And so…having dropped a few of the Montenegro gang at the airport we continued on to a campsite about 5miles outside Dubrovnik. After a few days in a deluxe villa it was a bit of a sharp thump back to reality to be back having to wear shoes in the shower and remembering to bring the toilet paper with you to the loo block! The campsite was a short walk to a few local beaches and we spent two days getting to know them. It was a slightly strange place. While along the route so far we have seen many signs of the economy and an abundance of empty buildings this was very different. All around these beaches were the signs of the effect the war in the 1990’s had had – a mixture of both shell/missile damage and the obvious downturn in tourism of this time. There were derelict and crumbling hotels and buildings everywhere. While terribly sad – and a little spooky – everyone else was just getting on with pretending they were not there and this was a normal resort….so we did our best to ignore it and enjoyed the view looking out to sea instead!

For our final two days in Croatia we rented a room in Dubrovnik town for two nights. Even though only a few miles down the road the outlook was very different with no sign of any of the troubles at all. I had been to Dubrovnik before around 10years ago and while not a lot has changed it reminded me how great a place it was. We had a great balcony with our room to enjoy the stunning scenery and we had a wonderful day walking round the old town city walls and the back streets of the pretty town. We went to a bar called ‘the hole in the wall’ recommended by Emma, a friend of mine, and while it is meant to be a secret with just a small gap in the city walls to a bar clinging on to the rocks….it was all we could hear from other tourists also trying to find it. It was, however, beautiful and what a breathtaking view.

Before we knew it was time to get ready for our final ferry journey of the trip from Dubrovnik up to Rijeka, north Croatia. We were sad to have to leave so soon and we have agreed that we we definitely come back to Croatia one day – we didn’t have the time to do Island hoping up the coast which is something to put on the to do list of the future as the ferry trip showed us even more of what Croatia has to offer – sometimes the islands on the horizon made it feel like you were floating on clouds and the water is the bluest of blues…stop daydreaming…back to the ferry.

Our ferry was just about holding itself together – the shower was in some part of the engine bay – but it was smooth and we had a bed so we survived the 24 hour trip arriving in North Croatia on Friday morning. We headed straight back on the road in the direction of Hungary….reading the guide book it says – the language is impossible, they eat a LOT of meat and sometimes when it is foggy they only let cars with odd numbers in their number plate into the capital……sounds like another adventure is on the horizon!