August in Croatia

This month of August is very hot in Europe, so we will not be dancing much tango. Instead, we have opted to try something totally out of our comfort zone. We rented a campervan for about three weeks to explore the beaches of Croatia.

Now, we have been camping in Croatia for two weeks. This beautiful country has a rocky coastline, accessible beaches, and lots of antiquities.

We arrived in Split and decided to travel to the north as we wanted to avoid the whole busy tourist scene in Dubrovnik and, to a lesser extent, Split. When we depart the country from Split, we’ll spend time exploring there before we leave at the end of the month

Maximo is enjoying driving here as the roads are narrow but in fairly good condition. It only gets a bit scary when we go down these somewhat winding smaller lanes to the campsites driving this very long van.

One afternoon, we took a cab to see the old city of Zadar. Beautiful old city filled with many buildings that have been partially reconstructed as much of this country was bombed or partially damaged in not only WWII but the War of Independence, too

After spending 3 days in Drage, we left the camp, but I forgot to check my calendar and realized it was Saturday, not Sunday. LOL.

Luckily, our next pitch at Camp Dreizca on the island of Pag was very accommodating for the extra night. This island is reached by a bridge on the southern end. Visually, it is a giant rock-strewn island with not much soil and not much other vegetation. Arriving a day early, the manager was very accommodating and found us a site next door to the camp in the manager’s backyard with a power hook-up, and the next morning we would move to the site we rented for three days.

This camp is a bit off the beaten track, down a steep hill with many curves, but it has a small hotel with a great restaurant.

In the afternoons, we tend to hide from the afternoon sun by sipping homemade lemonade on the deck for a few hours. The staff at the restaurant are very sweet and kind. They are mostly university students working summer jobs supervised by the hostess.

Here at the camp, the pitches are located on small terraces up on a hillside, we are in a spot that might be a bit of a challenge to turn around tomorrow, but hey that’s tomorrow.

The Adriatic Sea I have learned does not have much of a tide as the opening to the Mediterranean is rather narrow. This is great as we swim mostly in small coves. The beaches here are always rocky from small to large craggy stone, with no sand. We bought water shoes as they make getting into the water much easier. And of course, I bought a foam noodle to float with, as I am not much of a swimmer, only a floater.

Here, as the weather gets warm by 10, I seem to rise daily at 7 or 8 while Maximo continues to sleep. I am discovering that I need less sleep as I seem to nap most afternoons. The heat makes me sleepy.

Then, when Maximo rises, he makes the morning coffee on the campervan’s propane stove. We bought him a beautiful steel expresó maker in Barcelona, which is his pride and joy. He thoroughly enjoys this morning’s process. We eat breakfast in our bathing suits sitting in these camp chairs with our small folding table.

Fresh bread and cheese, salami with lots of local fruits, as at this campsite a truck comes with fresh fruits every couple of days.
Freshly baked bread is delivered every other day too.

I think if we stayed at any campsite for over a week, I would lose my ability to think… as life becomes so simple. It’s hot. Go to the water for a swim. I’m hungry. Open the fridge. I’m tired, go to bed.

But for good or bad we have great wifi in all our campgrounds. So we both receive our email and look at the world from a distance.

Another day, our adventure was going to the closest town to buy a beach umbrella as we came to learn that many places do not have trees to provide shade.

Pag is a bit different as it is a larger island, mostly rocky, unfarmable land with lots of these stone walls called “suhozid” or “gromače”. And the special thing about them is the fact they are handmade without mortar to hold the stones in place. Instead, they were stacked stone by stone to fit like puzzle pieces. The technique is thousands of years old.

On the ride back to camp, I noticed more of those amazing stone walls when looking out the campervan’s windows.

As Wikipedia states
From the very old piles of rocks to the very modern straight walls. These walls were used to protect the sheep from the elements. The sheep are key in making the cheese that is famous from Pag Island.

We successfully found a store bought an umbrella and a few other things we needed and had breakfast at a beachside restaurant. Our young waiter, while hung over and serving us breakfast, was very attentive and pretty entertaining.

We leave the island of Pag for another island called Krk tomorrow. To get there, we use the ferry from a small town, Zigljen, and travel to the mainland, which takes 20 minutes to cross and about 3 hours of driving.

On Krk I had booked us into a hotel to get a break from the campervan. But the gods were laughing as there was not a parking space big enough for the campervan. The hotel staff was very accommodating in letting us cancel the room in favor of another camp pitch.

Yes, we found a place for 3 days right next to the old town of Khk. Instead of being intimate, this place was a huge camp city.

Again, I had a learning curve in play, as I figured out the types of camps we liked and the experiences we wanted. There is a huge variety of camps too as they range from a primitive campsite to a 4-star luxury campsite.

I think we are one of the few folks who have not pre-booked our entire adventure. I usually look for the next site once we are on a new site. 

Unfortunately, the only space available was a sunny spot.

This camp is part of the chain called Valomar, we ended up at a site called Jezevac.
Our site, while close to the showers and a food restaurant area, and within walking distance of lovely beaches was totally sunny.

With the weather bordering on 95 degrees, we did our best to hide from the afternoon heat and chased the shade by moving the table and chairs around in the shadow of the van.

Every day, around [5pm] 17 hours, it is our time to go to the beach for a float. We will spend an hour floating on the water, enjoying the coolness of the Adriatic. This will be our way for 3 more days.

We do get to explore the old city of Hkh which was closeby. One evening, there was a concert and fireworks which we watched from the comfort of a front row couch at a waterfront restaurant.

We find that most people will respond if you say Hola to them. They will respond in their language. We have learned to differentiate Croatian from German, lots of Italian and French. Many folks speak some form of English, too.

There are many types of people and types of campervans, small RVs, and lots of tents in most campgrounds. The car camper crowd has boxes on the roofs of their cars to hold all the stuff necessary to spend the night in your tent in a campground. While the small RV crowd opens their extra storage spaces that hold rugs for the floor, drying racks for bathing suits, lounge chairs, and small cabinets that can hold a whole barbecue or cooktop.

Yes, we are learning it takes time to perfect your setup.

As we near the end of the second week of camping, we are on the Istrian Península, just outside the charming city of Rovinj. We adore this place as the small city reminds us of places we have stayed in Turkey.

We continue our daily habits of rising early. Maximo is in charge of the coffee making and breakfast. Then, after showering in the campground facility, which is kept spotless, we figure out what day the adventure will be.  A boat ride, a bus trip to another city, or just hanging out chasing the shade.

As we are traveling Croatia for another week, we will visit and stay inland next week at a Krka National forest as it has waterfalls.

This is a beautiful, very safe country filled with many unique spots to visit, from the Adriatic Sea to the coastline filled with many ferry-served islands that range in size from small to very large. The landscape ranges from vast nothingness but rocks to a tree-filled paradise, and we are thoroughly enjoying our adventures.

And maybe next time we hire a boat instead of a van as we now know we are good at living in small spaces.

Abrazo y besos