SPLIT TO THE PELJEŠAC PENINSULA

We both awoke before our alarms (plural, yes you read it correctly, alarms! ). We really didn't want to oversleep and see everyone waiting to disembark only to find out that The Ashtons had overslept and they were blocked in on the ferry!

We had an hour up on deck before we docked, having a lovely coffee with breathtaking scenery! The colours! What a magnificent start to our time in Croatia.

When we went back to Mabel in the lower decks, we witnessed that they had well and truly squeezed everyone in...a bit of a blurry photo on the blog, but you will see what I mean...amazing! The lorry driver next to us (oh yes, we are still in with the truckers!) seemed most amused, as he slid his body up his cab like a snake in order to get back inside his vehicle ;o) - okay, so I watched!
Colin received an ickle ticking off from one of the ferry crew for coming off the ferry too quickly, but as I am led to believe, it was nothing to do with his foot on the accelerator and not his fault!?

We made a wrong turn coming out of Split which was the best wrong turn we have made so far this trip! We ended up on the coast road as opposed to the newly built A1 that doesn't even feature on the TOMTOM (hence the confusion). This road is magnificent - within three hours of waking up in Croatia, I was in love.
The views from the road were simply stunning. Happily, it was also a Sunday morning, with "Sunday morning drivers", meaning no one urging Colin to pull over or seemingly trying to overtake at any opportunity.

We took in the amazing sights, wowed by what we were being fortunate to see.

Despite Colin's "friend" at the lake advising us to avoid the Bosnia Hercegovina border, we thought it would be fun, so we kept going South...
Arriving at the border, we queued with the masses -later to be known as the "riff raff" - because as soon as we flashed our British passports to the first customs' officer, we were fast-tracked to a lane with no one else in it; so British, so trustworthy - not a word of a lie! The next customs' / police officer to ask for our passports (clearly spotting our Belgian plates and wondering what the hell his colleague was thinking of) acknowledged our "Britishness " and gave us a courteous nod and off we pootled, leaving all the "riff raff" still queuing way back behind us!! We felt so patriotic ;o)

We continued on this spectacular coast road and made our way to camping Neveo, located on one of the islands on the peninsula. The site was bigger than we have come to prefer, but we had packed quite light, knowing that inside space was a premium in Mabel, so we needed to use the washing machines to freshen up our bedding and clothes after 10 days "on the road".
Sidenote - if we were to travel again for three weeks (in this heat), I would still be torn between packing so much you do not need many changes of clothes, fresh towels or spare bedding, or having the option of putting on two (simultanous!) wash loads for £4 and having it all dry and put away again within a few hours...
so, we hung the washing out across the trees like true campers and went off for a swim... Colin then bbq-ed delicious halloumi wraps for me - even toasting the wraps on his hot plate! It is amazing how versatile this bbq malarkey is for a veggie!

Speaking of food, we have come to realise over the course of our holiday, why it is, that Dad / David likes to camp...yes, yes! There aren't any fat people! Primarily because if you do have big thighs or tummies, then you cannot actually manoeuvre around in the well designed campervans / motorhomes / caravans...that said, I have sustained a few bruises to my legs from my arm rest as I get up and down to co-pilot and help Colin reverse into various places...no pun intended!

We had such a pleasant night at the campsite but it was catering for more than we needed with kids' entertainment, restaurants etc. so we were happy that the pitch that we were on was only available for one night... actually this seems to be the case in most places that we check in to - we give our reg plate and everywhere is free for "just one night" - I have begun to think that there is some local news flash about a severe snorer across Europe and if heard, you need to let "xyz" know, so that they can track him and phone ahead to the regions!!!

The next morning, we had a little swim in the clear, yet invigoratingly fresh sea before leaving camp at 10h00 to drive just 6km down the road, checking in nice and early to another site right on the beach. We were just one van back from the beach - far enough away from the people (read annoying kids!) frolicking on the beach to have some privacy. It was great. We sunbathed, swam in the crystal clear water, read, slept (some of us snored!) and generally had a super chillaxing time.

Colin prepared a stupendous bruchetta for me with ingredients procured in Italy and then Colin treated me to a strawberry yogurt corneto for "afters" and we went to bed with full bellies and sunkissed faces.

We haven't decided on a location for Tuesday and Wednesday yet...such is the life!