Dalmatian Coast.

7th June

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.

 

 

Life's a beach.

31st May

Woke up early to even more rain! We decided that as much as we wanted to see Slovenia this was just ridiculous as everything to do there involved trekking in the mountains, which would have been dangerous in weather like this. It wasn't letting up and already our camp was a mud pit and all our clothes were wet. When you have no where to get dry solid rain is just crap. So we left and headed south in hope of sunshine. We'll come back to Slovenia in better weather. Slovenia is small with really good roads so it wasn't a huge drive to Croatia- but it was very pretty. We had lunch in a lay by on a lovely mountain road. We came to the border crossing, which had passport control as Croatias not EU, and of course we pulled over and searched. They had a measly search through the van and said they were bringing the sniffer dogs. They said the reason the they had stopped us was because Petes pupils were small and he must be high. Haha! Pete got a bit pissed off with them and said 'no, the reason you pulled us over is because we've got long hair and you think we're hippys'. I told him to not start arguments and they decided we were free to go. We had no idea really of where to go. We have a whole month to chill in Croatia before we meet Petes mum so didn't want to rush south. The only thing I knew about the north was that my friend Maisie once went on holiday to the island of Krk (I have a postcard at home) so we headed there. There was a toll bridge over and the island seemed very wierd- all trees with one road through the middle and no houses anywhere. We came to the town of Krk which had alot of no camper signs and four star campsites everywhere, so we drove on. By the way it was still raining but as we came to the coast of the island we could actually see the edge of the cloud- which we hadn't seen in days- so we had some hope of sunshine. We gave up on trying to find anywhere to free camp (it's illegal here and carries heavy fines) and found a lovely rustic site far away from Krk town. The toilets were quite far down the hill but we were on the edge of the sea with a stunning view of the other islands (or the mainland- we're not sure) in the distance. And ontop of that we are surrounded by wild sage and fennel- so much so that you can smell it all the time- and lovely wild flowers, like a meadow. The funny thing about this campsite is that it was called, on our receipt we got, a 'naturist campsite'. I thought it might have been an English mix up until we saw the no clothes sign at the entrance. We'd found ourselves a nudist campsite! Anyway, it was far too cold and rainy for any of that so we had dinner and retired to the van.

 

 

1st June

The sun is out!!! Not only is it sunny, it is hot hot hot! We went down to the campsite beach which is built into the rocks with concrete- not that idyllic but the water was very blue and lovely. We decided to go for a walk around the campsite, past lots of nudes (we still had our clothes on) and climbed around the rocks to find our own little bay. Pete got into the spirit of things and went for a nudey dip. We sun bathed and relaxed and generally enjoyed the weather. Spent the whole day just chilling. Lovely.

 

 



2nd June

Gorgeous weather again. We went for a walk out of the campsite, which turned into a bit of a hike as there is only one road around the hills and cliffs. It was very worth while though as we spotted a secluded beach at the bottom of the cliff and managed to find a path leading down to it. Beautiful white pebbles and turquoize sea. Chilled out here for a while reading and had our picnic lunch. Enjoyed the walk back to camp where we saw hundreds and hundreds of white moths coming out of their cacoons dangling on oak tree leaves. Pete had his mind blown by all the insects (including dung beatles and beautiful butterflies) and the plants around us! Another wonderful day.

 

 



3rd June

Woke up early and packed up ready to move to Cres island. Got the short car ferry ride across and drove south through the pine forests. Headed to a town on the west coast called Martinscica and found a huge campsite on the beach with lots of shady spots to camp. It was really stunning. We were camped almost next to the beach this time as well! Walked down to the rocky coast and found ourselves our own little private beach by climbing over the rocks. Perfection. It was even complete with our own rock to jump off. Sun bathed and swam all day. in the evening we went to the shop on the site and bought ourselves some snorkels.

 

 

 

4th June

Another day relaxing and reading our books. We walked along the coast a bit more, clambering over the rocks. Jumped in the water and did a bit of snorkelling in the crystal clear water. Saw little fish and starfish and loads of sea urchins. For dinner we had our first barbeque! They didn't sell much meat in the little shop but we got mince meat and made our own burgers. They were great. Definitely feeling like a holiday!

 

 



5th June

Went back to our own private beach today and did some more reeelaxing! Pete found some beautiful shells whilst snorkelling and noticed that when he dropped one all the fish come up and try to eat it thinking its food. This gave him the idea that we might be able to catch a fish if we did this with a hook. So we ran back to camp and made tiny hooks from pins and put them on a line. Tried a few times to get a fish- the idea worked but they were cheeky and kept taking the food without getting caught! It was fun anyway.

 

 



6th June

Decided to move today and explore Cres some more. We drove all the way to the bottom (actually another island called Mali Losinj) and did a big supermarket shop. There weren't any particularly pretty campsites or beaches that we could see so we drove back up the road and found a nice site just outside a town called Cunski. The beach was not quite our own private bay but still pretty. Getting boring to read i know... but we chilled again all day! In the evening we had wild rosemary and lemon marinated butterflied chicken on the barbeque and it was amazing. Stayed up and drank lots of beer and wine.

