We headed back into Slovenia and specifically Bled. We camped about 20 km from Bled on our way down and thought it would be worth a visit then, however it was the height of the season and the place was rammed and the queue in as we left was 5km plus so at the time decided to give it a miss.

Anyway as a result of the big storm in Central Europe things have thinned out a bit and the campsite in Bled which was fully booked until September now had vacancies so off we went.

Bled itself is on the shores of a lake (Lake Bled!) which has an island with a church, and a castle perched high on a shore side cliff – it’s very picturesque but a day was long enough for us.

Bled – slightly damper than when we first passed through.

I continue my mission to sample products of the region both alcoholic and food related and in Bled sampled Bled Cake which is essentially a vanilla slice on steroids and well worth seeking out.

Can’t resist a good cake

After Bled we decided to head across to the Dolomites. We always had this in mind for this trip as it would allow us to “complete” our tour of Italy which we started this time last year.

So we are now in Cortina armed with MTB and hiking maps and planning our adventures for the next few days.

The coast road

We decided to head back onto the Istrian peninsula which was where we first stopped on our way down through Croatia. At the time we found it very busy and very hot, however we are now more in tune with both the number of people and the temperature and given Istria seems to have invested fairly heavily in bike routes / tracks we decided to spend a little more time here on our way back north.

Just like riding at home!

The cycling is nothing too extreme which is good given the heat, in fact it reminded us of some of the cross country routes back home (farm tracks and field boundaries) – we even saw sloes and blackberries in the hedgerows.

As mentioned the campsites are very busy, the last one predominantly with Germans. Witnessed a funny thing at the washing up area with all the German guys doing the washing up whilst the women sat on the wall drinking shots of snapps, and it didn’t take long before Sharon was invited to join in!

Products of the region

As our supplies of rum (kindly donated by Gareth) have diminished we have purchased ‘products of the region’ in the form of orange snapps to provide our evening nightcap!

Other local products include a Toblerone copy, which has the top of the triangle lopped off presumably to overcome the Swiss copyright on triangular chocolate and a Eccles cake-like pastry (only better).

We made our way back to the other side of the Peljesac Peninsula to check out a bike ride which we had spotted on the map. However, when we got there we found that the gravel track had now been tarmaced so we decided we would give it a miss and head for the ferry.

We had a couple of hours to spare so I went for a dip in the ferry port to cool off (something you wouldn’t try at Dover!) and Sharon relaxed on the beach. Whilst she was there a young lad turned up and started talking to his towel! Sharon thought he may have a small dog or cat wrapped in it however as he opened the towel a piece of water melon fell out and a guinea pig emerged – turns out the lad lived in one of the houses across the road from beach and had brought his guinea pig across to have a look at the sea!

I wouldn’t be doing this in Dover

Time to get out as ferry arrives

Yes it is a guinea pig at the beach!

Making our way back North we are effectively retracing our steps as the bottom part of Croatia is a narrow strip with the population squeezed between the mountains and the sea. We had spotted a few possible campsites on the way down however these all turned out to be full and before we knew it we were back in Split and thinking our chances of getting a pitch here would be slim. As it turned out we got a pitch OK.

The campsite at Split is one of the best we have stayed in terms of facilities however the reception area is chaos with any enquiry of any kind requiring queuing for ½ hour or so. The reception staff seem suitably stressed and surly. As the mix of nationalities is high the default language at reception is English which the staff speak fluently, however this is not the case for all the guests and the staff seem to delight in letting their guest struggle on in English even when it is obvious what they are after – this would appear to be the only entertainment they have! It reminded me of the cafe at the old Afan MTB centre where I watched a group of guys spend 5 minutes or so discussing what filling they were going to have in their baked potatoes directly in front of the person serving, only to be told when they came to place their order that the baked potatoes had run out! We figured, after ten minutes or so of watching at reception that we had some solutions and did toy with the idea of offering our services as consultants and sort out their problems for a free pitch for a few weeks or so!

Those Mohijtos we had in Zadar – we couldn’t quite decide if they where the best we had so guess what? Yep we have come back for more! Well, we were passing and we needed somewhere to stay in this area – honest! Can confirm they were just as good but research needs to continue!

As good as remembered

From here our plan for the next week or so is to head to the Paklenica national park and then back to the Istrian Peninsula for a few days before heading back into Slovenia.

After leaving Zadar we made our way via Split and the Peljesac peninsula to Dubrovnik.

Split Market

Improvised shade – last pitch Split Campsite

A ferry to the Peljesac peninsula is the only way to get to Dubrovnik if you want to avoid driving through 10 km of Bosnia for which we are uninsured. A lot of people just risk it, however after seeing the driving here, and spotting some sheep, we figured we would take the safe option given that we intended to visit the peninsula in any case.

Watch out for sheep

On board ferry to Peljesac peninsula

We had heard that the ferries could be a bit chaotic and whilst they rammed you in this proved not to be the case, whoever thought this obviously haven’t been on the ferries to Sicily – the very definition of chaotic!

We stayed in Dubrovnik for two nights at a campsite just a few km from the centre and an easy bus ride in. However you pay for the privilege as this was the most expensive campsite that we have stayed on in our entire year away at nearly 50 quid per night.

Dubrovnik proved to be one of the most picturesque cities which we have visited, it did suffer quite extensive damage during the Balkans War, however the repairs are such that you would never know this was the case.

The old city walls still encircle the city completely and a walk around is a great way to see the city and spot which bars are worth visiting later! It does get very buy though especially when the cruise ships come in.

