I was originally gonna start this blog entry playfully teasing about how we'd heard those of you back up in Northern Europe had been struggling with unseasonably bad weather and how we have been 'struggling' with beautifully warm days and that our only options for relief were a dip in the cool Adriatic or an ice cold beer. Well, to some degree, the joke is on us and we are struggling with the weather. There's no other way to put it; it's mudder fudding HOT. Damn bloody inescapably hot. Cultivating a swamp in your pants, can't move for slipping off your flip flops hot. It's hot. Temperatures regularly 35-40 degrees, that's naaaasty. I hope you feel for us.
So, where did we get up to? We left Camp Jasenova and continued south down the Adriatic Highway. A beautiful road to drive. Every bay more picturesque than the last. Our first stop was at some big, but very empty, campsite around Zaostrag. Place was a little touristy but we were away from the main drag and had a couple of days just hanging out doing nothing. With the weather the way it is - and now that we've been away for 2 months, we've kind of slowed down a little. There's loads of things to do around here, Island trips, National Parks etc but with an eye on budget and time (back to my old Project Management days) we've mainly hugged the coast and have spent the last week or so in the Makarska Riviera region.
A bit further down and we had another stop, a lovely little town called Trsteno (that we didn't realise until we got there features on the front cover of the Croatian Rough Guide). Helen's better at writing about the historical stuff but we went to some historical Roman place there. Big gardens with old buildings in, loads of plants and trees and an old olive mill. Superb. Walk down into the little harbour and you end up in the most amazing little place for a swim, extremely picturesque. The local kids looked like they were having a wicked time bobbing about these old buildings, bombing in and out of the sea. We were surprised that there are so many empty properties there, we'd love to buy one but would probably melt in the summer. We left Trsteno heading for our final Croatian location, Dubrovnik (D'Brov from hereon in).
First we had to do the Bosnia and Hercegovina 10k scuttle. A pointless stretch of Bosnia that doesn't seem to serve any purpose other then ensuring Bosnia has a bit of coast and flogging cheap booze n fags to travellers - a Balkan Calais if you will - but still a very scenic route to take. You have to pass through two border controls, not too far apart from each other. We approached the first and saw that pretty much every vehicle was being waved through. We must have still been 200 meters away from it when we saw loads of serious looking, well tooled up, border types leap from their hut. "That'll be for us then babe". I've never got through a border without being stopped (though I will hold my hands up to drinking a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Listerine and then trying to get into NYC as my own fault) and sure enough this was no exception. Passports suspiciously checked over and then the obligatory 'pull overs to ze roadsides and get out of ze vehicles'. Did I mention it was hot? Helen and I, mid-bloody-day, no bloody shade as Tweedledeeski and Tweedledumovic went through everything. Being good Christians and all of course we had nothing to hide but bugger us, how about an ice-cream or something whilst you two knock ya-selves out looking through our pants? They had been at it for sometime when it all came to an abrupt end. Whilst going through our medication bag; Idiot 1 - "Aha! Vot are deez for!?" "Diarrhea". Idiot 2, upon finding a 'suspicious package' "AHA!!! VOT ARE DEEZ FOR!!??" "Ladies". Idiot 2 didn't speak English so Idiot 1 translated and we were soon on our way.
A short hop from the border and we soon got our first glimpse of D'Brov from up on the main bridge leading into town, quite a sight too. We decided to head past town to the suburbs for a cheaper stay on an auto-camp. These are often very small places, just a front garden sometimes and we much prefer the chilled out atmosphere you can find at them. Didn't like the look of the first place and the second one we pulled onto we didn't think was up to much, despite being waved at by a couple in a VW, so we turned around to leave only to hear a northern voice say 'you alreet mate?' Thankfully that voice knew how good the place we had arrived at was and his friendly manner convinced us to park up. A wise choice. We're currently at a brilliant little place with some really interesting characters, not least said northern voice, Pete and his wife Vicky and also the VW wavers who are a Spanish couple living in Strasbourg. Pete and Vicky are a blast, proper hospitable to boot. They, like a few at this place, are on longer trips much like ours so tend to be different to the norm in one way or another. Pete and Vicky came away with a van loaded with 500 cans of Boddingtons and as many cans of beans and Fray Bentos pies as a Cash and Carry. The Spanish couple we'd only been with for one night and they've invited us to go and stay at their place in Strasbourg as soon as we can, all good people, finally good stuff happening. It's been great all gathering in the evening to watch the footie sat outside a van, beers, sunsets and laughs.
We've headed into D'Brov on the local bus a couple of times. The first time we over-shot the old town where most head to and ended up at the port full of cruise ships. We had a long walk back up a hill that was littered with sweaty cruisers huddled in what ever shade they could find, needless to say we had to join them. We'll not be doing that walk again. D'Brov old town is just breathtaking, if you've not been you should go. Too much to write about but it's just brilliant, although, as always, it has been spoilt somewhat. Not by the war of 1990-1992 but by the tourist trade. It was rammo when we were there but you can find some solice in the narrow side streets or by avoiding the numerous pizza places. We went back again and headed to the port this time to get a boat to an island only to have missed the one we wanted. "Right, what shall we do?" - back up the bloody hill again all gasping for air and desperate for shade.
It's our last day here today and we went for a swim in a little bay that is juxtaposed by bombed out hotels left over from the war. Not as ugly as it sounds and quite an interesting sight. There's quite a few scars left over from the conflict still in this area but it's getting back on its feet with regards to tourism. Well worth the extra miles I'd say if you ever drive to Croatia and you just need to time your visit to D'Brov right.
So we head now for Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia. I imagine it will be a bit like the nail-biting, excruciatingly tense re-entry of Apollo 13 through our atmosphere. It may all go quiet for a while so you'll just have to hold your breath, hope that we make it and that you hear from us again on the other side!
Oh yeah, even the sea is warm now, no escape!
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