29th June
Waited for Petes mum to let us know when she was at the campsite and then got a lovely surprise when she came and found us! Had a cup of tea and opened the care package that she'd bought us (included in this was marmite, whiskey - the essentials - and fishing hooks and lures - not that it will help.) Walked the short walk over the hill into Trogir and were treated to an incredible lunch with calamari, mussells, langoustine, sea bass, bream, grilled squid, salads, chips, potatoes... washed down with beer. After lunch we had a look around the catherdral of St Lawrence and climbed up the bell tower for a nice view over Trogir. Unfortunately it clouded over and started to rain so we took cover with an ice cream. It didn't last long and we went and wandered around some more, got some cherries and figs in the market, and sat and chatted in the park. We found out that there was a campsite much nearer to Petes mums hotel and decided we would move there tomorrow morning as at the moment it was either a very long walk or two boat journeys or alot of money in a taxi to see each other. Because of this we headed back to our seperate homes for the evening. Drank some beers, enjoyed marmite bread for dinner and went to bed.
The market selling lots of maslina oil. (olive oil) ^
30th June
Got up early and packed up and moved to the other campsite on the otherside of Trogir. A much nicer campsite anyway and when we asked at reception she said it was only a fifteen minute walk to Petes mums hotel along the beach! Yay! Walked down and followed the promenade to meet Petes mum. Really nice stretch of coast lined with small apartments and beach bars. Where Petes mum is staying is a Croatian tourist hang out which is nice. We had a pancake for breakfast and then went and found a bit of beach to sit on. As seems the pattern for the last few days, the clouds rolled in in the afternoon- no rain today though- so when we got a bit chilly on the beach we went for a beer. Later we showed Petes mum our new campsite and then went for a little drive to the bigger island south of Trogir. It's all quite built up around here but we found a short track we could walk down and we foraged some wild sage, fennel and rocket. We all went to Lidl to get some food for a barbeque tonight. The sun was back out and we enjoyed the beautiful warm evening and had an amazing dinner of barbeque chicken and potatoes with wild herbs.
View from the back of the van. ^
1st July
Petes mum joined us back at the campsite in the morning and we decided to have a daytrip out to Krka National Park. We drove there in the van with Petes mum lying on the bed in the back watching everything jostle about. The national park was really cool; a slightly smaller scale of the Plitvice one we visited, and we walked the hour or so through the waterfalls and frogs and then had lunch in the picnic area. After lunch and a cold beer we went to sit at the waters edge and had a swim in one of the lakes! It was lovely swimming near one of the beautiful waterfalls (sadly they'd cordened it off so you couldn't actually swim under the waterfalls as you could when Petes mum visited four years ago.) All the rocks had formed in wierd shapes so you could jump into underwater canyons. Cool. Dried our selves in the sunshine on a grassy patch near the water and then strolled back to get the shuttle bus back to the van. Got a cold beer from the shop at the campsite and did a spot of afternoon fishing. For dinner we gave Petes mum a taste of what we'd been cooking for ourselves over the last couple of months and had a very exciting veg cous cous (with no fish)! We went to bed quite early to try and avoid the bloody mosiquitoes.
2nd July
Petes mum joined us slightly later today and we had lunch under the shade of our umbrella at the campsite. It was very hot today so we chilled at the camp, wandered down to the beach for a dip and a sun bathe. The usual really. Some how most of the day passed and then Petes mum borrowed my bike and cycled into Trogir to do a bit of shopping. Me and Pete stayed on the beach a while and got showered and clean. When she returned in the evening we went down to the jetty again and did some more unsuccessful fishing. Had another delicious chicken barbeque complete with bananas and chocolate cooked on the barbeque for pudding! Delicious! We left it a bit late though and by the time it was ready it was dark so we had to eat by the lamp whilst getting attacked by flying ants attracted by the light! Me and Pete finished the bottle of wine after Kathy had gone and then went to bed. (By the way Kathy is Petes mum - she does have a name and I do know it!)
