we decided to move to a parking place Steve had found in the city. TomTom got us close but very tight streets and one ways made it impossible for us to get to it. Looking on Google Earth at home later we could see that it is in fact a large car park with trucks parked in it so there must be a way in if you know the one way streets.

So we found the shop which was an industrial unit but decided this would be best tackled in the car some time. So we set TomTom for home and arrived at about 21:30 so just slept in the van rather than opening up the house.

Stopped at 21:30 - 96039 - 213km today – 11/10/2015 – HOME

Holiday Stats

Total distance = 4,939 Km (3,069 Miles)  averaging about 24 MPG
583 Litres of Diesel at an average of 1.19 per litre
Total Toll costs was €115 not bad considering the two very large sections of toll roads we used to get across big chunks of Italy.
Time Away = 30 nights with 14 Camp sites costing €453 for a total of 26 nights
so an average of €17.42 a night.
Obviously Venice at €53 for one night was high, but not bad really for a day and a half  just a short walk from the city. We could have stayed on a site on the mainland and caught a bus but not nearly as convenient. Without Venice the sites averaged out at just less than €16 per night.

 Below is the complete trace of our route from home and back.

The little yellow Smileys are each of our overnight stops.

Croatia Trip September/October 2015 Post 10

Day 29  Wednesday 07/10/2015 - 94570 on Speedo

A very noisy night with the rain thundering on the roof. We paid and left not happy with the site, they charged four euros more that the price in the ASCI book with the excuse of “Touristic Taxes”, I suppose that’s what you get if you stay on the Croatian Riviera even at the end of the season in the pouring rain!

We set the coordinates in TomTom for the Fortified  Church in Slovenia we were heading for, Steve had established on the internet last night that we didn’t need a Vignette as long as we didn’t go on any motorways while in Slovenia, another traveller had told us a couple of weeks earlier that it was essential and we were lucky not to get fined on the way down. But perhaps he mainly used motorways.

We really needed to get fuel and LPG before leaving Croatia as it was so cheap but the garage we passed just after leaving the site was very tight and it required a “U” turn in the midst of rush hour traffic so Steve thought it best to go on to the next one then suddenly TomTom turned us left on to a small white road on the map which said limited to 12 Tonnes, which is a pretty big vehicle we thought so it should be ok for us. Well it was just big enough for us. We decided to stop and check where TomTom was taking us on Autoroute on the computer we found it was a small road which travelled about fifty miles west parallel with the boarder before looping into Slovenia just a few miles before our intended destination. Pretty sure we wouldn’t find a petrol station so we wouldn’t be able to get cheap fuel nor get rid of our last Croatian Kuna as Slovenia uses the Euro. But the route was indeed quite a bit shorter than the one we would have picked out on the map. The road turned out to be fine and a very quiet and picturesque drive especially as the autumn colours were appearing.

Turning a corner we saw a deserted dilapidated Portacabin with a”Douane” sign on it, we stopped but there was no movement so we moved on wondering whether we would be thought of as smugglers coming along such a small road but turning another corner we came across a large brightly painted Europe flag then a fairly substantial brick building. The young boarder guard looked at us a bit quizzically, glanced in the back of the van then at our passports and waived us on.

The Church we were heading for was at Hrastovlje about ten miles further on unfortunately we arrived at noon and a sign on the gate said it was closed from 12 till 1 so we had lunch while we waited. About 1:30 we walked up again but it was still closed unfortunately maybe for the season.. But from what we could see it was quite interesting from the outside. There were thick castle like walls about twenty foot high. surrounding a fairly small church. It was a shame we couldn’t see inside though because we had read that there were some terrific frescos inside. Oh well another place to come back to.

Steve set TomTom for a Sosta parking place in Trieste and TomTom again  took us down a tiny road, but we met a bus coming the other way so it must be OK. We drove through a couple of tiny villages and at one point it felt as if we were driving through somebodies garden then suddenly with no ceremony we were in Italy so straight through Slovenia still without finding fuel. So expensive Italian diesel it would have to be.

We  arrived at the Sosta in Trieste quite quickly at about 2:30 and realised that we wanted some rest rather than “doing” another City so set TomTom for Grado which we saw was at the end of a peninsula and would probably have quiet beaches to chill out for a couple of days.

