Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . .

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

Privlaka to Vir and Pag

Wednesday 19^th June

This morning we set off from Privlaka and headed north onto a tiny spit of land called Vir, connected to the mainland by a road bridge.

I`d no idea what was there and research didn`t produce much, so with only one main road we set of to find out.

The answer is well not a lot really, most of the coast is not easily accessible and the bits that are seem to be of the kiddies bucket and spade variety.

No doubt providing a weekend break destination to the workers in Zadar.

Right at the very tip of Vir the only road does dip down to the sea but the waterfront is not very tourist friendly with very large boulders to clamber over to get into the sea.

There`s limited parking but we did stop for photos and the scenery is dramatic if not very easy to access.

So we looped around and headed back over the bridge towards Pag.

Pag is also connected to the mainland by a bridge.

The scenery is quite different though, especially the southern end where we entered. There is very little vegetation and the ground is dry, arid light gold coloured rock.

Further up the island to turns greener but is still a dramatic landscape.

The island is famous for it`s cheese but strangely we saw no cows, sheep, goats or any other livestock that could be milked ? Further research needed there I think.
Here`s a link to it, I`ll try and get some to try. I`ll let you know.

I`d identified a campsite at a place called Novalja which was rated highly by UK visitors, Autocamp Navis so we headed there.

The road takes us through Pag town, then rises steeply up to a cliff top where there is a viewing area over the town and it gives a very dramatic view of the town and the surrounds.

Less that a half a mile from the camp, disaster, a tipper truck overtook me and removed the mirror from the side of the Ed !!!

It`s the UK nearside, but over here the offside, so pretty essential to driving. Especially manouvering in tight spaces.

I went back and picked up the debris but all beyond repair.

I cobbled up a DIY repair using Sue`s mirror and some double sided tape, but it`s rather smaller than the broken one so not sure if it`ll be ok.

I`ll have to look for a car accessory outlet and try and buy a larger one to stick over to get us home.

I suppose we should be grateful it was only the mirror he took !

The Campsite is ok, we`re a couple of rows back from the sea front, unlike Camp Plantaza at Starigrad, so we don`t have the great view unfortunately.

The very tip of Vir, scenic but not swimmer friendly unless you have very tough skin on your feet

The very tip of Vir

Pag town from the cliff top viewing area

Ed on the cliff top viewing area

My smashed mirror :(

Camp Navis beach

Louis enjoying the cooling sea at Camp Navis beach

My DIY bodge !

Our route today

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

Zadar Town & Privlaka

Zadar

Tuesday 18^th June

We left Camping Plantaza this morning and headed for Zadar.

It wasn't a long journey, only about 45 minutes.

I managed to get parked up close the the old town, and we spend a few hours wandering around the quaint cobble stoned streets where there was a lot of activity going on.

It`s a very pretty town, compact and easy to see on foot and not get lost.

Whichever direction you walk, you will eventually come to the sea and easily find your way back to somewhere familiar.

The cobble stoned are polished to a smooth finish, presumably by many years of tourists wandering the streets.

There are lots of shops and bars and the usual tourist stuff.

Lots of gelato outlets too !

The old town is on a peninsula that sticks out into the Adriatic and forms a natural harbour. In the old town there are 34 churches apparently and the Roman Forum.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Forum and by the ocean and enjoyed the view and the sea breeze.

After a pleasant time in Zadar, things went down hill a bit.

I'd selected a campsite in Nin, about ten miles away for tonight. But when we got there, an old bloke in reception was very rude and spoke only very broken English.

I got the message that he didn't like dogs, yet there were many other dogs around the site.

To be honest I wasn't impressed with what I could see either, looked like feral kids everywhere and the place looked quite scruffy.

So off we went, next was a large campsite with 1000 pitches. I don't like the large campsites and this was no different, so we didn't hang around there either.

Hugely expensive to pay for all the kids entertainment I suppose that we don't need.

Use of their washer and drier was going to cost £10, no thanks !

Anyway we ended up on a little family run campsite, Called Autocamp Tabour at Privlaka, it's all quite recently done I think, it's clean smart, has free use of a washing machine, that we can make full use of, and all-round, quite a nice site, but not a patch on Camping Plantaza where we've been for the last few nights, but it'll do for tonight.

Tomorrow I think we'll head up Pag and see what we can find.

Zadar Town walls

Zadar Town

Zadar Town Roman Forum

Zadar Town

Zadar Town Roman Forum

Zadar Town

Zadar Town and the polished cobbles

Zadar Town Walls

Zadar Town Roman Forum

Zadar Town sea view from restaurant

Zadar Town

Our campsite for tonight, Tabour Autocamp Privlaka

Our route today

Some photos of kayaking yesterday

Monday, 17 June 2019

Starigrad day three

Monday 17^th June

We`ve stayed at camping Plantaza, had two and a half enyoyable days and tonight is our third and last night here.

We`ve just had a very delicious meal in the restaurant, I had a whole Sea Bass with grilled vegetables, Sue had Scampi and chips, two large and one small beers and hazelnut ice-cream and it came to less than £40.

Great value for money anywhere, but with a view of the sunset like we have here, unbeatable.

In the time we`ve spent here we`ve found nothing to fault and there are very few places that you can say that about.

I suppose one thing some people might critisise Croatia for is the beaches are mostly pebbles. It doesn`t bother me, I hate sandy beaches when the sand gets everywhere and you`re trying to put sun screen on and you`re rubbing sand in you`re skin, yuck and ouch.

The other thing with pebbles is the water is usually clearer, better for snorkelling.

The more time I spend in Croatia, the more I come to love the country.

There`s no real news from today, it`s been spent swimming, snorkelling and kayaking and relaxing in the sunshine.

