For our last day in Dubrovnik we decided to treat ourselves with a day by the sea, hiring some super comfy sunbeds and just relaxing. Before that though Grant had a meeting with the manager of the campsite to discuss the bill in view of the disturbance we’d had as a result of the two weekend events. Grant had emailed the manager (on the advice of the reception staff who were obviously unhappy about the events too!) and within a few minutes had a call from him to arrange a meeting for the Monday morning. So off he went, negotiating skills honed, and he was back within 10 minutes with a smile and holding a free jar of fig jam. The jam swung the deal apparently! We then had a lovely relaxing day, watching the boats sailing in and out of Gruz harbour, reading our books and chilling out.
The next day we were up bright and early to set off for our drive back up the coastline to Zaostrog, about half way between Dubrovnik and Split. This involves driving through Bosnia again, and after our Montenegrin disaster Grant had contacted our broker to ensure that our motor insurance documents included cover for Bosnia! Our only other concern was the loud creaking sound the caravan has developed – despite Grant’s attempts to fix it the creaking was louder than ever, and if the Bosnian authorities had decided that our vehicle wasn’t roadworthy we could have had problems. However despite a short wait to get through the border they had a quick glance at our UK passports and waved us through – phew! It was a fabulous drive and we arrived safely at Zaostrog, at a site which had been recommended to us by our new Dutch friend Onno. I don’t think he’s visited the site, but it had been recommended him, so that was good enough for us!
This is a very different site for us – we drove right along the narrow promenade lined on both sides with cafes and restaurants, with the beach right alongside, and turned left into the site. We had the sea within 100m of the caravan and the enormous Biokovo mountains behind. We chose a pitch with a view of both and the local church behind us (whose bells woke us regularly at 7.45am!) and tried to level the caravan on what we realised too late was a very sloping pitch! With the help of our kind German neighbour we managed it, but the front of the caravan was raised so high we had to stand one of the legs on a wheel ramp – still, the caravan looked very proud and dominated our side of the site!
We spent a couple of days cycling along the coast, walking, stopping for coffees or beers and enjoying a different part of Croatia. Zaostrog is very ‘normal’ – it is used by Croatians and Bosnians as a holiday resort, and they were all having a whale of a time! They choose to stay in apartments (rather than camp) and are up bright and early to get to the beach where they stay all day until early evening. It was usual to see groups of 20 or more, all going to the beach together.
We had a great conversation with a proud Croatian fruit seller (there are lots of little stalls selling fruit and veg everywhere here) and he tried to give us a short history of the Balkan area – not always easy to follow as he had a very thick accent – but he was passionate about his country, and how strong and proud his fellow countrymen are. He also had a strong dislike of the Serbian people. He said that the worlds problems have all come about through politics and not religion, with the latter being used as an excuse to exploit and extort. He’d fought in the Balkans war, his father in the 2nd World War, and his wife’s brother had been his enemy during the troubles. No wonder there are still raw wounds to heal.
By the third day I was getting a bit twitchy and wanting to explore more, so we set off for a drive – the scenery is stunning in this area, the height of the mountains so close to the sea is incredible, and the area is very green and fresh. We only went as far as Drvenik, just a few km up the coast towards Makarska, and we stopped for a coffee and a look round. We found a lovely walk around the coast where we watched the car ferry going towards an island, so when we walked back into Drvenik we decided to investigate – the ferry was sailing to Hvar Island, so on impulse we bought tickets and drove on!
This was a great decision, a fabulous 40 minute journey to one of the larger Croatian islands. Of course we hadn’t planned this so we were totally unprepared – the ferry docked at Sucuraj so we drove off, followed the only road on our map, and found that Hvar town, the main town on the island, was 70km away, on a road which was narrow, steep, and with a sheer drop often on both sides. I somehow (!) sensed that Grant wasn’t up for this part of the adventure, so we drove on until we came to Gdinj, took a left turn at a sign that said ‘Bays’ and followed the road. Typically this road was even worse, with multiple hairpin bends and occasional passing places, but we reached the coastline, parked up and walked to find somewhere for a drink and something to eat.
There was very little choice but we found a lovely place owned and run by Dono, and he brought us beers, bread, ham and cheese, and octopus salad. All delicious and enjoyed overlooking the sea and a little beach. After lunch we sat on the beach for an hour or so, had a swim in the warm Adriatic, and then set off back to catch the ferry back. A fabulous day.
The following morning we were on our way again, this time leaving the coastline and heading north east to Karlovac, which is about 50k from Zagreb. Grant had managed to scrounge some sandpaper from the site’s maintenance man, and had once again cleaned the stabiliser parts in the hope that this would cure the creaking. Unfortunately we’d only been driving for about 40 minutes before the creaking started again, so we had a tense drive up and through (6km tunnel) the mountains – again the views were amazing, especially around the Velebit area. Yet again the satnav caused us a few problems by bringing us off the motorway two junctions early, so the last 20km were spent on narrow, single track winding country roads, with more tractors than cars on them! It was very pretty though and we saw a young deer in the road – having spent the last 4 weeks in Croatia where there are road signs to watch out for wild boar, wolves and bears, this was the first wildlife we’d seen! There are very few campsites in this area but this was a great find. It is mainly used as a stopover site, but we had plenty of choice of pitches and we were set up in record time. The site is owned and run by a local family who are fantastic, so helpful and patient, and they have a great restaurant on site so we ate out two of our three nights there.