The Sosta was large charging 16 Euro for 24hours with a graduated charge from 4 to 25 hours with all services including electric. But across the road was a very large car park which said campers 4 Euro for 24 hours but no services except water which we found later. We didn’t need electric so went for the pay-n-display 4 Euros.  They were both council run so a bit strange to have the two and of course the people in the cheaper one were just walking across the road and emptying their WC Cassettes in the other ones facilities. So the only difference was electric and a barrier. We actually didn’t need electric or to empty our waste.

We went for a long walk and found that the whole peninsular was in fact a holiday complex, in the season some form of payment was required for the long stretch of sandy beach with swimming pools and all sorts of other amenities but out of season the gates were open for all to use. With many people running, jogging or just walking along the prom. like us.

 

Stopped at 16:30 - 94723 - 153 km today – Grado Sosta – Grado – 45.67994N, 13.41272E

 

Day 30  Thursday 08/10/2015 - 94723 on Speedo

We woke to a fine morning but the Meteo had said it was going to rain, not a day for the beach so we decided that today would be a motoring day and with about 750 km of Italian roads it would  probably be a good idea to use the Autostrada which previously we had found not too expensive especially when compared with the up and down speed limits which if you adhered to them would drive you nuts and every driver behind you. plus it would take about three days.

We found fuel at an eye watering 1.35 Euro a litre possibly not high by English standards but much higher than we had become used to.

The drive was good in fact mainly dry we did 621km on the motorway and it cost 60.30 Euro so roughly 10cents a km which is similar to the journey on the way down. But oh so much better on the nerves. We had an Aire de Camping car programmed in and it brought us off the motorway perhaps a bit early so we ended up driving right through Nice which has quite a bit of road works so a few circles on on temporary way streets and getting desperately low on fuel. We finally found a Geant supermarket but it had a very tight entrance and a low canopy so we had a bit of fun getting our aerials caught in the canopy but managed with Judy Standing on the table reaching through the roof light to hold our special WiFi  one so it wouldn’t get damaged. The Aire was not there nor were the next two  so we ended up driving quite late with everywhere saying no Camping Cars until we found a layby  high up above St Raphael without a no Camping Car sign. But Judy had a bad night wondering if the Police would be knocking on the door.

 

Stopped at 23:30 - 95476 - 758 km today – Near St Raphael – 43.47426N, 6.57877E

 

Day 31  Friday 09/10/2015

Nobody knocked on the door but we left early to drive to St Raphael and parked at the harbour to have breakfast but the Aire de Camping Car was right in the middle of a busy car park so we moved on towards St Tropez, didn’t like the look of the first few sites then spotted an Aire de Camping Car  just as we were about to turn round to go back to investigate a couple of sites on the other side of the road we couldn’t pull over to as it was a solid traffic jam. The Aire was supposed to be 13 Euros a night with a credit card machine to pay but it was switched off but the water and electric was left on?  We asked another French Camper and he said Gratuiete No Problem so we stopped there. Looking at Autoroute to see exactly where we were it showed us only a few hundred yards from Port Grimaud where we had visited 25 years ago and had wanted to come back to.

So we had a nice walk around to bring back memories of our first Motorhome holiday in France.

We were then treated to an air display by the French Aerobatic team practicing over the bay.

We can’t find any internet here so will have to try to send this blog tomorrow.

Stopped at 12:00 - 95530 - 54 km today – Near Port Grimaud – 43.28005N, 6.57877E

Day 32 Saturday 10/10/2015 – 10:30

Although it was a nice day we realised that we still had quite a bit of travelling to do and as we were so near home and Steve had to pay the French taxes by Thursday it would be much easier from home. So we set off aiming for a Camper Stop in our database at le Grand Motte near Montpellier. The drive across country was really nice up and down mountains through wooded areas. Apart from one tiny town TomTom took us through, he did  quite well finding a nice route until Marseille where he took us up onto a free motorway which took us past all the industrial bit then dumped us in the middle of Marseilles for about two miles of the city but then the Police had closed the overpass we were supposed to be taking which would take us out so we had about an hour of traffic jam and impatient French drivers on a Saturday. One even decided to stop at the side of the road and eat their lunch of unpeeled prawns and salad so the two lanes had to squeeze into one to get past. I know lunch is important to the French but really!!

Out of the city we had another 30 minutes or so of motorway then a really nice drive through the edge of the Camargue. Spotting the lovely white horses and water birds.

