Spent the entire morning writing up the blog! Beached in the afternoon. Got too hot and went for a wander around the campsite and discovered a lovely rocky beach which was quite busy and found that we were right next to a small town called Nerezine and got a cold beer in a little cafe there by the harbour. Wanted to get up early in the morning so we had dinner and an early night.
This is our lives now. ^
8th June
On advice from mum and dad about where to go on Cres we decided to head to the small town of Valun. We set off early and followed the winding road over the hill and down to the town. It was based around a small harbour and the street was lined with cafes. It was very pretty. We got a coffee in one of the cafes. Vehicles weren't allowed in the town, or to the campsite, and we planned to take our tent down for the night. We realised though that the hill up to the carpark was massive and we had noticed a camper parked up there so thought we would stay there for free. Valun was very nice but I had seen on the internet about a nearby town called Lubenice which was set on top of a cliff and had a quiet beach on a walk down the mountain. We drove up there after our coffee and had a look around the tiny, very pretty medieval town. Had lunch at the top of the cliff before setting off on the walk. The walk was lovely, taking about an hour, through forest and then over sharp rocks and lots of wobbly stones (which we weren't prepared for in our flip flops and Petes kept braking) and eventually we got down to a perfect white pebbled beach. There was one other couple and a few naked men who left after an hour or so but the beach was quite long and it felt like we had it to ourselves. Chilled out on the beach, Pete made a harpoon to attempt to catch fish (unsuccessful) and when we decided we could not handle any more sun we set off for the long trek back up the cliff. Pete got in a strop because his flip flop kept braking so I had to tie it to his foot with a hairband! And we got slightly lost and could hear thunder some where in the distance so it was a bit scary. But we found the right path and got to the top after a long, hot walk and got a cold coke in a cafe as a reward. Drove back to Valun and were happy to see two other campers in the carpark- one couple cooking dinner- and felt safe we could stay there the night. We got clean and went into the town and got a beer in one of the water side restaurants. We were going to move to another and get some dinner but we saw a family eating next to us and thought it looked great so stayed there. We had fried calimari to start and then shared mussels and bream with chips. Fish by the sea! Delicious! Had a couple more beers and headed up to the van tired and sun burnt.
Lubenice. ^
The beach we're heading to. ^
You can't even see Lubenice on top of the cliff! ^
Valun. ^
9th June
Brushed our teeth and set off early back to Cres town to get the ferry. Annoyingly there was no ferry to Rab Island so we had to go back to Krk first. From there we booked the ferry to Rab and had to wait an hour in the cafe for it to arrive. This ferry ride was longer and as we were feeling quite red and sore we went and sat inside the wierd seventies seating area and played cards. On a map of Rab on the wall I saw that there were only two campsites on the island so when we arrived we tried the first. It was expensive and the beach looked a bit crap so we took our chances and drove to Rab town to find the other one. Luckily it was slightly better and we found a spot amoungst hundreds of other campers quite near the sea. The campsite was a huge complex with shops, bars, bakerys, everything you ever need and the beach was quite heaving. Not the prettiest beach we've seen but we were happy to find that it had sand! Swam for a bit and sat in the shade reading. In the evening Pete got out his fishing rod and we went to a jetty with some beer and fished. Sadly a storm was brewing and it was getting quite choppy so we called it a day and headed back to camp. There was a german guy on another jetty fishing and he asked us if we got anything. We said no and he gave us a little bream that he had just caught! He said he'd been fishing all day. Got some tips off him about fishing and had a lovely dinner of cous cous and fish. Also we had a few people come and congratulate us on catching a fish and we weren't too annoyed when they didn't understand that someone gave it to us! It started raining in the evening so we had an early night.
10th June
Got the ferry from Rab back to the mainland. Very short crossing. Headed north along the mountainous coast then inland, over the mountain, towards Plitvice National Park. Weren't really sure if you could camp in the national park but we found a lovely campsite with a free shuttle bus service to the park and decided to stay there. We arrived fairly early in the afternoon and there was nothing to do around the area except go to the national park so we spent the afternoon reading, eating and drinking beer. Went to bed early ready for a big walk tomorrow.
11th June
Got the shuttle bus in the morning, along with the rest of the campsite, and arrived at Plitvice. We didn't expect it to be so much like a theme park but we queued up anyway with all the other tourists to get our tickets. The first bit was a bit of a nightmare with big tour groups and school trips but we took a path just away from the lakes and thankfully the people thinned out. The lakes were amazing. It's several tiered lakes connected by waterfalls coming through the rocks and the paths wind around so you are under the waterfalls. Really beautiful. You can't really describe it and even our photos don't do it justice. The surrounding forest was also gorgeous with enormous old beech trees. Had a lovely day that involved alot of walking. Got to the bus stop tired and hungry and managed to squeeze onto our free shuttle bus with all the other tourists. Made dinner in the very windy campsite and fell asleep early after a long day.