We still have the radio streamed over the wifi and keep hearing reports of the rain, flooding, road closures, traffic chaos, and the usual hassles that go along with life in the UK. Not forgetting B&$*^t.

For the time being, I feel so lucky and privileged to be able to escape all that difficult stuff that grinds us down every day, and escape from reality here.

But of course it won`t last, I`ll soon be back with you suffering it too !

Tomorrow we leave this little bit of heaven and venture into the town of Zadar, it`s only about 35/40 minutes away so we`ll spend the day exploring there.

You probably seen this view from my chair already, but I like it !

A different view from my chair, looking up at the sun shining through the pine trees

Sunday, 16 June 2019

Starigrad day two

Sunday 16^th June

We'll, our little campsite heaven by the sea near Starigrad is proving difficult to find fault with.

I can't think of anything that is likely to irritate us, no flies, mosquitos, wasps or hornets, just a few sparrows (and all seem to have healthy functioning digestive systems), no drunk Brits, no noisy Russians, no sulking argumentative French.

Even the Germans and Dutch are polite and friendly.

The beer is cold and the sea is warm, how much better can it get ?

The weather is glorious with a cooling breeze.

We can even stream radio on the free wifi so we enjoyed sounds of the seventies with Jonnie Walker this afternoon.

We got everything we need on hand.

The restaurant looks good too so we'll try that at some point.

Last night dinner was en-van, breaded pork fillet with chips and salad.

Followed by strawberries and take out ice-cream from the restaurant. 'twas yummy.

Louis and I have been out in the kayak this morning and I'm going to try out my new snorkel mask this afternoon.

The snorkel worked very well, it`s one of those full face masks where you can breath normally, through nose or mouth and it doesn`t mist up.

I`m very pleased with that.

I think we may just stay here a bit longer .... ?

Hold on.... this evenings sunset

Saturday, 15 June 2019

Senj to Starigrad

Saturday 15^th June

This morning was a little cooler and some light high cloud which was a welcome relief from the heat of yesterday afternoon when it got pretty sticky with humidity.

We set off from Senj and selected the scenic coast road, rather than the faster motorway.

Heading south on the E65 it was a road of twists and turns following the rocky coast with the beautiful Adriatic Sea to out right and Croatian countryside to the left.

It must be said that the motor bikers that use this road are completely crazy. Two or three nearly came to grief overtaking in inappropriate places.

We arrived at a little village called Starigrad with a list of a few campsites to look over and select one. If none took our fancy we`d carry on towards Zadar.

The first one we stopped had a friendly receptionist who took me down to the sea front and showed me two pitches, right by the waters edge, she had me hooked immediately.

Most of the campsites in Croatia are a similar layout, a sloping site with terraces of pitches beneath pine trees, leading down to the waters edge.

We had a bad experience last year when an unidentified bird with a severe case of diarrhea, decided to use us for target practice resulting in an unholy mess.

We were a little wary, but no need, it`s a lovely place, a perfect location, five yards to the sea, so that`ll do me nicely.

Probably inflate the kayak tomorrow and go for a paddle.

Not much else to report, we`ll probably stay here a couple of nights then go into Zadar and see what`s there, then who know, we`ll see what we feel like doing then.

But it`ll probably be going onto Pag, a stick of land pointing north parallel with the mainland.

Our perfect pitch by the sea

A sunset view tonight

Todays route down the coast to Starigrad
This road may look straight, but I assure you it was anything but !

Friday, 14 June 2019

Mreznica River Waterfalls

Friday 14^th June

We had an amazing day today.

After camping at MreznicaRiver Waterfalls site in Croatia, it was a leisurely start to the day as we were already at the start and things didn't begin to happen until about 1000.

The night was peaceful, apart from a few rounds of attack helicopter gun fire into the forest across the valley. It was bass thumping stuff, you felt it in your chest and we're glad you weren't on the receiving end of it.

Thankfully it stopped about 2130.

It was a wonderful place to spend the night, Louis and took a walk down to the river to look at the falls we'd be going over. Scared or what ? I'm no Bear Grills !

We gathered at the building opposite where we'd camped and had a safety briefing, equipped with wet suit, swim shoes, helmet, life vest etc. Then descended the valley down a tough track to the river in a battered old land rover discovery.

The river was turquoise and beautifully clear.

The rock here is limestone karst.

There were only six of us on the group, a German couple, two girls from Canada backpacking who'd met a girl from the US and were travelling together. And me, making up the six.

I paired with Carmen from the US for a two man kayak.

It was brilliant adventure stuff, riding the rapids. Some we could just go down following the line of the instructors, others the instructors checked out first. About half way down we came to falls that were too high to go down in the kayak, so we got out, pushed the kayaks over, then had to jump the 5 metre down into the pool below. Brilliant stuff, I just loved it.

Lots of wildlife to be seen, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, fish (only tiddlers really) a couple if herons were watching us. No bears or wolf's were seen unfortunately.

On one of the falls I got tipped into the water, flipped out like a tag doll ! But I'm pleased to say I wasn't the only one.

It created some laughs among the others though.

The water was cold, but very refreshing on a hot day and we did have wet suits on, so all ok.

A wonderful day, one not to be forgotten, and one of the reasons I love this type of travel. Being able to seek out adventures such as this means so much to me, and I hope it can continue.

After all that adventure, we needed somewhere for the night.

I had planned on heading down to Zadar, but it was a lengthy journey, and I remembered a place we stayed last year on the coast at Senj.

It's parking right on the Adriatic so a wonderful view and a great little taverna nearby that we enjoyed last year.

So that was it, destination decided, Senj it was.

The taverna is still there and a nice sea food risotto with mixed salad was very welcome. Followed by a couple of large beers !

Overall a great day, one to live in the memory forever.

Most of the photos are video so it will take a while to edit but heres a couple of photos.