Croatia

We headed for the border with our nerves high as we feared our emergency passports would get rejected. We stuck to the same plan that got us into Slovenia – take a major toll crossing at rush hour and hope we get waved through. Once again we flashed the photo pages and with a cursory look we were in which meant we could pick up our new passports! 

We didn’t go far into Croatia and found a nice hilltop town called Groznjan to camp the night. It was an town founded by Artists so there was plenty of galleries. The old streets made for a nice atmosphere and showed the age of the country which Slovenia didn’t give. Slovenia had beautiful nature and the built up areas were nice but everything looked like it was built in the last 20 years and I think it was. Croatia was already starting to show a more rugged side which you cant beat. The next day we did half of our 7 hour drive towards Split staying in an official Free camp in a place called Vrhovine. It rained the whole journey which made for a tiring drive and a lack of views which you can tell would have been amazing if we could see them through the thick cloud and fog. This Free Camp was raved about on our camper stop app as it was private land which the owner had built into a place where everyone was free to stay, have camp fires and enjoy themselves. We were the only ones there on arrival in the torrential rain and we slipped and slided around the place until we found a relatively flat place to stop. Once the rain stopped we were joined by a couple of other campers and also by 2 very wet dogs who we named Bog and Badge. These 2 were quite the pair reminding me on Timon and Pumbaa from the Lion King. We became friends quickly and then went through an hour of worry as they followed us as we explored down the main road to find the town. We turned around once we realised the town was nothing but a supermarket and a post office and our new companions followed us all the way back. We were sure they were going to get themselves killed in traffic but they seemed to have good road sense and we all got back safely. Bog and Badge then deserted us when some new campers had arrived who were obviously better friends then we were!

We decided to chance the Plitvice lakes early the next morning as the weather was due to get bad again by midday. Richard then proceeded to break the toilet cassette while emptying it in the pitch black! It was pleasant to say the least but it was an easy fix when we got the new part sent to us from the UK while we were staying in Split – atleast the timing was good!

Serviced and ready to go the weather decided that we were not getting our clear morning so we lied in instead listening to the rain. At around 11am we headed off still unsure whether to abandon the lakes until we retuned back a couple of weeks later. We stared at the sky and decided to risk it for a biscuit. We were wrong….very wrong. We parked up, brought our tickets watching the drenched tourists from this morning’s downpour. We felt smug as we walked towards the lakes in the dry. We decided to take the 5hour route around all the lakes which involves taking a 4x4 bus train thingy to the furthest lake to start. When we pulled up the rain came and my god did it come! We were well kitted out for the rain but no Gortex or waterproofing could prepare us for what may as well been a 5 hour swim. The lakes and the Waterfalls were amazing but as you can see from the pictures it was crazy weather. The tactic was head down and go – see something pretty then take a picture and appreciate it later in the warm dry motorhome. Paranoid that our motorhome was getting flooded through the aerial roof hole (long story now all bunged up) we made it back a shivering wreck happy that our motorhome had survived the storm. It was getting on and we knew we had another 3 hours driving ahead so despite the continued thunderstorm we moved on. The conditions were getting so bad to the point where cars were pulling over and puddles disappeared as the road became a swimming pool. We made it through however and were amazed how we went for a wet 12 degrees to a dry 21 degrees by the time we arrived in Split. We had planned to stay in a place close to the airport that we found on our camper app but our google map was slightly off and we sent down some narrow residential street. We were about to head to our planned stop which was only 10 minutes away when we actually found a nice clearing in the area we found ourselves and decided to call it a day and hope we were left undisturbed which we were.

Next morning we woke up knowing we had 9 nights in real beds ahead of us which while this is always and exciting prospect we also miss the motorhome when were not in it. After a successful pickup of Richards parents in an airport which provided a huge amount of free parking with a stone’s throw we had a quick cup of tea in the van to catch up and inspect what goodies they had brought us which included our new laptop and Kindle. We planned to pick up our passports the next day and then we would once again be somewhat complete! The apartment was lovely and thankfully despite the narrow drive up to it there was a nice big communal parking space for Pierre to rest for the time being. 

We unpacked and chilled. Next day we were kindly given a lift by the owners into the centre of Split where we got our hands on our new passports and we once again became UK citizens! We then headed to pick up our hire car. The car hire company would only take a credit card in Richards name and that was back in the van so painstakingly we had to get an Uber (while they still exist) back to the apartment and then back to the car hire office. We escaped with the hire car which we vowed not to leave anything in unattended!

We explored the local beach and then went out for a nice meal by the beach later that evening. We took back to the city centre with Richards parents this time. Parking was a nightmare and the old town was packed. We fought our way through the hustle and bustle and somehow Rich managed to get his long overdue haircut. Next day we headed for Krka national park which had some stunning multi layered waterfalls. The pleasant walk took us nicely round for a couple of hours before we jumped into the lake for a quick swim before heading back. Next day we travelled to Trogir which was a medevil walled town on an island accessible by car. A nice place to wander but we could tell that the brochure pictures Richards Mum had seen of the place were more picturesque then the place itself. We were only too familiar with this knowing that a stunning picture can be taken of the ugliest of places. Trogir was a great tourist town however and we went back to catch a 3 island boat tour. The weather by this point was going downhill and the boat ride was choppy (very Choppy) and we were thankfull for taking the motion sickness tablets. We enjoyed our free beer and then we hurried back to the car dodging the downpours on route. We spent the final day repacking the van and chilling as we had an early start to returns Richard parents where we found them. 

Back on the road once again we had no idea whether to drive South to Dubrovnik or head back North. We were done with touristy towns and after a 3 hour round trip for a sexy cow we decided to make headway back towards the oh so Green Slovenia. We did spend a final night in Split at a surprisingly close to the centre on the beach parking spot where we got a good night’s sleep.

We were liking the beach parking idea so we found another one in Zadar which thankfully had rerisen from the floods it had a few days prior. On the way we stopped at an amazing falconry where for a very low ticket price we saw some amazing birds and an awesome display. We were happy we got some amazing photos of birds of prey which we often chase around National parks for hours.  Zadar was a nice city which was great to cycle around. We pretty much covered the whole place on 2 wheels and we got to sit by the sea and listen to the ‘Sea Organ’ which was essentially a clever system where the waves pushed air through some holes making it sound like an orchestra. 

Supposedly this was also nice to hear whilst in the water but it just wasn’t the 40 degree weather we were used to! Saying that we did venture into the sea next to the camper when we returned for a surprisingly good snorkel where we saw a huge crab, a small clam, some colourful fishes and some purple and orange coral. We made friends with the Brits in the camper next to us and there beautiful Cocker Spaniel. 4 months of travelling through France, Italy and Greece and we only saw a handfall of Brits in campers. We were beginning to think we were the only ones but then we saw at least 10 in Croatia alone! We must have been doing the Europe circuit out of sync but they finally all caught us up. Next day we stumbled across a Bear Sanctuary in Croatia which was free to enter. We therefore had little expectations of what we might see but we were amazed. We saw about 8 Brown bears ranging from a few years old to 30 years old. We couldn’t believe how close we could get to these beautiful yet scary as hell animals. Most of them slept and they seemed pretty happy.  We got some great photos and also stumbled across some kittens which was a huge bonus. We left after buying some Honey for the shop and spent our final night in a free camper stop in a place called Otocac and were delighted it provided free electricity (this is not easy to come by). The rain continued and we spent the rest of the day planning our 2^nd run through Slovenia.