Month: September 2022

11
Sep
2022

Going for the long drive …

My alternative to travelling half of the distance to my next destination on Friday night, was to aim to set off at 5am this morning, and do the journey all in one go, with the idea that traffic would not have built up. I also decided to take a risk and actually take a cross-country stretch not on the motorway, rather than go out of my way around Zagreb, repeating the outward journey. This would mean that I would do the border crossing on a lesser road so I figured there would be less queues.

I did apologise in advance to my immediate neighbours about the to be sound of the diesel engine and van maneouverings off the pitch the following morning, and I did make an exit by 5:15 in the dark, fingers crossed that nothing was left behind.

The journey up through Croatia was great, and I was again struck by the significant mountains, hills and uplands. Some glimpses of the coastline looked similar to pictures of fyord coasts, with mountains going down to the sea. There are many beautiful national parks with lakes, and rivers to visit as well as the Istrian coast, Dubrovnik further south, and islands up and down the coast, so a repeat visit is definitely needed.

Plaudits must be given to my companion on this trip – the fabulous catalogue of the one and only Stevie Wonder. He and I belted out all the well-known classics, but what about ones like “I ain’t gonna stand for it baby” and “one more time, one more time – For Your Love”. I know my fellow fans will recall these instantly :).

The risks of ending up going on single-track roads with hairpin bends up mountains given my lack of a detailed map didn’t materialise, as I cut a corner off from near Karlovac in Croatia to Slovenia’s Ljubliana. This route confirmed the many reviews I had read about the landscapes of Slovenia. The sun was shining, but notwithstanding it was really beautiful, and I was so glad that I hadn’t stuck to the motorway.

These were the roads
through this type of countryside

The roads were great, but it does help when stopping to check two satnavs and the map, to be sure of the road you’re actually on, rather than the one you’d planned and had assumed you were on! I actually took road numbered ‘3’ crossing the border at Vinica rather than the planned ‘6’, which explained my continuing confusion as I failed to understand what was going on. Blame it on tiredness rather than plain inability or ageing. It was only when I arrived that I deduced exactly what had happened; in effect the roads were pretty parallel and similar distances so I don’t think I did unnecessary miles. However, due to the number of times I ended up stopping on the journey for various reasons including these, I didn’t take enough photos of this route.

The plan variation worked thankfully. The long drive was done on pretty empty, stress-free roads, at 58mph for the motorways, and despite knowing that I had just reached the end of my willingness and capability to drive further, my arrival early afternoon nick of time was accompanied by excitement at the new place.

Posted by admin in Musings, The Good
11
Sep
2022

Rest in Peace HRH Queen Elizabeth

Conspicuous by its absence, I am putting right the recording of this event. It was not a case of deliberate omission and I happened to be listening to R4 when the news of her death was announced. It did cause an emotional response from me because of the weight of the significance of this passing for the UK, her family and for my own lifespan.

I’m not a royalist, but I acknowledge the service that she has given so steadfastly and intentionally it seems to me, despite how difficult this role, and the other ‘royal’ mantles, must be for anyone.

I feel the UK, and the world in fact, is up ….. creek without a paddle in this period, and she was a steady rock in such turbulent times. But in my opinion, Charles will be a good, perhaps needed ‘continuity’ figure and I am glad that someone with his such longstanding views that he has seen ft to share on the needs of our planet and the damage we are doing to it, is now in that role.

This cartoon, from the Guardian newspaper sent to me by a friend, is a good one for me.

Posted by admin in Events, Musings
10
Sep
2022

Experiment over for now

My poor ankles and feet were swelling from sitting at my computer in that heat, and trying to get them raised just added to the twisted position I had had to adopt, given the best layout of my kit. I had to sit-on a quadruple-folder thick towel in my swimming attire, and even ended up abandoning the decorum of the tee-shirt. Whilst the bottom half of my body could not be seen, and even though I had disguised my campervan office with an MS Teams background, when there were no more formal meetings, I had thrown caution to the wind removing the tee-shirt and who cares if I’m sitting there in a tankini top. I had thought I was safe with this, but it did cause the retired house-husband and acting butler of my colleague, with whom I am regularly MS-Teaming – the colleague not her butler – in the first instance to suddenly avert his eyes/nay presence when he caught a glimpse of me on the screen, to then deciding if you can’t beat then join and suggesting that he should take his top off when delivering the cups of tea/coffee.