Can you see the face?! ^
12th June
Headed back to the coast and as we didn't want a whole day driving decided to stay in a small rustic campsite directly on the beach, somewhere between Lukovo Sugorje and Baric Draga, with a lovely view out to Pag Island. The campsite would have been ideal if it weren't for the gale force winds that stopped us doing anything. Pete tried a bit of fishing when the wind died down slightly but was unsuccessful again, which is very upsetting for him. He says our hooks are too big and we need new ones. Cooked dinner in the van and got into bed early again as the table wouldn't even stand up in the wind! Spent the night worried that the van was going to blow away.
13th June
The wind was still blowing a hoolie so we couldn't even make coffee! Set off along the coast and through Zadar going south. Needed to do a big shop and found what we thought was an insanely cheap supermarket and after about an hour of shopping realised it was a cash and carry. Had to ditch our trolley and leave- very annoying! Found an actual supermarket and did a high speed shop to make up for lost time. Again we had no particular destination, and we thought that we would wait to see more islands further south, so we decided to stop in and have a look at a campsite on the coast near a town called Drage. We came down a rocky path to a small harbour which had nothing except about six campsites. We drove into a couple and couldn't find any people anywhere (they siesta in Croatia) and then whilst we were sitting in the van wondering what to do a man came up and asked if we'd like to see his campsite. It was set a bit further from the water but there were only three other campers and it had everything we needed so we stayed there. Went for a swim in the afternoon; most of the sea is taken up with boats but there are a couple of small stoney beaches. We had a delicious barbeque for dinner with pork chops and roast veg skewers and then took a gin and tonic to a jetty to watch the sunset over all the surrounding islands. Lovely.
14th June
Thought we'd explore around the coast and climbed around the rocky shore to find more rocky shore and decided to go back to the bay as it was the only place we could actually sit down. Sat out on a big jetty and jumped in the sea lots to cool down. Had another barbeque for dinner- yummy homemade burgers again. We were just getting ready to go for a sunset fish when a slovenian guy staying on the campsite and the campsite owner invited us out on his boat to bring in his fish. We went out for about an hour whilst the sun was setting and it was beautiful. The campsite owner everyday drops down seven cages full of bread to catch fish. He collected them in and he had quite a few bream and mackeral, a cuttle fish, a huge eel and an octopus! The octopus was scary and kept trying to escpae and cling on the everything even though he'd been stabbed in the head about five times. He also had to knock out the eel on the floor of the boat before putting it in the bucket. It was very cool that we got to go with him- Pete has been saying he wants to do it since we got to Croatia! When we were back ha gave us a grey mullet and a bream and we put them in the fridge to have for lunch as we were too full from our burgers.
Our mini bar. ^
Healthy breakfast in our tidy van. ^
Pete and his Slovenian buddy. ^
15th June
Had an early lunch of fish and spinach pasta which was great. We decided to go and explore the nearby national park which was a huge lake supposedly only a kilometre up the road. Walked in the hot hot sun to the main road, which was not nice to walk along as the cars drive so bloody fast. We didn't get very far anyway as we heard a meowing coming from a thick undergrowth of brambles and rosethorns. We guessed there was a cat stuck in there and Pete got a stick and tried to save it. We found the smallest, cutest kitten in there and managed to get him out. Sadly we realised that he'd broken his back or something and neither of his back legs worked and he kept trying to run back into the bush. We thought about taking him back to the campsite but decided in the end to leave him. Feeling very guilty that we didn't save him we walked back to the campsite and got the van. Drove to find the national park that wasn't clearly sign posted at all and ended up driving a very long way around through the country side with no lake in sight! We did eventually find an entrance but we didn't want to pay to go and look at the lake so decided to leave it anyway. We'd seen some cars parked in a forest by the coast and headed there for a dip in the sea. Nice little rocky beach and a much needed cool down in the water. When we got back to the campsite we went out with the fishing rod to our jetty and chilled on the beach more! Unsuccessful fish again, Pete says he hasn't seen any fish here with his snorkel on so there mustn't be any and thats why he hasn't caught anything. We stayed out until the sun was setting and then gave up and went home and had a sandwich for dinner. Stayed up playing cards and drinking gin and tonic. Great evening.