Dubrovnik

Cliff Diving at Buza Bar

Watching the tourists – Dubrovnik

Cooling off – Sunset Dubrovnik

We left Dubrovnik on the Sunday morning and headed back on to the Peljesac peninsula and stopped at a campsite just outside Orebic. Wind and kite surfing seem to be the thing here and I think we are the only people on the site without a board.

This looks fun …

One of the great thing about Croatia is that the mountains and the sea are so close together so today we managed a 5 hour hike up into the mountains (it was supposed to be slightly less strenuous – need to get better at reading those contour lines!) and could then cool off with a dip in the Adriatic and a cold beer when we returned to the campsite.

Gentle hike …

…. not

Debating whether to stay another night on the peninsula at another campsite where we think we have spotted a good bike ride.

After spending some time on the Istrian Peninsula we headed inland to the Plitvicka National Park and Plitvicka Lakes which are said to be the most visited attraction in Croatia, which judging by the number of people around we can believe.

Plitvicka Lakes

Waterfalls at Plitvicka Lakes

And another ….

And another ….

There are a total of 16 lakes which flow into each other by a series of waterfalls. It’s weird wandering around as it feels like a giant manmade ornamental water garden although is in fact 100% natural.

Somewhat bizarrely Plitvicka is where the Balkans “Homeland War” started in 1991 when rebel Serbs attacked and took over the National Park Office.

There is still a lot of evidence of the conflict with bombed / shot out houses plus a large number of buildings with patched up bullet holes.

As usual our sat nav has taken us down some unusual / interesting routes even when we have selected the ‘avoid the landmine’ option!

Evidence of Balkans conflict

Tom Tom really is dumb dumb!

After our stay at Plitvicka we continued South and headed for Zadar on the coast. We had a quick spin on the bikes to get our bearings and then headed into town in the evening. Sharon’s research into cocktail bars and restaurants paid off with a couple of excellent Mojito Royals (Prosecco rather than mineral water!) and a good little back street restaurant.

One of the reasons we came to Zadar was to look at a couple of art installations on the sea front –  the Sea Organ which produces sounds as waves push air through a series of pipes on the promenade, and the Sun Salutation which stores energy from the sun during the day to produce a light show at night.

The Sea Organ

Click below to hear the sea organ.

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk ….
(Sun Salutation – Zadar)

Feel the city breakin everybody shakin
(Sun Salutation – Zadar)

From here we plan to visit Split before heading further south to catch a ferry to the Peljesac peninsula before the weekend.

We have made our way across to the Istrian Peninsula (North West Croatia), and since we have been away the temperature has been in the mid to high thirties, dropping to mid twenties over night. Sharon refuses to say it’s too hot – that’s not in her nature – but there have been signs of cracking.

Scorchio!

Our priorities on campsite selection have now changed with shade becoming the number one feature, but with every site full to capacity this has not always been easy or even possible to achieve!

In the shade at last!

At least at our current site just outside Novigrad we have a pitch with some of the precious shade and perhaps lulled into a false sense of security we decided to set off on a 35 km bike ride over a combination of quiet roads and farm tracks. The temperature was up at 36^oC and the sun was blazing in clear blue skies. The ride looked and was fairly flat apart from one road climb which on a normal day at home would have been a breeze but here had me sweating profusely  and Sharon glowing heavily by the time we reached the top. Luckily in the next village was a shop selling cold drinks, and whilst I sat in the square Sharon went in to purchase some. When she returned with drinks in hand she said they had two chiller cabinets with 5 shelves in each – 1 shelf containing soft drinks the other 9 containing a variety of cold beers! Looks like someone has got their priorities right.

Novigrad bell tower apparently modeled on St Marks

You can’t complain when its hot, dry and dusty!

We arrived back and cooled off with a swim before cooling further with a cold beer and have put our planned longer ride for tomorrow on hold!

I can’t believe that we have been doing this for nearly a year and that we are now on our final trip.

After a week at home seeing insurance assessor and body shops re. our sheep damage issue, current estimate ₤7K, lots of rogan josh will need to be eaten to get payback! We have now set off for Croatia.

Currently, after travelling down through France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Austria, we are in Slovenia. It’s high season and the campsites are rammed, and Sharon has already seen enough of overweight middle aged men in Speedos (won’t be getting mine out then!). To quote “Why you would want to wear a pair of Speedos unless you look like David Beckham is beyond me.”

Not a lot of personal space

As always Sharon throws  herself into the languages and feels it’s ignorant if you don’t at least try, whereas my approach (wrongly I know) has been to learn two phrases for each language:
1) I am sorry I don’t understand I am English
2) Two beers please.

However Croatian is not a language that either of us have any great knowledge of, although I did have a Serbo-Croat phrase book when I visited Yugoslavia on my first European van trip some 30 years ago. For this trip the phrase book chosen was a Lonely Planet one which seems to focus more on the social side of the trip than the practical e.g. “Lakse malo macore!” (see below), rather than the slightly middle aged but useful “Diesel on pump number one please ”.

Relaxing at Lake Bohinjksko Jezero 36 degrees C

Cycling through Slovenian meadows

The plan, as much as there is one, is to spend a couple of days in Slovenia before heading across to Zagreb in Croatia and then South to Dubrovnik – this will involve a ferry crossing as we can’t get insurance for Bosnia (which cuts Croatia in two just North of Dubronik). Beyond that we have yet to decide.

“Lakse malo macore!” = Easy tiger!”