We arrived at the camper stop and it was really nice with a 24 hour card payment machine 11.50 Euro for 24 hours with all the necessary services.  Access to the miles of sandy beach is about 100 meters away so a nice place for a few days if it is sunny. Except for WiFi which was a really expensive system which needed a card from the office which was closed for the season. Surprisingly, although it was amongst houses there were no “Fon” connections available which is a consortium of providers like SFR & BT throughout Europe, who have thousands of open connections available for subscribers. So another day we are unable to send this blog. Something we  really need to research to find a reasonably priced mobile way of getting  the internet. Although to be fair we have only had a few days when we haven’t been able  to connect. The trouble is really going from country to country which we thought the “FON” system would sort out, this holiday we have only  found one.

Stopped at 17:3- 95826 - 296 km today – le Grand Motte – 43.55146N, 3.99360E

Croatia Trip September & October 2015 Post 9 - Plitvicka Jezera National Park

Day 26 Sunday 04/10/2015 - 94162 on Speedo left Camp Krka 10:00

After the usual fill-up and empty we paid the nice lady owner of AutoCamp Krka, her name is Davorka, we had a good chat about how she started the camp site. She was a farmer and was getting  tired of milking the cows and making cheese so sold her four cows and with her small savings had enough to buy a little bit of land with a derelict house on it, her husband built the first toilet block then they opened for camping, then as she made a bit of money they converted the upstairs of the house into apartments then bought more and more land 10 or 12 meters at a time.   But, she says “ my house is still not finished”. We really hope she does well as she really has the good attitude to make the place very welcoming. The Krka National Park we enjoyed very much but we were now heading for Plitvic National Park which everybody says is even more amazing. We had researched all the camp sites but decided that Camping Karona which was a bit more expensive because they didn’t give ACSI discount would be easier as they had a shuttle bus to the park from the site so would be the most convenient. The drive was interesting because we started encountering flat fields rather than the constant mountains as we headed away from the sea. Croatia has a large top end then a very thin silver running along the coast broken by the few kilometres of Bosnia which divides the country. But now we started seeing fields with cows and crops growing. A nice different drive.

 

Stopped at 13:00 - 94361 - 199 km today - Camp Korana, Near Plitvic NP - 44.94826N, 15.64801E

 

Day 27  Monday 05/10/2015 - Still 94361 on Speedo 

We got up early and Steve went to the Camp Shop for some bread for sandwiches for the day in Plitvic Lakes.We met the shuttle bus on time at 9 am and arrived at the lakes at about 9:30 bought our tickets and were away on the trail. There were four options A, B, C, & K, “K” said it would take 6 to 8 hours which we thought was pushing it a bit so  opted for the “C” route which was 4 to 6 hours. We had seven hours before we had to catch the coach back so a little bit of leeway.

The trail started just after the ticket office where we came upon a view point overlooking the highest falls, and they were spectacular. Ok as with Krka it will obviously be better in spring with the high levels of water but it was still spectacular.

The trail snaked back and forward on paths made of, what looked like granite cobbles as it descended steeply  into the valley then at the bottom became a board walk made of sawn logs. Taking a right turn  with water rushing all around us even under the boardwalk we found ourselves right in front of the highest waterfall actually in the spray, it was spectacular.

The boardwalk was endless passing lake after lake and waterfall after waterfall, different heights and widths.Quiet and tranquil or fiercely rushing over a drop. The lakes were a gorgeous azure blue, green absolutely clear with shoals of trout ranging from tiny to about 18 inches long.

We came to a clearing by a lake with a cafe, toilets and souvenir shop etc. Our route “C” said we should take a boat to the other end of the lake so joined the queue. The boat arrived and it was electric so virtually silent, how great in such a tranquil place. The boat took 100 people and we found ourselves sitting with about 98 Japanese and Chinese people on tours with all their cameras, face masks and selfie sticks, although we can’t complain because we have one of those now, except it is small and discrete and lives in Steve’s pocket when we are not using it. Apart from the constant jabber from the other passengers who seemed oblivious to the beauty and  tranquillity around them we somehow shut it all out and managed to enjoy the peaceful interlude before disembarking to hit more boardwalks snaking from rushing cascade to impressive waterfall to peaceful pool. Dodging people who would suddenly stop to take yet another photo as they were dodging us doing the same. What did we do when we only had 24 frames on a roll of film?

We came to a point where the signs for route “C” pointed towards the land train back to the start and we still had four hours left so we decided to follow the signs for the “K” route, wish we had followed that one from  the start. We came across a number of benches beside a lake so sat to eat our picnic and bottle of wine. Of course the inevitable scroungers arrived within seconds of us opening our rucksacks.

