Down to Dubrovnik

20 September - 26 September

Arriving in Dubrovnik

Once more we took the coastal road down to Dubrovnik. As we neared the historic city we crossed a large suspension bridge from which we could view a marina which was a hive of activity with smaller vessels dotted around huge luxury liners and cruise-ships. Some of the cruise-shops made the surrounding buildings look like houses for ants the way they towered above them.

Our first priority was to find a decent place to camp and we passed the town heading further south. There is only one campsite in Dubrovnik itself and it looked like a huge and expensive site which we weren't that keen on staying at, but luckily there were a number of smaller sites dotted further north and south. One campsite in particular had been recommended to us when we were staying in Split by a Flemish couple who described a small and basic but very clean and hospitable site in the town of Srebreno called Camping Matkovica. It is a basic one-star rated site, but it was everything we needed in a campsite and more with Daniella, the site owner being an absolute star. We were able to use the Wi-Fi for free and charge the laptop when we couldn't use our solar panels (I'd parked in the shade!). We were able to put a steak in her fridge so I could eat it the next day! It was close enough to Dubrovnik for us and we could easily drive or hop on the bus to the ancient city. The only drawback to this was that even though we were able to in Split, here we absolutely could not take Nailz on the buses. The alternative was to take a water-taxi, which would have been cool, if rather pricey, or drive the van.

Dubrovnik old town

The old town is quite simply stunning. It initially reminded me of Zadar, far away now to the north of Croatia but on a much grander scale. The floor is completely smooth where it has been worn down over the centuries and the bright white stone of the city seems to take on a glow of its own with the strong Croatian sun. In the old town there is simply too many highlights to describe in a little blog like this, but there are some bits that deserve special mention. I really liked the Jesuit Church with it's colourful interior. The church sits atop a grand staircase and occupies a dominating position within the city. Also, the Church of Sv Vlaho, known elsewhere as St Blaise, is a very striking building sitting at one extreme end of the Stradun, or main street. Interestingly Sv Vlaho is the patron saint of Dubrovnik and every year on February 3rd (his feast day) relics of the him - including his head, hands and a bit of his throat - are paraded through the Old Town streets.


Bit of a tangent (but also interestingly), on display in the Dubrovnik marina there is a special speed boat called Sv Vlaho. The importance of this speed boat is that it was the first ever ship of the Croatian Navy. During the 1991 war for Croatian independence and the subsequent siege of Dubrovnik, Croatian volunteers created a scratch Navy to try to get supplies through to the besieged old town. This speed boat was commandeered and thus the Croatian Navy was born. It was crippled during the missions but now stands proudly alongside "Majsan" (an armoured car built in a shipyard on the island of Korcula and used to defend Dubrovnik and the surrounding area during the Homelands War) as tributes to the Croatian defenders.


Back to what I most liked about the old town, and I think that top of my list are all the gorgeous narrow alleys winding away from the Stradun. They were just amazing to climb up and gave great views or slices of views of the town below. You can also see in the walls special blocks with holes protruding so that the washing could dry on lines hung between them.


The most striking of Dubrovnik's charms though is it's walls which have provided protection for it's citizens for centuries. You can walk around them to get some amazing views of the city and the surrounding sea, and I was able to get some great views of the walls from the sea during our diving excursions.

Rachel abandons me!

On the morning of 22nd October Rachel had to leave the glorious sunshine of Croatia for what I assumed would be a cold and damp London in order to be at the wedding of one of her oldest friends. Kate and her, now husband, Graeme are both extremely brilliant people and deservedly lucky in finding each other. Congratulations to you both and I am sorry I couldn't be there, but someone had to look after the dog. I'm also sorry I missed out on the "coasteering" during the stag do - but it sounded fun.

So I had four days to myself which I whiled away playing guitar, writing some songs, going for dips in the bay which is a short walk from our campsite and taking Nailz exploring the local area. It was quite stressful, but I hung on in there. The weather was beautiful until all of a sudden on the 25th I woke up to grey skies and a light drizzle. Through the day it got progressively worse and the wind also picked up. I had popped out to try and speak to some local dive centres, but predictably they had all gone home for the day due to the bad weather except Blue Planet, who were based out of a plush hotel in Lapad, just north of the Old Town. They seemed very competent, knowledgeable, were very friendly when I spoke to them and I am sure Rachel and I would have dived with them but for two factors which was price (they were more expensive than our eventual choice of dive centre) and location (the guys we went with were down the road from our campsite - but more on them in the next post). By mid-afternoon the weather had deteriorated to a bit of a storm and, naturally, I was on the beach. It was good fun to watch the waves crash against the rocky shoreline and also massive waves crashed against the smaller islands out to sea, often a wave would crash right up and get blown clear over the island! It was very cool.

On the way back to camp the weather took an even bigger turn for the worse and sheets of rain lashed down creating impromptu water falls on buildings and torrents of water cascading across the roads. After the sunshine of the last few days the road was like driving on castrol GTX and I passed a few accidents before I reached the safety of the camp. Tents were flooded out and most campervans and motorhomes had water problems of some kind, from getting stuck to water being blown into the airvents. This was how I met Mieke, our wonderful German friend (Hi Mieke!). She had a funky tent which essentially sat on top of the car, and while this sounds like a brilliant solution to the flooded campsite (a tenter's worse nightmare) the wind was so violent that even this succumbed to eventual flooding, leading to an uncomfortable nights kip in the car. I later asked Daniella if this sort of weather was normal for this time of year and the answer was a resounding "no!". Some people are just lucky I guess.

The next day I had to pick Rachel up from the airport, and as if to celebrate Rachel re-joining me the weather was absolutely cracking again. I was glad about this, but most of all I was relieved to have my buddy back again :-)