884 -Thursday 2nd November 2017:  Oscar’s Birthday and Porec Bike Ride

Young Oscar’s 4th birthday dawned – at the usual time -‘Oscartime”.  We e-biked along a trail – quite rough in places but manageable – to ‘Oscarplazza’. ’It’s all about our boyo today…. Celebratory glass of wine at lunchtime, de rigeur.  A nice story – K messaged a birthday photo to Elaine (his previous owner). She responded that we had made her day – she’s in hospital awaiting cancer surgery – we wish her a complete recovery, as does Oscar.

Festivities continued with Sally and Mark, GB-ers, on our Porec car park camping … good to chat to like minded folk.  They were staying on another night in the camperstop, but not sure how much sleep they would get as a major car rally was being run from here from Fri and our part of the car park was being used for the odd practice run.

The coastal path was along rocky beaches with pines growing almost to the shore.

A lunchtime glass of wine to raise a glass to Our Boy.

885 -Friday 3rd November:  Campsite and Washing

Vsrar campsite is good and we found a quiet corner – but, it’s not busy at all. Sunshine weather for – van laundry! K tested the Kerstin sun lounger – successfully, of course.  Walk to nearby beach and headland – and very quiet evening – it got cold later and K was very chilly after laudrification – so the Gluwein came to the rescue!!! 

Kerstin gifted me a sun lounger and I got to test it out … my first action on arriving at the campsite.

886 -Saturday 4th November:  Lim Fjord (or was it?) Bike Ride

Accuweather promised fine weather up to lunch and then – 19% chance of rain! Now, what boffin calculates a 19% prepissitation – blame the predictive text on that one, maybe?  But Clunegapteeth.dentist can exclusively reveal how it’s done – scientifically…  The boffin (or boffiness) sits in a chair in a field of 100 cows at 9:00 am. If 19 cows look as if they might  lie down later – that represents a 19% chance of wetness – at 1:00 pm!!!   You saw it here first – tomorrow, it will be in the Daily Prophet (Harry Potter, again). 

Anticipating rain, the laundry was brought onboard – as you can see – the knickers chandeliers are out of picture, modestly – saving our blushes.  We sallied forth in wet weather gear and had only spits and spots up to halfway and lunch at a nice waterfront restaurant – ‘The Viking’.  Then back up a steep hill on the main road – and the 100 cows flopped on the ground – drenching the boffin and his calculations!   Accuweather is now ”Satuweatheration”.  It poured – but we had the bit between our legs (?) and the grindstone up our noses…

Rounding a bend near the campsite – I was in the lead – and I heard a loud ‘crash’ – K had skidded on the wet surface and went down heavily! The Os-car and the rear wheel wanted to carry on in a straight line, but K was trying to turn!  Motorists stopped and one kind lady got out to help – K was bruised but essentially ok – thanks to wet weather clothing, gloves – and helmet – otherwise a lot of skin may have been left on the tarmac.  Please all you motor homing cyclists – always wear your headgear… Much Arnica lotion applied – hot tea – and now Marsala – but not for rubbing in…

Yesterday’s laundry hung up to dry – despite the dry forecast, showers started just before we set off.

The end of the Fjord.

887 -Sunday 5th November:  Rovinj

We managed to free park just outside Rovinj to avoid Euro3.25 per hour for motorhomes!  Do they want us to stay and spend money or not?!? Same rate if you stay overnight.   Short walk to town – toured the nice Old Town and then – coffee and custard cake – no ill effects this time, thankfully…  Quite a few shops open and very keen to entice the limited supply of customers inside. 

Our chosen campsite (not a lot of choice, i.e. the only one on the point of Isria) was Brioni – very large – hundreds of pitches – only 3 vans, including a full-time englich couple in a large American RV! A virtually empty site – we pitched with a sea view. A walk to the headland Punta Christo – no chance we would attempt the “Indiana Jones” rope bridge. 

Right then, readers – nightfall and the early morning brought rain that would have deterred Guy Fawkes from his endeavours – he wouldn’t have been able to even light the fuse!!!

The forecast for the next few days is a bit ‘dire straits’……. we’ll be dry and snug with the bugs in our rugs….

Rovinj from one side …

… and then from the other.

The campsite is on the coast and we can see the sea from our mid-priced pitch … there are a lot of islands and nature reserves off the coast here.

This dog’s for turning at Punta Christo!  Normally Oscar will valiantly and reluctantly cross open metal grating, but this was a bridge too far!

Not about the be shaken or stirred!  Since neither of my boys would cross, I didn’t have to feign courage and go over!

Fort Christo … used right up to WW2, but now looking very deserted and locked up … I spotted a lady inside chatting on a phone and assumed she was a squatter.

The other side of the Punta Christo was the light house and a strange collection of … ‘stuff’.  Spot the sign to the Nude Beach … and undressed beach?

Some of the ‘stuff’.

888 -Monday 6th November:  Peeing in Pula

Peeing all over with that ‘pissitation stuff – stair rods, cats and dogs – oh, and rain as well!  A doggy training phone call for us re Oscar barking, jumping, etc – with the good folk at Devon Dogs – lots to focus on.  Jez submarined and aquaplaned to a local shopping Centre – and the intention was to walk/swim through the Old Town – no suitable parking – aborted – and back to base.

Thoughts on Croatia so far:

• Dead after Halloween; most places shut, including most of the campsites.  Yet wild camping is illegal and punishable with huge fines.
• Seriously lots of caravan storage places … mostly German vans.
• Restaurants all competing for the tourist trade look for a USP, be it sucking pig or USA style ranch themes.
• Coastline is pretty with the pine trees coming down to the rocky cost, we particularly enjoyed the bike ride north from Porec.
• A major tourist destination given the number of campsites and less so apartments.
• A mecca for nudist camps … the largest in Europe was next door to the Vrsar campsite …. not surprising that these are all closed from end September!