We really had a great day, extending the “C” route by probably another five miles but the sad thing was that Steve forgot to start his “MapMyWalk” GPS tracking app on his phone so we couldn’t see the strange wiggly route or the distance we had walked. But we were both suitably tired and a little stiff as we sat to wait for our bus to arrive at 5 o’clock to take us back to the van. What a fantastic day and certainly the highlight of the holiday so far and the weather was perfect, not too hot but dry and warm. A few hours reading and Steve working on the blog then as we got into bed the rain started

 

Day 28  Tuesday 06/10/2015 - Still 94361 on Speedo

The rain continued throughout the night but stopped while we packed up and did the usual chores. Checked out and set the TomTom  for a possible night stop just before we would get to Slovenia where we had read there was a small fortified church with incredible frescos and art work. The rain continued for the whole day and going over the mountains we were actually in the clouds. With some really steep descents in torrential rain Steve was again  extremely pleased to have the magnetic braking system.

The journey took on a strange disturbing tone as we left the mountains we started seeing many abandoned houses apparently fine except for numerous bullet marks and some badly damaged houses with a new one built on the same plot. We also noticed many graves right beside the road and very many cemetery's nearly full of new shiny black marble graves, quite disturbing and bringing the very recent war only twenty years ago when neighbour was against neighbour into stark focus more than anywhere we had been so far.

We arrived at the campsite we had put into TomTom but it had just closed for the season, so backtracked to another which was open but a little expensive just to park for the night in the rain. We don’t usually book into sites just for the night preferring; Aire de Camping Car, Sosta’s or Stelplats etc. but we have now established that what we heard is in fact true, that parking overnight anywhere other than on a site is illegal in Croatia. I suppose that is fair when their major industry is tourism.

 

Stopped at 17:00 - 94570 - 209 km today - Camp Meoveja – Medveja – 45.27077N, 14.26915E

Croatia Trip September 2015 Post 8

Day 24 Friday 02/10/2015 - Still 94162 on Speedo  

We had to get the van sorted out to move early as we had to drive to the Krka National Park which was about 4 km away from our site. The site usually organises an excursion for 40 Euro but had now finished for the season. We arrived at the park and there was a massive free car park which quite surprised us. We bought our tickets at a little kiosk 90 Kun each and walked to the shuttle bus he pointed to. A lady scanned our tickets and said the bus would leave in 5 minutes so we sat on. and waited, and waited. Steve then spotted a sign which said it was only 400 mtrs. “We could have walked it by now!” but by this point the bus would probably have left as soon as we stepped off. Well eventually after more than half an hour the bus left, well, it was probably 400 mtr vertically but about twenty hairpin bends later the bus arrived at the drop off point so we were glad we stayed on. We walked where a ranger lady pointed on to a very nice “Board Walk” just like in the everglades in Florida.

We were ahead of the crowd so had a very nice walk amongst various lakes and steadily iincreasing in size waterfalls until we came onto a long bridge over a lake to see the very large collection of waterfalls.

I don’t think the pictures really do justice we realised that it was the end of the season and the most water would obviously be in the spring but it was quite impressive and beautiful.

Another interesting feature was that the nearly first Hydro Electric generating plant was built there but uunfortunately started operating just two day after the one at Niagara Falls built by Tessla another Croatian Engineer.on 28th august 1895. But it started supplying power to the nearby town of Skradin almost a year before the American one.

After looking around at some interesting exhibits showing a typical family house and the Croatian  lifestyle, the traditional Croatian dress and a demonstration of their wool weaving technique we decided to take a boat trip to see a lot more of the park and lakes. It was three and a half hours for 130 Kun about £13 each so seemed good value. The boat left at noon so reasonable time to walk the 400 mtr it said to the boat. The boat left on time fully loaded, then passed through some beautiful scenery to our first stop at a Franciscan Monastery on a tiny island.. We were met by a park employee who gave us a short history of the island then said we had half an hour to visit the museum and church. Boarding the boat again we continued along the lake and past through a dramatic gorge to finally arrive at Roski Slap first arriving at what should have been a mini Niagara Falls with the boat coming right up to it but although it was good the pictures in our brochure showed just what it should be in like in spring.

