Croatia (and on the way) - April 2010
Off we go !
(Checkout our rather convoluted route map at end of post!)
We are having our first big adventure with our new Motorhome we left the UK on the 8am ferry, making our way to Homp (France) where our good friend Jane lives. We decided to use the motorway to Fontainebleau which although costing 31 Euros does save any hassle driving around Paris.
Nonville
We found a France Passion Site near Nonville, after a bit of searching we discovered it was a patch of grass outside some large stables. There were not any amenities but as we had lots of water etc this was not a problem. We had a cuppa and decided to go for a walk to stretch our legs, it was late afternoon and we saw a beautiful sunset. We had been to a supermarket before we stopped and we had bought some salad, carrot rappee/celeriac /spicy cous cous in tubs, I would never do this in the UK but in France they taste so good, so with some salad leaves, Salmon Terrine and French bread we had a nice easy supper, and early night.
St Pourcain sur-sioule
We set off the next day towards Nevers on the A.77 avoiding the toll roads, and discovered a really nice Aire at St. Pourcain sur-sioule, we almost went to the municipal campsite, but realised the Aire was on the right by the post office and in a lovely spot by the river.
We arrived quite early so we decided to go cycling by the river it was lovely and warm and felt good to have some exercise. We arrived back at the Aire to discover some great big Motorhome was trying to squeeze in next to our little van, at one point I could not look as he was only about 2 inches away, so Es got off his bike and went and stood beside our van, he got the hint and drove off, much to the relief of the other Motorhome on the other side of us, as he also got really close to them trying to squeeze in.
It is only polite to leave a comfortable space between vans. This practice used to annoy us at first as we thought if only they had moved up a bit we could squeeze our little van in between, but we now realise everyone needs at least 6 foot between vans.
There was plenty of space on the other side of the path for vans to park, but I guess he wanted a river view. I decided to make dinner although we were in a nice town and could have eaten out, we do this very rarely now, so we had another salad with Mash (lambs lettuce) and bacon lardons cooked with onion, garlic and tomatoes and some leftover cooked potatoes I brought from home. It was really tasty washed down with a nice glass or Red. We ate outside and the ducks became quite interested so we found them some stale bread which they seemed to enjoy.
We had a walk around St. Pourcain which is a lovely old town. The next day we found ourselves on one of our favourite roads in France the A.75 towards Montpellier, it has lovely old towns on route, we went to St. Flour which although is up a very steep hill, the views are magnificent. The tourist office has lots of useful literature about medieval towns on route. We also went over the famous Millau Bridge. You can park on the bridge we went to one of the viewing spots where you can see for miles in all directions.
Homp
We finally arrived in Homp early evening, and stayed a few days with Jane going on walks in the mountains nearby, we also love to cycle along the towpath near her house beside the canal du midi. The local market in Olonozac on a Tuesday is a highlight, a chance for all the locals French and English to catch up on local gossip. They have wonderful fresh fruit/vegetables, local cheeses/hams.
Toulouse
We left Jane’s on Wednesday to go and see cousins Jill & Andy who live in a beautiful house in the Pyrenees north west of Toulouse. On the way down we stayed at an Aire in Cadours which is beside a Rugby pitch, as we started to cook dinner we saw lots of cars arrive with burly rugby player’s, we enjoyed watching them play as we ate dinner. We eventually arrived at Jill & Andy’s the next day in time for Lunch, and stayed with them the night parking on their front lawn. To complete our French trip we headed north to Esmond's sister who lives near Chef Boutonne in Poitou Charente region. Rel and John have lived in France for about 6 years now, they have made lots of French and English friends and speak French almost fluently now. They also have a Motorhome and we have been on a couple of trips with them. After staying a couple of days we eventually started our adventure to Croatia.
Rhone Alps
We drove towards the Rhone Alps and found a France Passion site on a bison farm. The next day the rain started and unfortunately it carried on raining for the next few days, so our drive through Italy was not as pleasant as we had hoped.
Turin
We found an Aire near the centre of Turin, but did not explore the city because of the weather; we will definitely go back, as after driving through the old historic centre courtesy of the SatNav Turin looks amazing. We spent another miserable day driving through thunderstorms and heavy rain, the weather was so bad we drove past Lake Garda ending up in Venice at an expensive campsite.
Venice
The rain stopped for a few hours, and we found the site had washing machines and tumble dryers, so we decided to wash some clothes and bedding, we have been to Venice before and we did not feel the need to go sightseeing. After cooking some pasta we had an early night.
The next morning there was some sunshine, so we had breakfast outside and watched the other campers, going about their daily chores, always fascinating to watch other people, one group particularly caught our attention, a caravan was being towed by a big 4x4, escorted to the fresh water area by two glamorous girls walking ahead in their shorts with long legs, short tops both perfectly made up at 8.30 am, I noticed other camper’s discreetly looking at this spectacle, when they arrived at the service point area, the girls helped so the caravan was in the correct position, out came the suave driver with his crisp white shirt, sunglasses and shiny boots, the girls leaned against the bonnet of the car chatting and tossing their heads provocatively, we managed to go and make coffee, in time to see the caravan come back past us with the girls walking ahead again, smiling at the other campers as they walked past. With the morning show over we packed up and left.
Slovenia/Croatia
We made good time driving out of Italy and into Slovenia where we immediately noticed the road system was different, we drove into Croatia without noticing any borders and arrived in Porec where we found a large car park at the top of the town and seeing a large Motorhome parked there we decided to go and park nearby. We had a cuppa and within 10 minutes a VW campervan parked next to us, so feeling happier about leaving our van, we took our camera and went off to explore.
The first thing we had to do was get some cash out, luckily the town was only a few minute’s walk downhill from the car park, we got out some Kuna and found an internet cafe to do a bit of research about the area, we also discovered that the Kuna was worth 8 to the £1. Everyone seemed very friendly, we noticed a couple of restaurants, roasting suckling pig over a fire. There are so many National Parks in Croatia; it is hard to decide where to visit first.
Porec and Senj
We survived our night in the car park at Porec, we did not even have to pay, we decided to head towards Senj, where there was a great Aire near the sea.
Sitting outside in the evening we watched the locals promenade by the sea, sneaking a peek in our van, we nodded and smiled and said Dobar dan . We went shopping the next day in the local supermarket and bought lovely fresh salad, the lettuce especially had real flavour and much cheaper than anywhere else in Europe.
Plitvice Jezra
We decided to go to Plitvice Jezra National park nearby and drove inland, we noticed some old ladies selling honey on the roadside and stopped and bought a jar. We found a lovely campsite near the national park called Autocamp Korana, we discovered we would have got a discount if we had the ACIS camping card. The campsite was very well run and it had a bus to take you to the National Park so we bought our tickets for the next morning.
The amazing waterfalls at Plitvice Lakes National Park
We spent the whole day walking around the park and saw lots of wild life and amazing views. We saw a brightly coloured Lizard and lots of fish in the clear waters. There were lots of tracks to follow and we walked for over an hour without seeing anyone else.
We got back to the campsite about 5pm and collapsed for about an hour before cooking some supper and relaxing with a book.
The next day we decided to head north into Slovenia and went to the capital Llubjana, what a beautiful city. We found a nice campsite and even had time to get the bus into town, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out and found a nice restaurant where we had the local speciality with a nice glass or Red wine. It is a really young town with lots of students and colourful shops selling some great clothes.
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