Down thru Dalmatia

By Bea
We were finally on our way to Split, the scenery along this stretch of coast is spectacular. Lush terraced hill sides end abruptly as sheer cliff faces that drop dramatically into the crystal clear aquamarine waters of the Adriatic

We arrived in Split in the late afternoon and, as Croatia does not permit free camping, we had to find a designated campsite. We found a nice place right on the foreshore in Stobrec a few km’s from Split.

Being low season the neighborhood was pretty quiet due to low season, but we quite liked that. The small harbour housed a mix of pleasure and fishing boats and the pebble beaches looked a great place to swim on a warm day, not tonight. We decided on dinner at the campsite restaurant that was located on a small headland with panoramic views of the bays. We were a little late for sunset but the ‘moon rise’ was creating quite a spectacle and catching everyone’s eye.

The next morning we rode into Split. Pete told me it was only about 8.5km, which was fine... he failed to mention we had to go up and over a massive headland!! OMG it was a tough ride, but admittedly worth it.

After chaining our bikes at the edge of town we proceeded to discover the town on foot. One of my aims in Split was ‘chasing Dragons’. Game of Thrones fans know that Daenery’s dragons, were kept in a dungeon. Well that dungeon is in Split. After a little research and asking a couple of locals, showing a few people, we eventually came across the dungeon. It is amazing what a bit of CGI and good lighting can do for a film. Pete found a couple of costumes in the dungeon bazaar but I’m pretty sure they are not from the series!!

I found Split really alluring and charming. The cobblestoned roads of the old town seemed just a little more cobbled and the narrow laneways and walkways just a little narrower and contorted than ‘old towns along the Istrian coast (still had inappropriately placed A/C units and satellite dishes though). They kept winding around and through the Diocletian palace always threatening to get you lost.

We took an evening stroll along waterfront and checked out the campsite, the camp site was huge! We walked past a very impressive expedition vehicle, major van envy. While we were admiring it, we noticed that although it had Ukraine number plates, there was an Aussie sticker on it! The lady heard us speaking... and said OMG are you Aussies? They hadn’t yet come across many Aussie campers.

We stopped and chatted for some time - about both our travels and especially about their truck. We were given a tour inside and my van envy just got a lot worse!!!!! If anyone has seen “Tiny House Living” on TV it was exactly that, except mounted on a Dakar rally style 4wd, go anywhere truck beast! It was super cool! I could definitely live in that. It had so much space. The right amount for 2 people - you could walk past each other inside (Whereas we have to manoeuvre into a chair to let the other past!). They were super friendly people.

Thanks Liz and Wayne of “WorldRoamers” (“AusWorldRoamers”) for your time and advice. After taking too much of their time, we left to go back to our “cozy” home for dinner. I stopped enroute at the wellness centre in the campsite for a much needed jacuzzi to sooth the sore knees after the ride ;-) (sometimes paid campsites pay off).

Woke early, planned for a run but decided to do that the next morning and go take photos instead. Definitely worth getting up for. The sunrise was lovely, peaceful and hardly anyone around.

We had planned on going back into Split centre after a leisurely breakfast, some blogging etc and stay for dinner... however we discovered that our brand new battery was completely dead! (*#)#$&@%^#&#$ seriously! Not happy. About an hour or two after a call to the roadside assistance, a tow truck arrived. Kids all around the world are fascinated by big vehicles, we certainly drew an audience as it loaded our fox onto its tray back. I have to admit I felt sick watching and wondered how much of our stuff had fallen off shelves as it was winched up. (I think our van actually wanted to look like the big boys!)

The towie was struggling to find a service centre willing to assist, eventually he found a place and dropped us and the van off. Unfortunately these people weren't that helpful, they just wanted to get us going rather than solve the problem. They assumed it was the new rear camera as it was the last thing we had done. We had them talk to the guys who installed it but couldn’t agree on the problem or a solution. We were now in Dalmatia and they were blaming the “Istrians” who installed it. The Istrian’s were saying ‘lazy Dalmatians’ cant be bothered looking for the real problem!!
The service centre proceeded to disconnect the camera but would need to keep the car overnight to charge and test. We found a cheap apartment 500m away so we booked that. It wasn’t that close to Split town centre, but unfortunately, or fortunately, Pete wasn’t that well so he had no desire to go into town, a much needed afternoon and evening on the couch was called for.

The next morning we collected the van. It appeared that the battery was perfectly ok. We could hit the road again minus a rear camera (maybe it was that after all??), and now a blown tail light, bugger, but not a problem Pete could fix that next stop.

