Friday 11th to Monday 14th

Photo -'The Sea' Northern Adriatic coast - Day 11

We left Lipicia on Friday and, as we did a quick entry and exit of Italy to get on the road through Slovenia to Croatia, it started to rain. This got heavier and more persistent and when a Croatian border guard suggested a nice town just before Rijeka we decided to stop even though we had only travelled 44 miles. We found a lovely Pension on the sea edge, but as we were now in warmer climbs there was no heating -which wasn't a problem except for drying stuff out! On the plus side the Pension had a lovely fish restaurant and half the television films were in English. The next morning, Saturday, it was still raining and I was not a happy bunny, but over breakfast the sun came out and Tony cheered me up by being his usual silly self! The stuff was more or less dry so we packed up and headed south down the famous Dalmation coast.

Photo - coffee stop at dive centre showing interesting finds

There was the occasional shower as we followed the stunning wiggly coastline but not enough to dampen our spirits. We could see clearer weather approaching from the east, which gave some interesting skies with the dark clouds ahead. We caught up with an English camper van and stopped in a lay by for a chat. Tim and Judith left the UK a month ago to settle permanently in Croatia and they are ‘loving it’. That morning they had bought a house and were on their way to sort paperwork etc out. After a picnic lunch we continued on our wiggly way and stopped in a little town called Karlobag for the night.

Photo - view from our room Karlobag

Once again we were on the waterfront, and after a delicious pizza, watched ‘Back to the Future’ before going to bed!

Photo - Remains of Karlobag Church.

Sunday dawned sunny and we set off aiming for Split. The coast continued to be gorgeous with little fishing hamlets on our right side and snow capped mountains on our left. Once past Zadar there wasn't a cloud in the sky, we'd been told the weather changed here, and the vegetation was noticeably greener. There were several swallows and swifts about and as we'd heard a cuckoo in Lipicia it was definitely beginning to feel more like spring/summer. The speedo decided to pack up just before we arrived in Split but I knew we'd travelled about 1400 miles by then.

This coastline was a little longer than guesstimated because of all the wiggles! We stopped at an expensive hotel where the very friendly receptionist phoned a friend, who sent a taxi for us to follow to a delightful fishing village just outside Split. Here again our room looks out onto the waterfront, very similar to Kas, and once again is over a pizza restaurant! Last night we watched ‘American Pie’ before falling asleep!

Today, Monday, dawned with blue cloudless skies and sunshine over our balcony. Bliss.










Photo - view from our window in Stobrec outside Split day 14

Half Way!

We had intended to visit Vis but our friendly receptionist had phoned and discovered it was a 2 hour ferry ride, 2 hours there then 2hours back, so we decided an easy day in Split was more up our street. We also tried to find an illusive Suzuki Service place. It took an hour of circumnavigating Split to find him, only to be told the part would take 15 days to arrive! We abandoned the idea of a new speedo cable and went for a coffee on the beach instead!

Photo - Coffee on the beach in Split - Day 14


Tomorrow, Tuesday, we're off to Dubrovnik where we catch a ferry at 23:00 hrs to Bari in Italy.

Alison