Well, I worked the full 5 days this week but am not working next week so that I can be un-pressured in the long journey back.

The map told me that I shouldn’t do a stay at Lake Garda, as there were other places to visit on this trip as part of a more direct route home. My first main destination was approx 350 miles, so I was going to set off Friday after work and stop over at the campsite on the Mreznicki river again, thereby being able to leave early for Slovenia on Saturday morning and beat the border queues for the stamp in my passport.

No sooner had I made these plans literally yesterday, than a rare, in fact pretty (not a comment on how they looked 😄) non-existent, fellow sole traveller female from Germany invited me to join her for a restaurant meal in the evening. The restaurant meal would be the first such on this trip, and Claudia seemed nice based on one little conversation where I told her that the pitch opposite was better for the shade. Plus I do try to be open to unexpected opportunities…. but my journeying plans would need to adapt.

We spent a lovely evening together – although I was significantly germanly-challenged, as she didn’t speak too much English. And thank you my brain for presenting me today, having singularly failed me yesterday, with the words I wanted to say such as ’empfehlen’ – to recommend – as our conversation ranged across divorce – she similarly is, and has 3 adult children – 2 sons and a daughter, our jobs and trying to explain mine!!!. She is a physiotherapist and part of her work is therapy through horse-riding – she has a very gentle, aged ‘therapy horse’, lives in Villach, Austria. This was her first trip alone in the campervan she and her daughter own, and from today she is spending a week sailing round the islands with 4 other sole individuals from all over Germany, leaving her van at Trogir marina. I haven’t described all of this to underline the depth of the linguistic challenge in exchanging all this information, but more to record another interesting set of stories from random meetings.

Posted by admin in Meetings - the non-work sort, Musings
08
Sep
2022

Digital Nomadery & Trogir

3 days work has been completed from the inside of my over-heated metal box, given temperatures of late 20s to 30 degrees outside. I have taken the suggestion of a friend to do some paddle-boarding before! work given that we are an hour ahead of the UK, the sea is beautiful and calm and the beaches empty, so no-one needs to see my unsteady attempts to do the stand-up thing rather than reverting to kayak mode.

I have also taken the opportunity of cooling off at lunchtime by diving off the rocks at the beach, spending 20 minutes or so there, before returning back to my desk.

After work yesterday I cycled to Trogir and the medieval walled centre was worth the visit. Full of restaurants and cafes in amongst the narrow little streets, and very slippy, shiny paving stones, worn down by so many feet over the years.

It is a beautiful spot, and the weather is perfect for being outside, but working?…. As this same friend commented about possible difficulties with focussing on work from such a holiday setting, tbh I am finding combining the two abit of a challenge. I can focus on the work, it’s more the fact that I can’t enjoy this location in the way I thought I would be able to. Consequently I am now contemplating heading home sooner than I had intended. My next task will be to decide on the route back, whether I will stay somewhere halfway for a few days, and to not combine work with driving slowly but surely north. Fortunately the project I am contracted to is in a bit of a waiting for decisions from elsewhere phase, so deadlines are not in place. From the employer’s perspective, if I don’t work, they don’t pay me, so given these two factors, I have flexibility.

