Tuesday 30 June 2015
Krka NP to Plitvice NP
Krka National Park
Yesterday (Sunday 28th) was spent in the park, on a full day excursion run by the camp and at €40 each, we thought it good value for the money. There were 14 of us on the 15 seat tour bus, from Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands and a couple from Australia!
This morning we slept a little later than usual and had not been up for more than a few minutes when we received a visit from Mireille and Mark, who had stayed in nearby Skradin and had been on a boat tour yesterday, visiting some of the same sites we'd visited though our paths hadn't crossed. They were on their way to the coast before heading to Plitvice National Park and as we're all going in much the same direction, chances are we will meet again down the track.
Our day was spent putting the camp's washing machine to work and doing odd jobs in between relaxing, giving the old legs a chance to recover from the walking and climbing they did yesterday. We treated ourselves to an evening meal at the camp restaurant, sharing a meat platter washed down with beer and wine. The menu here is not extensive but the food is good quality and well cooked and presented, in fact, Camp Krka is probably one of the best camps we've stayed in. The amenities are spotless as Mrs Clean works hard all day to keep them that way, so I felt a little guilty after showering this morning as she'd have had to do it all again. This is a family run campsite, a friendly, efficiently run campsite where we'd happily stay again if we happened to be in this neighbourhood.
Tomorrow we move on to Plitvice, to the national park which will probably be our last stop in Croatia.
Monday 29 June 2015
Trogir
Saturday 27 June 2015
An Old Friend
Blagaj
Wednesday 24 June 2015
Mostar
Tuesday 23 June 2015
Bosnia and Herzegovina
After leaving camp this morning, we called in at the nearby Lidl supermarket to replenish dwindling supplies and there met Mirielle and Mark who had returned from their 24 hour visit to Montenegro. As we found their plans to travel into Bosnia to visit waterfalls, caves etc. very interesting, we decided to tag along, which happily for us they don't seem to mind.
In the supermarket carpark, we met another Australian couple, from Brisbane, chatted for a while and took photographs before going our separate ways.
After our evening meal, Mirielle and I went for a wander into town and discovered what appeared to be the 'Lourdes' of Bosnia...there were thousands of people attending a mass...it was amazing!
Dubrovnik
Another very brief stop was at the border post of Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovena and 10 minutes later at the border post of Bosnia and Herzegovena/Croatia where we were waved through with just a cursory glance at offered passports!
We arrived in Mlini, about 6 kms south of Dubrovnik at about 4pm and met friends Mirielle and Mark from Melbourne who'd arrived the day before. We'd known that they intended to visit Croatia but didn't know when so were pleasantly surprised to receive a message, while in Split, to say that they would ferry from Bari in Italy to Dubrovnik and be there on Friday. It was great to catch up and a return boules/petanque/bocce match was played with a victory this year to the Vics, at two games to one, leaving the series at one all.
M & M had been into the city a couple of times before we arrived but kindly gave us a few tips and pointed us in the right direction. We caught a ferry from the lovely little harbour below the camp to the port of old Dubrovnik and happily spent a few hours strolling through the little lanes admiring the wonderful old buildings,
Split : 2
Friday, 19th June.
We decided to go riding this morning and on seeing a young man wearing a pair of Australian flag shorts, Mike stopped to chat, discovering that the young man was in fact Dutch and not from Down Under as we had assumed, but had spent some time windsurfing in Australia, in particular in W.A., which is where he bought the shorts. He and his girlfriend were about to ride into Split, having been told at reception that it was possible, so we decided that if it was possible, then we should ride in too! They took off and we followed but sadly could only make it about halfway as the neverending climbing eventually beat us. Just when we thought we'd reached the end of one hill there was another one! An older than us lady, walking down one of the hills carrying a bag of apricots in one hand and a bunch of flowers in the other, stopped and insisted we take three of the apricots, 'from my garden' she told us, she must have thought we need some refreshments. We found a coffee shop so after liquid refreshments and a rest, we turned around and rode down hill back to camp. Spying a hairdressing shop on the way, Mike went in and bought a haircut though a bit annoyed that his cost $A8, $A3 more than mine!
After a wander through the impressive campsite, we rode around to the adjoining town Podstrana, where we bought and ate a snack lunch, going into Split by bus in the late afternoon, much easier on the old legs than trying to pedal up hills!
The TomTom we bought in England in April has given us a great deal of trouble almost since the day we bought it and we went in search of a new gps yesterday, though baulking at the price asked. As we approached the city, Mike spotted a shop advertising satellite navigation systems so we got off the bus at the next stop and walked back to the shop to find that the sat navs they sold were nautical. Leaving the nautical shop, having agreed that we would have to bite the bullet and spend the money for a replacement, we were walking down the hill into the city when Mike noticed a small computer shop and thinking that someone there might know of someplace nearby where one could be bought, we went in and when asked if he could help, the shopkeeper said he had one in stock. It is a Prestigio which we've not heard of before and is now ours, at less than half the cost of the one we saw yesterday and is so much better than the TomTom ever was, we hope to find our way around Europe now without the problems we have had!
Feeling much happier and relieved at finding a replacement, we enjoyed our evening stroll, a couple of beers and a pizza before catching the bus 'home'.