We try never to drive when it’s dark, raining or windy, so when we woke up to a clear blue sky without wind (there’ve been a few gales over the past few days and nights) we were delighted..  Additionally, since the clocks went back at the end of March, the sun rising earlier enabled us to set off by 9am for our new location and campsite.

I took photos of the bay, waved good bye to the seagulls, photos of getting ready to leave; there are still empty pitches all around us.  Having been away now for seven months, we were even more relaxed and working better than ever together as a team.  Any teething issues we may have had are long gone behind us.

The pictures above shows when the car is towing the caravan, it’s quite a total length to manoeuvre – some 13 metres.  Not having towed for a while, in fact since we arrived only 5 miles which was from Split ferry to the campsite, Steve was a little nervous but I was at hand with my half of the walkie set walking behind the unit all through the campsite to the exit. One of the benefits of having a caravan, rather than a motorhome, is that we have a car to tour around in and can leave the caravan in situ. As he turned left out of our avenue I continued to walk behind watching the rear of the caravan keeping a commentary going on how clear he was either side at the back.  Because the caravan’s wheels are central to the unit, as it turns a corner there can be quite a swing out of the back of the caravan which can be a disconcerting to the driver as he has no idea what’s happening rear end. We’ve left plants and cacti in our wake, but luckily no destroyed walls. Driving incredibly slowly so I could keep up and without incident we made the exit, said goodbye to the security staff, who looked after us so well, and I returned a virtual hug to Ane in reception. The first turn out of the campsite is a right hair pin bend with no chance of either of us seeing what’s coming, so walkie talkie in hand I crossed the road for maximum visibility, seeing nothing coming I gave Steve the thumbs up sign. There was no response of moving from Steve, apparently he couldn’t tell the difference between my thumbs up and stop hand signs, so I changed to enthusiastic semaphore, both of us forgetting we could have communication via walkie talkie. He made the exist safely, pulled in for me to jump in (I managed a slow ascent) and off we went on our next adventure.

Normally, when Steve is driving – remember the Poacher doesn’t have any windows to see oncoming traffic out of other than the windscreen and our windows – as he’s a right hand side driver (think blindfold challenge), it’s my job at junctions to stick my head out of my window, look for a long enough gap between oncoming cars and yell out ‘GO’. I breath a sigh of relief each time there is enough space for him to complete the turn to join a new road without the traffic behind us either having to carry out emergency brake exercises or indeed slamming into us.  If you remember, the Poacher has the acceleration of a skip and turning circle of a football pitch.  No pressure for me!   

At the first traffic light junction, with the mountains ahead of us, we took the motorway route sign posted to Dubrovnik, identical to when we went to Ploce.  Steve asked if I had all our passports. I said that I had.  Ours were in my bag, where they’ve been since we’ve been travelling.  He asked if I had Stella’s too and I replied I had that one as well.  I didn’t share with him that I remembered hers was in the caravan, not my handbag but as we were early into the drive, I made the decision I would sort that out if and when I had to.

With Split now behind us we drove past Klis seeing it from the front, the side and behind.  No matter how many times we see it, and it’s pretty hard not to now we know where it is, we’re blown away with how impressive this fortress is.

The temperature was already reaching 17 by 10am and I thought I’d activate the air conditioning. The Poacher has an activation lever either side, so both Pilot and Co-pilot can have their own setting just like any modern car.

When I got even hotter I activated the air conditioning booster. This is the sliding window – again we each have our own and when successfully balance can sometimes create quite a draught.

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The roads as usual were pretty empty, which hugely contributed to my confidence of sticking my head out of my window, holding flyaway hair from my eyes yelling out ‘go’ for any of Steve’s turns to join various roads and motorways.

Entering the Biokovo national park I looked for the howling wolf sign, I can’t believe Steve mistook it for a crawling bear.  As always watching anything for a second time there were new things to see along the route framed by the stunning mountain ranges. Eventually we saw a ‘beware of the animal’ sign.

Finally, we see a beware of an animal sign and we both laugh.  It has both a bear and a wolf on it!  Imagine our surprise to see both animals were on there and neither of us was mistaken in what we saw. Looking at the picture reminds me we must clean the wind screen. If you are eagle eyed, you can just about make out my note book on my lap.

I check the speed we’re doing which can be anything up to 70 kph (but not often); towing a caravan has a maximum limit of 90kph.  Even without towing the caravan it’s unlikely we’d speed or get a ticket, but if we did it would definitely be a badge of honour which we would post in every Defender Group on Face Book. As we journeyed through the park the double animal sign eventually changed to just Wolf and then we saw a superfluous traffic sign.