3rd July
Another extremely hot day. We drove down the coast just past Split and found a really lovely pebbled beach with shade from the trees and no people. Took lunch with us and swam and snorkelled and read books and had a leisurely time! Drove back to Trogir and parked in town. We had a little wander and a cocktail on the waters edge whilst looking at the huge yachts. Petes mum had always wanted to do a bunjee trampoline thing and there was one by the fort so she joined all the seven year olds and had an evening jump! We decided it would be nice to stay in town for dinner and found a lively little restaurant with lots of seafood. Had a great fish dinner- me and Pete got a fish platter for two and were very full afterwards. We then rushed back to the campsite incase there was a curfew, only to find out the barrier was open all night. So we dropped Petes mum off at her hotel and then came back to our camp and had a lemon beer at the communal campsite tables listening to more interesting eastern european pop music.
4th July
For our last day together we wanted to do some more wandering around Trogir. We met up again at our campsite and got the taxi boat into town- a very nice way to arrive! Got lost in all the winding alleyways and sat down for a great pizza lunch in a shady restaurant in a back street. In the afternoon we went crabbing in the harbour- we didn't actually catch any crabs but we nearly caught loads and it was funny watching them try and cling onto the bread. Before heading back we got some food for dinner from the market and then got the taxi boat back to camp, making sure we got back in time to have dinner whilst it was still light. We had an amazing dinner of pork chops and veg with another round of chocolate bananas for pudding- they are divine!! Topped off with a shot of our sour cherry liquer; another great evening.
Taxi Boat. ^
5th July
We packed up fairly early in the morning and drove to Petes mums hotel to say goodbye. We had a cup of tea at her apartment and then went for breakfast pancakes on the beach. Said our goodbyes at the hotel and set off on the road again. One of Petes best mates Lawrence was apparently in a town called Tisno slightly up the coast so we text him to see if we could meet up. We didn't get a reply and we passed the junction for Tisno and wandered what to do. Then we got a phone call from him saying he was there and we said we will come! Before turning around back to Tisno we headed to a petrol station that we'd seen a few weeks earlier on our way south that said it sold camping gaz. We had run out and hadn't seen it sold anywhere else in Croatia. Gave our empty container to the lady and she filled in with LPGas - which they sell in every petrol station in Europe - and it cost only 3 pounds (not 25 like in England)! Bargain! Headed to Tisno and found a small campsite run by a funny man who spoke no English at all that was an easy 5 minute cycle ride from town. Had some lunch and lazed in the sun until Lawrence called and we cycled into town to meet him for a beer. He filled us in with the gossip back home and we told him about our trip. We went for a lovely evening swim and then back to the bar for pizza dinner. Lawrence is here for a festival so he went off to party at about ten and we retreated back to the campsite. Great to see him!
6th July
Packed up our stuff and drove into Tisno to meet Lawrence for a coffee before heading off. Said our goodbyes and hope to meet up soon! We carried along the coastal road until Zadar and did some supermarket shopping before hitting the motorway towards Hungary. There were gale force winds on the motorway which was a bit worrying with the bikes on the roof, but they were securely fastened and once we were over the mountain the winds died down. Long drive on the motorway through very pretty untouched forest that we hadn't realised existed in Croatia! A few stops on the way, including pulling over into the hard shoulder with lots of other cars because the rain was so hard we couldn't see to drive! When we were out the otherside of Zagbreb we decided to stop for the night in a service station. It was a busy 24 hour services so we thought we'd be alright parked near the restaurant. Played some cards and got some chips for dinner and retreated to the van when it started raining again. There was an incredible thunder storm with fork lightning lighting up the whole sky. We were just drifting off to sleep when we were rudely awakened by our passenger door opening - luckily its very squeeky. We were both too much asleep to realise what was happening and when Pete said 'Hello' we saw a face appear and then the door close. After a few seconds we realised what happened and Pete got up to the front seat to see who was there. There was a coach load of people having a toilet break but we couldn't spot a robber. We found out in the morning that he'd got in the door with a screw driver (lock not broken luckily) which is very scary and given us a kick up the bum to make sure we chain the van up when were not there. Not a good nights sleep after that.
Lunch in a very windy service station.
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