This part of Croatia is quite different from the Adriatic Coast – it reminded us both of Alpine villages. Whilst on the Adriatic, every house had a terracotta pantile roof, here the houses are more like chalets with their steep roofs. The climate is different too, as in winter they get quite a bit of snow, and it’s much greener than further south.
The weather has been getting progressively hotter with temperatures reaching over 30 degrees every day, so when we got to Karlovac, our first inland site in many weeks, it peaked at 34 degrees with 41 percent humidity. It was so hot we really couldn’t do anything but sit in the shade.
Fortunately we made some new friends – Douglas, a Brit who’d married a Swede over 30 years ago so considered himself Swedish now. Sadly his wife had died the year before, so he was on his own in Croatia where they’d visited every year for the past 10 years, but he was obviously a bit lost. However, he was a mine of useful information and a very experienced caravaner!
We also met Ken and May – originally from Essex and Scotland respectively, but having emigrated to Australia over 50 years ago are now proudly Australian. They are in their seventies, but since 2009 they’ve spent 6 months every year touring Europe in a caravan. They then go home to Australia, and do the same there! They’re great company, and we spent a very pleasant evening having dinner with them and exchanging stories about our respective travels. We now have an open invitation to visit them in Adelaide when we eventually go to Australia!
I know you’re all dying to know more about the caravan’s problems, so I’ll give you an update. We elicited the help of the site reception to try and see if we couldn’t get replacement stabiliser pads for the caravan before leaving on Monday. He suggested we try a garage in Karlovac which stocked some caravan parts, and gave us the address, so on Saturday morning we set off armed with details of what we wanted and the offending items themselves. We tried three places altogether, each recommended by the previous one, sadly to no avail. I’d already ordered a new pair on the internet from a company in Taunton, with a view to getting Geoff to ship them to me once they arrived in Knaresborough. However, we needed to be in one place long enough for them to get here, so I decided to call Taunton Trailers and see if they could ship them direct to Austria, cutting out the middle man in the process. They agreed to courier them for an extra charge, so with this ‘insurance’ in the bag we set off for Villach in Austria on Monday morning.
I’d once again cleaned the pads with the scrounged sandpaper, and was pleasantly surprised that this time there wasn’t any creaking. Typical! Indeed they seemed to manage the whole journey – some 4 hours, in complete silence. However, the journey was all on motorways, with little in the way of twists and turns, so I suspect that was the reason they behaved themselves.
To get to Austria from Croatia you have to pass through Slovenia.
I’d checked and was pleased to note that Slovenia is indeed an EU country, so was confident that all our documentation was in order. Well it was as far as borders were concerned, and we passed into Slovenia with the minimum of delay – the customs guard took one look at the outside covers of our passports and waved us through without actually touching them! We continued on the motorway and shortly afterwards came to our first toll point. Cars (including us) were sent in one direction, whilst all other traffic was sent to a pay booth. There was a sign mentioning a ‘Vignete’ but otherwise nothing, so we carried on regardless. Perhaps Slovenia only charge tolls to wagons and buses? We stopped briefly at a services, so I logged onto the internet to discover that we should have obtained our Vignete before using the motorways in Slovenia, and that penalties are very severe – fines of €300 to €800 were mentioned, so I hurriedly popped into the petrol station and bought one, for €15 along with a similar item for Austria, as they use the same system it seems. We now just have to wait and see if the Slovenian authorities try and fine us for ‘passing Go’ without giving up our €15 first!
Austria had no formal border control – just a sign saying ‘Welcome to Austria’ (in German of course) and before long we were arriving at Villach and our campsite Seecamping Berghoff. Wow! What a site! Everything works, and a lot of it is brand new – Karol even thinks the showers are better than ours at home! (sorry Gill, and I still prefer Mill House!) We’re pitched 100 meters from Lake Ossiachersee, the third largest lake in Austria, and surrounded by the high peaks of the Alps! We’re also on grass – a first since March would you believe.
The weather has been more mixed here, with hot sunshine, a bit of rain, and some torrential thunderstorms. The thunder is so loud it literally shakes the caravan which is a bit scary. It also means you have to have subtitles on the TV as the noise of the rain on our ‘tin can’ is deafening! However, I decided to take advantage of the deluge to give the caravan a bit of a scrub as it rinsed itself!
So far we’ve cycled to try and find Villach town which is apparently 10km away. We’re surrounded by loads of great cycle paths, all with good signs, but despite this we only managed to circumnavigate Villach itself, and ended up at a Garden Centre for coffee and cake. We’ve since discover that Villach itself is a large town which seems to consist of industrial estates and shopping centres, so we won’t bother again. We’ve also walked to Finsterbach Waterfalls just a short distance away, and with stunning views back over the Lake.
More walking and cycling planned before we head off for the Italian Lakes on Monday.