We have a radio fitted in the car, but the car is too noisy to hear it, and for the same reason our conversation is not continuous.  On a regular basis we speak to friends, mutual and otherwise, and we always seem to have something to chat about.  We’ve decided life is not always about us.  When we speak to friends about their prospective travel plans or adventures, if they are exciting enough, we share them with other friends, keeping conversation alive and varied, rather than repetitive which everyone experiences through lock down. The armchair travelling ‘where I would go if I could’ has become a new topic of interest.

The temperature continued to creep up and the sky continued to be blue without a cloud to be seen. Steve remarked that we were passing over the Cetina Gorge, for a change having listened the first time, I told him he said that last time on our trip to Ploce.

Around mid-day we saw in the distance the new Pelješac Bridge, not far off completion, which will provide a road connection between south Dalmatia – the southernmost part of Adriatic Croatia , where Dubrovnik is located – and the north of the country. We’d seen it in the distance before when visiting the Pelješac peninsula but this was the first time I could take reasonable photos.

Finally, without warning, we were at the Bosnia Boarder and it was more or less show your passports, have them electronically recorded and drive through.  We’d been told it was a ‘soft border’ but hadn’t wanted to take the chance on our trip to Ston. It was all so quick, I missed the opportunity to take a photo of the ‘You are now in Bosnia’ sign (like Phil and Andrea did), but I did get one at passport control and of Neum as we flew by.

It took barely 16 minutes to drive across Bosnia following the coast. As soon as we were back in Croatia we recognised the Ston Walls from a distance to our right (they look really high from this view point – can’t believe we walked them) with the sea dotted with oyster and mussel farms.  We recognised so much of what we had already explored and experienced that can’t wait to visit more Croatian islands.

Approaching Dubrovnik with it’s impressive Franjo Tuđman Bridge, carrying the D8 state road at the western approach to Dubrovnik, Steve concentrated looking forward, without temptation to glance either side, as if wearing horse blinkers, and I took in the views. He hasn’t gotten over his fear of heights yet, but is much better at controlling it.

We pass by Dubrovnik and enter passport control to leave Croatia.  Straight through, again showing our passports and having them electronically scanned.  Steve asked for them to be stamped so we wouldn’t have a problem counting our ‘in’ and ’out’ days of Schengen, EU and non EU.  Personally I think there should be a universal hokey kokey sign. We thought, although a cursory inspection of the caravan was required by a bored policeman, that was easy, didn’t expect that. Then as we set off we realised there was another boarder control this time to enter Montenegro.  They wanted lots of paperwork and me being me had it all ready in chronological and alphabetical order and Steve had all of the Poacher and caravan documents in a waterproof box (the Poacher leaks!).  They asked if we’d had PCR tests to which we replied that we hand’t and before the words left our mouths the guard waived us to turn around back into Croatia.  Hang on a minute we thought.  Hang on a minute we said out loud and Steve took over.  All we had to do was to prove that we’d been in Croatia (green) for over 15 days and there was then no need for PCRs.  Doddle, again we had all our campsite receipts to hand (chronological).  All we needed to do was buy on the spot insurance and reclaim our passports to continue.  Phew, we wiped our brows, and by now it was even hotter. I’d maximised the air conditioning and booster controls. All that was left was to do an impression from one of my favourite scenes from Priscilla Queen of the Desert – but my wardrobe let me down.

Crossing proper into Montenegro we made our way to our campsite Naluka.  It’s much smaller than I thought, but it’s on The Bay of Kotor. 

You should have seen Steve’s eyes, wide as saucers, when he realised our pitch was on the river and he could moor our inflatable dingy Teddy behind the caravan.  The campsite owner told us because the temperature of the water in the river is quite cold we should be free of mosquitos.  Steve did his little boy shuffle.  I knew exactly what it signalled.  I told him if he sorted out the caravan with services, electricity and water, he could go inflate his boat and play with his big boy toys.  We continued to set up without any rush, what was there to rush for and having been told there’s a little pizza place down the road, knew where we were going for dinner.

The little pizza place turned out to be Tramontana Beach Bar (Restaurant Tramuntana (restaurant-tramuntana.com)) each Bar quite funky, great music and terrific food, although the pizza was good, not quite as good as the one in Omis.  It had been a long day and we needed to charge up energy and alcohol levels but not be greedy so we shared a pancake with chocolate.  It just had to be done.

To finish the evening we had a photo competition. We’re are both competitive so please be kind.

Our caravan is on the Bay of Kotor, we have a private terrace, Steve can fish and we can take the boat out from our mooring. Hmmm, we’ll have to spend a few more days here, explore a little, walk a little and fill more empty wine bottles with memories.