The boat docked and we had an hour to explore, which unfortunately was not nearly enough. There were a number of water mills which used horizontal turbines rather than the vertical water wheels we are used to in the UK. Venturing further in search of the lake feeding the falls we saw the series of small falls called the Necklace by the locals with a boardwalk crossing it then we came to the lake which was so still and smooth like a mirror. By this time we only just had time to get back to the boat. There were signs to a cave but it meant a climb of over 500 steps which we were told would take at least twenty minutes each way so not possible. Back on the boat we had a straight voyage back seeing more things in the scenery and actually noticing just how small the Island was which had been occupied by the monks for hundreds of years. We were told in the talk earlier that it was just a lump of rock when they had arrived with no foliage but now after they had imported soil by boat over the years it was green and covered in trees and shrubs as you can see from the photo above.

Back where we started we caught our shuttle bus, after missing the first one because we were waiting at the wrong place. and finally arrived back at our motorhome for the short drive back to the camp site. Hot and tired we actually used the extremely clean site showers then had a meal in their restaurant, unfortunately as it was late in the season we were the only customers but they still produced an excellent fish meal for us at a very reasonable price. A very long but interesting day. and hopefully a curtain raiser for our next stop at Plitvic National Park where the falls are supposed to be even more spectacular..

Day 25 Saturday 03/10/2015 - Still 94162 on Speedo

Steve had quite a bit of paperwork to sort out for the business and important emails so we had a quiet day at the site where we had acceptable. Wi-Fi.. The Mateo forecasts rain for tomorrow so it will be a good day to travel on to the Plitvic Lakes

Croatia Trip September 2015 Post 7

 
Day 23 Thursday 01/10/2015 - Still 94076 on Speedo
Did the normal chores paid the camping and left about 10:00. We had decided at the last minute to head for Trogir because Judy had read yesterday evening that it was really nice. After filling up with diesel we arrived in Trogir at about 11:00 and found a parking place just outside the town by the side of the river with only a few hundred yards to walk in. From across the bridge the town certainly looked nice. Not Roman but certainly very old. With a small but quite well preserved Castle at the sea end of the town.It turned out that the castle was built to house and defend the chief Tax collector in the days when the region was vying with Venice to be a major trading nation. We paid the small sum to have a look around and found it very interesting. there was some obvious damage to two of the castellated corner towers possibly from a long past battle but now it seemed to be mainly used for music events with a permanent stage set up inside the walls. Climbing the steep steps through tiny passageways then an almost vertical ladder was challenging but rewarded us with a very nice rooftop view of the old town. Which turned out to be a maze of tiny streets paved with shiny marble cobbles.
Even though it was a lived-in town, It had a much better feel of care rather than the neglect we experienced in Split. Though to be fair most people we have since talked to say they really liked Split, But a lot of that was that the town by all accounts came alive at night. Perhaps we should have paid to go into the underground parts of the old Roman town to have experienced it fully. Oh well perhaps a reason to visit again.
We walked back to the camper really glad we had taken the time to visit Trogir.
So we set course to our next stop as a base to visit the lakes and waterfalls of Krka National Park about an hour and a half’s drive across the mountains.
We arrived at Camp Krka at about 3:30 to be met by the lady owner with a big smile (quite unusual in Croatia) who said as we climbed out of the van, “Hello, you must be Steve & Judy”.. We were a bit flummoxed by that until we realised that she was just a good business woman and had read our names off a card we had in the window from a rally we had attended last year.Much relaxed by our welcome we booked in and she told us how to get to the park in the morning.
Stopped at 15;30 - 94162 - only 86km today - Camp Krka, Lozovac - 43.800633N, 15.942100E

Croatia Trip September 2015 Post 6

Oh dear, I was so busy trying to quickly learn the new Blogging software that I got the post number wrong last time, that’s the trouble with Cut-n-Paste. I have just changed it so I hope Google don’t email it all out again to you all. Just delete it if they do.

Thanks for your comments by email, I  am really pleased that some of you are enjoying our travels, wish you were here, (not really it would be a bit cramped). I didn’t activate comments in the blog because I think  it can be distracting but I am open to your views,

I mentioned the fire we passed through in the last post so here are a couple of photos.There was about ten miles of this. We heard later that it took seven days to get it under control. The top end of the peninsular being completely cut off. It must have been very frightening.

Please note that you can click on the photos to see them full size and if you go to the web page at www.TheOldAgeTravellers.blogspot.com you can view our whole online album. Judy has already taken over a thousand pics so far so only a selection of course.

