From Peljesac, peninsular to Dubrovnik, Croatia

Saturday 5th June

Woke up to a lovely sunny and hot day, with thoughts of finding a lovely cheap beach campsite to relax on. While we making toast these plans took a turn for the worse, as the gas ran out! We didn’t have a spare full bottle as the other one we hadn’t been able to get refilled. Instead of heading back up the coast to Metkovic where we knew we could get this bottle refilled, we instead had the plan to head further up the peninsula (which is almost like an island in itself but has it’s end connected to the mainland!) to the larger town of Orebic to see if we could get it refilled there. I know already sounds like a daft plan, doesn’t it?

Well off we went along the road through the middle of Peljesac, which was beautiful, through vineyards and hills and up into mountains with glimpses of the sparkling sea. I can see why maybe people head to the Croatian islands, we had already seen that the further south we went the more beautiful Croatia was, but here it was stunning. Well anyway after a long and slow journey, due to being stuck on the narrow roads behind a lorry, we were at the garage we had been told might be able to refill the gas bottle. The bloke said he could fill it if we had the adaptor?… well of course we didn’t! Doh. So we asked if we could just buy a Croatian gas bottle, he said no, he only exchanged bottles and pointed us back halfway down the island where we could maybe buy one. So off we headed, happy in the fact that the weather was gorgeous and so was this bit of Croatia and we were sat driving around! At the other garage the friendly bloke told us, yes we could buy a Croatian gas bottle, but we wouldn’t want to, as they worked out to be about £50! At this point with time and fuel wasted we set off back down the peninsular, back onto the main island and headed north up the coast back to Metkovic. In the back of our minds hoping, as it was now Saturday afternoon and this place was part of the actual gas company works, they weren’t closed. We arrived though and successfully had our one gas bottle refilled, for a good cheap price. So then headed back down south and back to the peninsular to find a nice campsite. We had too drive back through the small part of Bosnia on the coast on the way up and were now, about one hour later, driving back down through it. Not surprisingly at the checkpoint we were asked a few questions about where we were going and then waved on.

Back on the beautiful peninsula we headed back up and to a campsite on the edge of a small town called Trpanj. We pulled up to a lovely bay with hills in the background and a semi wild and wonderfully spaced out campsite right on the edge of the bay. We settled down on a great spot overlooking the bay and set up camp.

No sooner as we had set up, when the older group of people, who I think had been enjoying the odd drink in the sun, called us over to join them for a drink. We duly accepted and started drinking local Croatian Rajki and chatting with the group from Germany and Austria. Lorna didn’t really like the taste of this homebrew brandy, but I found if you knock it back in one it wasn’t too bad, just warming! Well by the time we left to go and make some food as it had gone dark, they had poured me a fair few and I was probably a little tipsy! They had also told us in broken English about these wild mini wolves that live in the hills behind, we would hear in the night and not to leave our shoes outside or they might be gone! Well later that night we heard many strange childlike howling coming from the hills behind. Later we discovered that they were packs of Jackals that lived wild in the hills, but the howling they made although strange was captivating to listen to.

Monday 6th June

The sun was out and the weather hot, so we relaxed by the motorhome overlooking the bay. In the afternoon we managed to even get the kayaks out to have an adventure around the bay.

It was a great location and a great little campsite, but as it was a campsite and as such costing us money to stay we knew we would have to leave tomorrow.

Monday 7th June

Today we decided to leave our little lovely campsite right on the bay and head to Dubrovnik. The sun was out again and it was very hot, so we very slowly got ourselves packed up and left around midday. It was a shame to be leaving such a nice spot, but as nice as it was everyday was costing us. We drove back off the peninsula of Peljesac and headed back down Croatia’s coastal road, overlooking the sea and the many islands. The south of the country, from below Split, is very beautiful and the sea always looks so inviting.

We got to the old walled sea town of Dubrovnik and went in search of a campsite further south of the town. The one claiming to be in Dubrovnik was very expensive, yet about 6 kilometres down the road we knew there were cheaper options and we could always get public transport in. Driving past the town from the high road, we had a great view of the walled town on the sea and in the sun. After a few tries and a pretty unsuccessful stop at a supermarket, we found a small well-priced campsite called Kate. Run by a nice guy who is ecologically minded, meaning he does recycling among other things!

The sun was still blazing down, so we relaxed about and slowly got ready to head into Dubrovnik. We were told it was better later in the day and at night, as the cruise ships had all gone by then. We eventually got ourselves going and hopped on the bus into town. The bus doesn’t go straight to the old town mind and we got off a bit to far down , so had to find our way back to the old town. The rest of the town is built on the hill surrounding the old walled area and until we got down to the old towns level, we couldn’t actually see it! While wondering around we met a local lady who was walking home with her shopping. She spoke a small bit of English, apparently from her elementary school days, and informed us of the way.

We soon arrived at the walls of the old city and passed in through the Pile gate, to be greeted by a long wide marbled street running through the centre ending at a clock tower on the other side.

No sooner had we walked in mind we had people touting us to come and eat at their restaurant. The old town is full of small and street side restaurants and everywhere we walked we had people asking us to come and sit and eat, it makes walking around the old streets annoying! Still the old town is beautiful to amble around, through the narrow side streets into squares and over to the small port. I think though we were becoming rather too blasé about places. As we have now seen so many wonderful and beautiful old towns on our journey, I don’t think they have the same awe about them that knocks you back. Don’t get me wrong we still think they are beautiful and it’s a pleasure walking around them especially Dubrovnik.

Maybe it’s because they are not really living towns, they are just tourist shells, full of tourist shops selling the same stuff. There are no little surprises of places, or maybe we were just tired and hungry so not appreciating it fully. On that note we went and found somewhere to eat and have a beer. After we had a pleasant walk around the city and harbour at night, something we wanted to do in a few cities and towns but hardly have.