Cathy Posting

Sunday 29^th April – 30th April

We left Auto-Camp Korana this morning after some huge bacon rolls, yes, we found bacon! Nice crispy bacon too, well more like streaky pancetta but it was delicious,we had to be off camp by 11am so we parked outside their gates on the large car park and used the free wi-fi to research the next stop. We decided on an area called Starigrad, Plakenika at Camp Plantaza, it looks nice and on the beach, which is what we love, €19 per night with ACSI discount. It was a lovely drive out from the hills south and down through pleasant villages bordering on open pastures and huge lakes, the journey was partly on the A1 toll road about 40km for 28 Kuna (KN), about £3.45, these tolls are starting to add up. The road to Starigrad Plakenika cuts through the Velebit mountain range and we go through several tunnels, the longest was 5.9kms! we arrive at Camp Plantaza.

We got a spot in the trees back from but quite near to the waters edge. Dave’s normally really good at leveling the van or as I call it putting on Pogo’s platform shoes! But not today! He uses a system of wooden planks, blocks and ramps, the ramps came with the van and we’d like better ones but don’t want more expense, anyway it was all my fault in the end as I said it was nose down on both sides, but the passenger side (Pogo is left hand drive) needed to be higher, Dave said only one side needs chocking up, I insisted on both sides but at different levels, it was about 27 degrees and everyone’s watching! Let’s face it we all love watching everyone else pitch up!

The wooden plank breaks on the drivers’ side with a loud crack, then the yellow ramp on the other side makes a cracking noise!! I’m stressed as I think the van’s going to fall off! Dave gets it sorted but he’s muttering like mad, we’ve run out of supplies both food and liquid refreshments, so the bar calls for some cold beer, after we had a few gulps of the cold gold stuff we started to laugh about the last hour, I have to admit that in future I’ll tell him which way it slopes and leave him to it. I think that was our first ‘domestic’ in 5 weeks!

It was meant to be eggs on toast for tea, or Dave’s says he’s spotted spaghetti bolognese on the menu and he’s just in the mood for that, we’re not supposed to be eating out any more for a while but I feel bad after the argument so I say go for it! we were offered a free medicinal ‘shot’ made from cranberries by the bar owner, the German couple older than us on the table next to us had drunk 1 litre of wine, had their shot & then ordered another one which they wanted to pay for as they liked it so much! They announced they were going for a bike ride! I wished them luck whilst miming them falling off! They laughed heartily, maybe the ride is better when you are half cut!

We get our chairs out & go and sit at the beach watching the fisherman in their little wooden boats (like a rowing boat), white, orange and cream lights glistening on the bay and the water was so still.

Monday 30^th April 2018

Whilst I wrote the blog Dave went for a long walk along the coast path and upon his return we sat and sorted out some photos for the blogs to come.

We decided to walk along the coast to Starigrad which looks out over to the island of Pag, known for its salty cheese, we’ve tried some and it’s delicious, the walk was along pathways and, there and back was about 6kms, we’re really enjoying our daily walks.

We bought some local potatoes and some local wine ‘Grasevina’, I googled it and found it’s a Riesling grown in Croatia, we both like Riesling so hopefully it will be nice, 29 KN for a litre £3.24!

We sat outside in the evening drinking the wine which was lovely noting to ourselves to buy some more at that price and stash it in Pogos wine cellar, we both love tuna nicoise salad with the lovely potatoes which are the best we’ve tasted in years!! I love to make nice salads and this one was tasty using Asparagus instead of green beans.

Cathy