Day 19 Sunday 27/09/2015 - Still 93,928 on Speedo  

A lazy day today, sitting and Steve working on the blog getting very frustrated with it as posting photos was not working as he wanted. Especially with a tiny screen smaller than A4 when he works with four screens at home.

Took a nice long walk round the bay to the village and beyond and think we found the restaurant where our friends parked in the garden a few years ago but no sign of that now.  then we were treated to a magnificent sunset, perhaps as a result of the “Super Moon” reported to be happening tonight.

  

 

Day 20 Monday 28/09/2015 - Still 93,928 on Speedo

Steve is really excited, he has found some blogging software on the internet and is waiting for it to download with the really slow internet. Of course` everybody is on it as well in the morning. But they have to sit outside the site office while he can use it in the van using our long range aerial from 100 meters away. But it eventually downloaded and it is doing exactly as he wanted.

Another very long walk exploring a bit more of the end of the peninsular, what a very nice quiet place.

Day 21 Tuesday 298/09/2015 - Still 93,928 on Speedo

Decided to move on but can’t decide whether to take the ferry which leaves at midday or to drive the 100km. decided to see what time we` get to the ferry turn off to decide. By the time we` had packed up drained and filled our tanks and paid it was 10:00 before we left. The site was a bit more expensive than we were told as there were tourist taxes on top so about 19 euros a night, but an exceptionally clean and well appointed site. We actually used the showers here as it was so clean. We usually use our own in the van.

When we reached the turning we decided to take the ferry and were really pleased we did. It was only about £27 for an hours cruise to save the 100km extra drive and the timing worked fine.The ferry arrived right on time.But will it take all these cars?

Yep, with space to spare and Steve somehow ignored English politeness and we were near the end of the queue somehow we arrived right at the front.

The amazing view of the Croatia shoreline with a very narrow strip of usable land before the towering mountains behind,

 

 

 

 

Stopped at 16;30 - 94076 - 147km today – Camping Split - 42.50382N, 16,52684E

This was actually the site we rejected on the way south because it llooked too commercial. But we had been told that it was a good place to get a bus into Split which we were told was worth seeing.

The site was very regimented  but had good sized pitches and all the facilities you could want, but most we didn’t need, so a bit overpriced for our needs .

Day 22 Wednesday 30/09/2015 - Still 94076 on Speedo

We caught the large bendy bus at 09:30 in the morning which became very crowded  and at one point Judy came over a bit feint because of the heat in the bus.

The Old Roman Town for us was a bit disappointing, it was still lived in and had been very badly restored in many places but it had it’s own charm as a result. We walked around and heard the very many town guides telling their customers all sorts of stupid stories, trying to make it sound good.. Perhaps there were some good points but they looked difficult to find.

So after taking in as much as we could we had some lunch and caught our bus back to the site.to plan our move on to the Krka national park.Hopefully it will be a good hike and some dramatic scenery.

Croatia Trip September 2015 Post 5

Hi all, I was not very happy with the look of my previous posts which I prepared off-line then emailed to the blog when I got an internet connection and had to go back in when I could get properly online to add photos not very successfully like last time. So as we have good Wi-Fi connection where we are now I have searched to find what others do and found some new Blogging Software which allows me to work offline just the same but insert pictures and format the post properly. It also uses the Microsoft spell checker so hopefully I won’t get the typos so much. But it does have to be done on the laptop rather than the iPod so not quite so convenient.Hopefully it will post this blog properly, let me know if it seems better.
Day 17 Friday 25/09/2015 – 93,519 on Speedo 
Well, what a night! Thunder lightening and rain by the bucket load. It really sounded like a thousand seagulls doing a tap dance on the roof. We really felt for the couple in a little pop-up VW van next to us and even more four the youngsters in tents at the other end of the site.
After a fitful nights sleep, at least for Judy (Steve could sleep through a battle!) we awoke to a fine morning. The site owner had suggested we catch the bus to visit Kotor but we decided to drive and take a chance on being able to park so that we could move along in the country. Montenegro uses the Euro and luckily we just had enough left after paying for our boat trip in Euros at the last site, as he needed cash to pay the boat man for us rather than a credit card which we used for the camping charge because we were getting low on Croatian Kuna.
Well we arrived in Kotor and parking looked a nightmare on the approach road. Then suddenly we saw the enormous streamlined bow of a cruise liner which appeared to be right across the road. In fact the road bent round to the left leaving the liner parallel to the road but very very close. We carried on through the town with the Old City walls on our left then found a large parking area outside the cemetery which was ideal and a lot less likely to get the van bumped and free so time wasn’t an issue ok about three quarters of a mile walk but good exercise for us.