 

Searching for sun.

27th May

Got a morning ferry over to Venice with a picnic in our bags to avoid expensive restaurants. We thought we'd head in the general direction of the Rialto bridge first through the beautiful winding streets, getting lost a few times on the way of course, and stopping for a coffee in a little side alley. We then managed to find St Marco square. We did this slowly; wandering around and taking in the atomsphere and stopping on every bridge over a canal because it was so pretty. We stopped and listened to the singing gondola drivers. Perfect. Found a shady spot to sit and have our picnic and watch the thousands of tourists walking past. Some how we managed to while away several hours wandering around. We had heard about spritz, which is a drink made with Aperol (similar to Campari) and either soda or, if you're feeling swanky, with prosecco topped with a big green olive. We were feeling swanky and stopped in a square to have one. Very nice, although wishing we had found somewhere a bit more 'local'. We turned a corner and found a group of Italians standing in the street outside the tiniest bar you've ever seen, sipping wine or spritz or beer. We decided it wouldn't hurt to stop here as well and try and blend in as a local Venitian. It obviosuly worked because we were approached by a man saying something in Italian. When we told him we were English he looked surprised and then in perfect but slurred English said that he was drunk and looking for some conversation. He was called Martina, he was funny and we chatted to him a while and he invited us for a drink at another bar if we liked. We were interested to see more local bars in Venice so thought we'd go for one more before heading back to the campsite. Had a funny situation when we arrived because Martina went up to a girl and started shouting and she was screaming and trying to get away. This would have been scary (I thought) if the old couple running the bar hadn't been watching with huge smiles on their faces. When he setteled down he explained she was his non related 'sister' and just trying to look out for her. We liked him. Got the ferry back to our campsite and had dinner and chilled. Whilst tucked up in bed at something like 11 o clock, we were kept up by the pumping disco on the campsite playing crap music until gone midnight. We felt like right old, miserable people moaning about it!

 

 

Minty after too much wine. ^

 

Pete and Martina. ^

 

 

28th May

We had a slightly stressful time coming out of Venice- you forget it's actually a big city on the mainland- and got slightly lost due to road diversions. Anyway the trusty sat nav came into use again and we found ourselves on the right road. We were heading now towards Slovenia way, choosing to go in further north to the mountains rather than on the coast. We didn't use motorways so it was a fairly long drive, so we decided to stop just before the border in a small town called Cividale del Friuli, chosen for no other reason except that it was on the road map. The land in this part of Italy seemed to be very flat and industrial so we weren't particularly excited by it. We were very happy to see the little camper dumping ground sign and found four little parking spaces reserved for campers for free. There was one camper there when we arrived but he left and we had the place to ourselves. We opened our back doors onto a pretty green garden and the very beginnings of the Alps in the distance. After dinner it was still early so we thought we might as well see what, if anything, was happening in the town. First we saw a gorgeous turquoize river with a waterfall and then were very pleasently surprised to find a small walled medieval town with quite a 'happening' square. We stopped for a coffee and watched the people go by. We decided that as we had a nice little set up for the camper and the town seemed cute and we weren't in a rush anywhere that we'd have a day here tomorrow as well. Thunder storms all night.

 



 

29th May

Non stop thunder storms until about midday. We stayed in bed and read our books all morning. When the rain subsided slightly we got up and took our laptop into the town (we had seen free wifi in a cafe) and got a coffee. We looked up the weather for Slovenia- rain rain rain- but it didn't put me off! We wanted to see the mountains! Walked some more around the small town, which was so small we realised we'd seen almost all of it on the first night. We went back to the van for lunch where we found we had a couple of other camper neighbours. As the sky was clearer now and I was getting slightly claustrophobic of being inside the van so much we decided to have an early afternoon spritz in the square. We took our books and sat and relaxed. Lovely evening, we were happy to have found this town. A lot more rain in the night.

 

 

30th May

More and more rain in the morning so we got up and straight into the driving seat. Fortunetly it was a very short drive over the border and the town we wanted to stay in was the first you come to. We followed some camping signs in the town and arrived to and empty campsite- no one in reception or anything. As I was looking at the guide book to see where we could go (the sat nav is out of range here so we couldn't use it for campsites) the owner drove in and we said we would stay. It was still raining so we got out our big umbrella so we could at least make a coffee. It was still early- only about ten thirty- but the rain just did not stop. We decided not to go walking in the mountains today as everything was covered by clouds. We read our books and relaxed some more. Actually a very enjoyable day! The rain calmed down slightly so we were able to make some dinner and even have a game of cards under the umbrella. And we enjoyed the incredibly hot showers, which we had all to ourselves. The rain went on all night too.