We continued down this gobsmackingly scenic coastline toward Dubrovnik. We were approaching what I thought was a tollway and we soon discovered it was a border crossing. This confused us... why would we be crossing a border when we were still in the same country? A quick look at Google maps and suddenly realised that a small piece of Bosnia Herzegovina touches the coast thereby separating Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. A few kilometers later we crossed back into Croatia.

We stayed a little outside Dubrovnik the first night, near the airport, as we had a early morning booking to get the camera fixed and now the tail light. As it turned out they checked out the battery 100% ok, but didn’t check the camera or the tail light!! When Pete asked why, they shrugged, looked at their watch, and said no time! Thanks for that waste time. Sick of wasting time, we headed back to Dubrovnik to continue our adventure.

We found a small campsite in the grounds of a family home. Good location, over the road from a shopping centre, 10 minutes walk to the beach and 5 minutes walk to the bus stop.

The sight of Dubrovnik from the coast road is pretty spectacular, teasing you and building anticipation. The old town sits on a headland jutting into the Adriatic Sea and encircled with massive 16th century stone walls. Pretty impressive.

It is an amazing town, yet another UNESCO world heritage medieval town, with its baroque churches, cobblestoned streets and well preserved buildings. This town will get you fit, entering the old town via the, high eastern, Buze Gate you descend through the inner neighbourhood down several steep stepped alleys leading to the town square and port. These steps are steep and there is a lot of them, trust me, there were people huffing and puffing everywhere.

We spent the next few days exploring the old town, seeking out Game of Thrones filming sights and general sight seeing. We took in locations such as Pile Gate (the main town entrance), Church of St Ignatius, Rector’s Palace, St Dominika Street, and generally meandered the winding streets. You could walk the city walls, but at 25 euros per person!! no thanks. We would just climb up some of the stairs close to it to get similar views. Off the main square the Ploca Gate leads onto the old town port, which now bustles with restaurants and cafes, people lazing about in the sunshine along the docks or swimming in the clear waters.

Around a small bay from the Pile Gate is Fort Lovrijenac, where several GOT scenes were filmed. Even if you are not a GOT nerd it is a beautifully austere fort sited on a headland with amazing views across both the Adriatic and the old town, a perfect location for a fort. It has become so popular for weddings and functions that they now charge 15,000 euros an evening.

The new town itself doesn’t have as much to offer, but of course we sort out the local market and managed to pick up some lovely marinated white anchovies at a very cheap price. We also were in need of a coffee one morning so we popped into the University, as according to its sign out the front ‘made the best coffee in town’... admittedly it was pretty good, and our reasoning was it was a university so surely it had to be cheaper than the main tourist area - we were right.

Dubrovnik is also a very popular destination for cruise ships. Fortunately for us, only 1 ship was in during our stay so it wasn’t too crowded. In summer the place is heaving with tourists off the ships, making it hot and unpleasant to walk around. We were certainly very fortunate. In fact when we heard there was another ship or 2 due in the following day, we decided to book a boat trip to the islands in the Elafiti archipelago as that was probably the last thing these tourists would do

It was nice to spend the day out on the water. We visited three islands, Sipan, Kolocep and Lopud. Each island we would get off and explore, each island had something different to offer. Sipan is the largest of the islands in the archipelago and it made it to the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of olives trees per population - yep there were a lot of them, and lots of olive oil, and wine, for sale. We walked away with a bottle merlot - suckers.

Kolocep is the smallest and has a population of 300. We decided to follow a hiking trail for part of the way, then use our instincts with the help of Google Maps... we ended up finding narrow paths that lead us into the gardens of peoples houses and through their vegetable patches - but we made it!

Lopud island is famous for its 1km long sandy beach and shallow waters 2km across the island from where we landed, we chose to explore the village and go snorkelling instead of traipsing across the island. The locals couldn’t understand why we weren’t fascinated to visit their beautiful “sandy beach”, ha ha great you are telling an Aussie that, and ones that live in Thailand. We snorkeled along the rocky shoreline, interesting, but not a great deal to see.

Overall, the day was a great day a nice day out on the boat which included a grilled local fish lunch, which was very simple but delicious and included a bottle of white wine - not a bad day out.

Another filming fact... did you know that Star Wars VIII was also filmed in Dubrovnik?

After spending several days in Dubrovnik, it was time to move on and finally say farewell to the stunning Croatia. The coastal landscape in Croatia is significantly diverse. The fertile plains of Istria, the olive groves and vineyards on the rolling hills of the hinterland, the dramatic limestone cliffs of Dalmatia and with the most amazing crystal clear aquamarine and torquise waters all the way down. What a beauty and joy to visit. But now- off to Montenegro...