While walking back to the town we could plainly see a mini Wall of China snaking up the very nearly vertical mountain. I wouldn’t have thought that they had any fear of attack from that side but there was a fort at the top so perhaps it was needed in medieval times. There was also on the other side a walkway along the wall, right up to the fort, perhaps with a wonderful view but we left that to the people from the cruse. The Old Fortified Town was nice but very many people and tours. But we had a walk around and found a cash machine to get some more Euros and a mini market for some shopping..

From Kotor we worked our way along the beautiful coast road clinging to the edge of the cliff the same as in Croatia. We were heading for Podgorica where our database showed there was camping of some kind, sites in Montenegro did seem few and far between. We had the choice of the new toll tunnel under the mountains or the the old road over the mountains. Steve decided on the old road which was spectacular, quite a climb and hundreds of wiggles but beautiful scenery. We were very glad of our special magnetic braking system on the very steep descents, without it the brakes would have been very hot indeed. As we drove over the top of the mountain the view of the enormous Skadar Lake half of which is in Albania and the Skadar national park .was breath-taking. The road was quite bumpy so well  done to Judy for getting pictures as good  as she did at the same time as hanging on for dear life. At the bottom we actually drove across a long bridge across the lake. then onwards to Podgorica and our stop for the night. Which was outside a truckers hotel, Fairly basic but it had electric and showers and toilets although we didn’t check those as we don’t need them.
Stopped at 17;30 - 93643 – 124 km today – Hostel Izvor - 42.48373N, 1819.30634E
Day 18 Saturday 26/09/2015 – 93643 on Speedo
We left Hostel Izvor at 09:00 a quiet night once the nearby railway had stopped for the night at about 10pm. The temperature was a bit lower that we had become used to. We decided to head back towards Dubrovnik by heading north west via Niksic so we could see a bit more of the Montenegro countryside which also would mean a good stretch of Bosnia rather than the few kilometre corridor we had passed through heading south to Dubrovnik. That little corridor is a bit strange, most Brits going through it have to take a chance driving without insurance as the UK insurers will not cover Bosnia, we hear that occasionally the Bosnian Police will pull a tourist over but most of the time turn a blind eye.
Passing through Podgorica we saw an amazing shopping centre with all the top names including M&S but it didn’t open till 10:00 so we drove on, shame because it would have been interesting to see but we had quite a bit of driving including four customs stops. The road we took was fairly ordinary but with quite a few small factories indicating quite a bit of employment, probably the most we had seen. After we passed Niksic the road climbed with great views across a valley to a large lake, there was a panoramic view point so we pulled over to take a photo and were greeted by four very inquisitive goats, with a magnificent leader with a large bell. Steve shook his keys and they all rushed to see what we had for them. Once we got past the goats the view was again breath-taking. The road descended for a while then climbed again towards the Bosnian boarder. We got our exit stamp in our passports after waiting for a coach driver to clear about 50 passports for his passengers then  the Bosnian one and only one gate open and a another coach in front of us. Steve couldn’t raise a smile from this one but again we had to hand over our green card to be checked through the computer. We gained a lot of patience for boarder crossings from our trips to Morocco  so just waited our turn patiently. There was again a very twisty decent then levelled out to pass through a fairly large town not even shown on our map then TomTom took us out into the country again to avoid going through Dubrovnik but got a good view of the suspension bridge which cuts off a large detour round the estuary.
Moving north we soon turned left off the trusty No8 road towards Stom on the Peljesac peninsular, heading the 58 km to Loviste at the very end. just before Orebic the road climbed up and down the cliffs and became distinctly narrower at some points too  narrow for us and the occasional coach heading towards us. At one point we past through an area where there had recently been a very intense forest fire on both sides of the road engulfing most of the mountain. quite poignant  for us after the recent forest fires near us. We stopped at a magnificent memorial structure with a view point. It was in memory of those inhabitants lost in the second world war not the recent conflict. We reached Loviste at about 5:45 but couldn’t find the restaurant our friends said they stayed at but there was a very nice looking ACSI recommended site 16Eurper night, so we booked in perhaps to stay for a few days.
Stopped at 17:45 - 93928 – 285 km today – Camp Lupis – 43.02827, 17.02978