Now we are in Dubrovnik for a couple of days. Since the last blog on Sunday, we have had a wonderful time enjoying the sun, sea and the quiet peace of a small campsite situated amongst olive groves. We had bought snorkels and masks at Murtar so we were able to do some snorkelling along the coastline. We saw many fish and even though the water was very clear it has a strange film in it that when you disturb the water the mask looks foggy. We aren’t sure what the reason for it is but it’s almost like there is a very thin layer of clear oil just below the surface that when you disturb it goes a bit opaque. The water seems very clean though so it may be just some phenomena that we don’t seem to have down in our southern waters. We also found a small secluded bay after a long walk along a track where we could swim and snorkel on our own. Very nice! While we were at Trpanj we met a very nice English woman called Jane who lives in France but also has an apartment in Trpanj. We exchanged some Novels and we gave her some of our movies to download. It was great for me to have someone to chat with and she invited us up to her balcony to view the sunset. What a great view it was, with the bay and the hills in the distance. We also met a couple from Holland who were touring Croatia on their motorbikes. Renko and Gaby were very friendly and even though we didn’t spend a lot of time with them we had some good chats.
We had planned to leave about 10.30 Thursday morning but when we tried to start the camper the battery was flat, so after some sorting with jumper cables and help from Jane’s VW camper it started and we left it to run while we had a swim and then a wash. We then couldn’t say no when Gaby asked us for a last coffee and so we sat for the next couple of hours having a nice time with Renko, Gaby and Jane swopping travel stories and other things. When we finally got on the road about 1.00 we had a farewell committee which was great. After driving for about an hour we stopped at Ston thinking we would just get something easy for lunch and ended up having a wonderful fish meal at a nice restaurant with the most attentive waiter. He was so welcoming and helpful, and the meal was superb. He was a bit of a charmer and he joked with Ewout that he would like to keep me, but didn’t know what to do with his wife. Ha Ha.
Thursday 11th Dubrovnik
When we got in the city, there were a lot of tourists from the buses and also the cruise ships so we tried to avoid the more popular areas and later in the day and the crowds had cleared we tackled the city wall. We spend a very pleasant day exploring the Old town, wandering down small streets and just absorbing the atmosphere. Late in the day we headed to the Marina and booked out tickets to Bari. So we are now booked to leave on Monday with the ferry to Italy.
Friday 12th
Today we are now trying to decide what we will do until then. We have to look at the practicality of going to Montenegro as we have been told it is very expensive to enter the country with the camper and that they are not the best set up for tourists. So if this is not a option we will find a nice campsite that has easy access to a beach and spend a couple of days there just taking easy and enjoying the last few sunny days here.
