We’ve had quite a lot
of things to consider this last week or so; budget, which we knew would come
up; what we want to get out of our trip, experiences etc; what the weather will
be doing (as this has some impact on where we stay and how we spend our time)
and also altitude, which we didn’t think would come up at all.
There are a lot of
mountains down where we have been (unavoidable unless you can afford to take
the toll roads, bridges, passes or trains) and the van hates them and, as
lovely as they are, we’re ashamed to say that we became a bit complacent
towards them too. We’ve had a
couple of weeks or so of willing the bus up steep winding roads (and hoping it
would stop coming down them) wrestling the heavy steering around serpentine
twists and turns so we thought we’d head for lower ground and water level, I.E
the bloody beach (weather permitting)! This kind of thinking led us to blast through Slovenia which was a shame
as it is surprisingly beautiful, seemed pretty chilled and the people very
friendly.
We initially headed
for the ‘must see’ Bled lake in the North. The only trouble was every tourist
in Slovenia had obviously felt that they ‘must see’ the lake too at the very
same time, something that we’re coming up against quite a lot. There ain’t nothing like hanging with
the coach trip crowd to dampen the spirits. Invariably the lake had been ruined somewhat by the hotels
and tacky gift shops built up around it and therein lies the problem with
wanting to visit natural places of beauty and get away from it all, everyone
does, you’re never really alone, especially in Europe. So we’re finding the freedom we crave
and the real experience (whatever that means) of a country hard to come by
sometimes. Travelling in a van
offers you some freedom but you can be restricted - especially in an older,
slower bus like ours - as to where you can reach and safely park up for free
away from other people. Campsites
often offer little respite as these can be hit and miss and tend to be centred
around packing people into a coastal area, lake or mountain range and free
camping is frowned upon in some places but you takes ya chance. Not all doom and gloom by any stretch
of the imagination but we’ve found we have entered a period of reflection
regarding what it is we actually want to achieve by doing all this. We read somewhere before we headed off
that what others doing something similar had found most challenging was having
too much time and too many options; something we would partly agree with at
this point in time. We are also having to weigh up the cost of reaching remote
places - and not killing our bus - against the desire to find something more
than campsites and being amongst rows of mobile-homes. We want to ensure that we have more
fulfilling experiences that stay with us and help shape our future.
So, we’ve decided to
sell the van and become Slovenian goat botherer’s. We haven’t, of course. I’ve had a restraining order banning
me from going within 100 yards of a goat for some years now. Belated apologies to ‘Billy’. It was dark, I was drunk, I thought you
were ‘Larry’.
Back to the trip.
We left Bled pretty
sharpish and found a hotel in a lovely little town that had a stellplatz for 10
Euros. Still one or two other vans
there but much closer to what we are after. Had a sunny evening stroll around the tiny village to find
the only shop and walked back across fields. Slovenia being fairly small, about the same size as glorious
Wales, we headed out for a drive across the country the next day after first climbing
up to what was described as Slovenia’s ‘most perfect example of an old castle’. I’ll say nothing other than at least
the view was dramatic. Our drive
took us through more stunning, but now familiar, mountain ranges so we performed
a perfect 360 degree hand-brake turn complete with screeching tyres and dust
cloud and headed for Slovenia’s small, but perfectly formed, coastline.
With an eye on our moola we opted for
another free stay at a marina stellplatz in Izola. There she was. The clear blue sparkling Adriatic, in
full HD3D sunshine. Brilliant
stopover in great little town which could only have been bettered had we; a)
paid the 15 Euros to actually stay there and saved us a night of not looking
over our shoulders and b) it wasn’t on a main road. A really good stop this though, beers by the sea for the
first time in ages and after a lot of kilometres (miles are so very British).
Up early to avoid the
potential parking fine or clamp and we headed straight across the boarder into
Croatia. First impressions?
Awesome. An absolutely stunning drive along the coastline and across the bridge
to the Island of Krk’s most southerly town, Baska. A campsite for a few days
relaxing. Not too bad a place as it offered free camping set back from the
crowd – you could park where you like, not, not pay – which was cheaper than
all of the vans bunched up on the beach like a shanty town. Decent beach, great swimming, lovely
town in the early morning when just the locals.
Still fairly busy,
even in June, we decided to head off after a few nights and head back to the
mainland. Good decision. If you have to stay on campsites, which
we’d rather not do, you want something special and sparsely populated if
possible. After a drive along the Adriatic Highway - which we’ve vowed to
return to and cycle rather than drive one day – we found Camp Ujca hidden away
down a steep hill, through a long tunnel and tucked into a gorgeous cove. A little campsite with just a few tents
and with the opportunity to park right on the beach meaning that we could tick
one item off of the ‘trip wish list’, opening the van door in the morning, stepping
out and jumping into a clear blue sea. So, this is where you leave us for now:
happy, free, having fun but lots to consider over the next few weeks...
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