Posted by admin in Croatia, Musings
04
Sep
2022

Labadusa/Duga Beaches via SUP Board

I must recommend my new toy and the beaches and inlets round this spot are perfect for it. It is a 500m walk from my pitch which doesn’t seem far, but it is quite a load to carry. The model I selected is great – it has a kayak seat, paddle holders, bottle holder and waterproof bag for the mobile, and also a shoulder strap, and I have used all of these. In fact will be taking some ibuprofen shortly for overuse of my shoulders and arms. The only negative was the oar which came with the board, with a plastic joining piece snapping on the first use back in the UK. So got an easy refund from the supplier, and bought another, which is holding up so far, but will need some electrical taping for the standup handle to fit more tightly. The reviews indicated that this would be the case, but it seemed the best one for the price, so at least no surprise, and I think I will end up using it in kayaking mode more anyway which is fine. The board is fantastic for kayaking on these calm sea waters, and today I tried the stand-up bit, which will take abit more practice, but I did manage to get from kneeling to standing and paddle back to shore without falling in.

Two kayakers came paddling by today, and in our on-the-water conversation I found out that they were young British women, one of whom had cycled from the UK to Croatia with her boyfriend – took them 4 months – gauntlet there for my Folkestone to Rome cycling buddies – being visited by her friend, as the boyfriend had flown back to the UK for a wedding. They were doing a 4-day kayaking tour of the coasts and islands from Split, using the company ‘Red Adventures’, wild-camping along the way. I love such meetings. 🙂

There they go into the distance, on their 17km day’s sailing

Tomorrow is back to work Monday, following the lovely beach day I’ve had today. It’s a very laid-back relaxed place here – only the campsite + some lovely beach bars and restaurant or two. Mostly German holiday-makers, but other nationalities and their languages come and go, including Belgian, Dutch, Slovenian, Polish, Italian, French. A variety of ages, with still a few German school-age children. Apologies if my subject intermingling annoys. I am aware I’m doing it, but quite like recording other bits and pieces through minor meanderings back to the main paragraph topic ……… The internet connection via the campsite’s wifi is enabling me to stream stuff to my firestick, and I’ve done a test with a Messenger video call, so fingers crossed and tonight’s activity is setting up my work desk with my large monitor etc.

But I must include my hunted-down dessert which it’s now time for – the Croatian equivalent of a custard slice/bienenstick/milles-feuilles, with a layer of marshmallow underneath the pastry. I found one in a Zagreb cafe, then saw 2-days worth in Lidl. It’s called a ‘KremÅ¡nite’.

The weather forecast is warm all week, with rain from Thursday, so after work activities will be paddling, and a cycle ride to Trogir which is about 7 kms – hilly, but not a problem on my e-bike.

Posted by admin in Croatia, Equipment, Meetings - the non-work sort
02
Sep
2022

Destination Okrug Gornji (Trogir, near Split)

This is my second night at a campsite which was not my target, and I’m very glad that my target did not have a spare pitch. It is on the main drag of Okrug Gornji which even on a second drive (or cycle) by seems somewhat reminiscent of what I remember of Ipsos in Corfu, when I was there at age 27! Definitely more a club 18-30 vibe than the silver surfer’s peace, tranquility and beautiful location I’m after. Actually I don’t think I was ever interested in club 18-30s anyway, let’s not load this onto silver surfdom. To be fair, the recommendations from two of my favourite motorhome bloggers, come from April/May, when there would be just far less people.

So my first night found me on a significant sloping pitch downwards to the electrical point hub, without any other way of positioning, next to a toilet block, where the washing up sinks had a balcony view of my side door and sitting area. Even putting the awning out ‘low’ and pegging one or two towels strategically to it didn’t quite afford me the visual privacy I was seeking, never mind the aural assault from showers, fans, dishes, cleaning, and constant electrical humming. But look at the beaches at sunset, a stone’s throw away:

and not to mention the very good wifi that enabled me to watch british stuff for the first time in a week. My mobile data solution is not quite resolved yet. And while I’m on practical subjects, in addition to language difficulties, am also currency challenged, with roughly 11 Kuna to the pound, or 7K to the euro. It’s bad enough needing my glasses to recognise Euro coins in my purse, never mind now Kuna/Lipa.

Today one moved as lots of people vacated their much more suitable pitches. And the SUP board and new oar came out. SUCCESS. Tried to post real video evidence taken at great risk to my phone, altho I was in kayak mode, not standing. Video playback seems too slow, so have removed for now.

Posted by admin in Croatia, Places