On the 15th of August we arrived in Croatia. This was our first border crossing since arriving into France - Croatia has recently become a member of the EU, but it isn't a part of the Schengen area. We were told if you stay at the smaller 'mum & dad' caravan parks in Croatia, you can get quite good value for money, so we decided while we were here we would work out the area we wanted to stay in and look for caravan parks as we drove. As stressful as I found this (I usually know where we are staying the night), it was the cheapest way to do it - we were paying about $30 - $40 AUD / night and other, bigger parks were charging anywhere from $50 - $80 AUD / night.

We found a site 10kms south of Crikvenica in a little town called Povile. The park was situated on a rocky peninsula overlooking the Adriatic. The views were gorgeous with the rocky mountain range in the background. You walked down the rocks to a platform and into the water where you could do some great snorkelling. We went for a swim as soon as we got there - it was a beautiful day. We decided to move on the next day, but that night the wind picked up and all through the night the wind howled and the caravan rocked like it was going to blow over. We got up about 5am the next morning (after very little sleep) and moved the Landrover behind the van to act as a wind break, which did make a difference. We decided it was too windy to move or tow along the coast and after checking the weather forecast we were told the wind was dying off that afternoon. It did drop in the afternoon but it picked up again to be even stronger that evening. Through the night it got even stronger and we were both surprised the caravan made it through without any major damage.

After two sleepless nights we decided we'd had enough. We'd seen other caravans leave so we went for a drive in the car first to see how bad the winds were and how bad the mountain pass we had to climb was. It wasn't as bad as we expected - as we got closer to the mountains we were protected from the wind. So we packed up and off we went. We were headed for Plitvicka Jezera (Plitvice Lakes National Park) which is about 100 km's inland. Google this and see some of the images it is gorgeous!

Our Tom Tom was telling us to go on a road heading north and then turn on a road heading south. I could see on our map there was a minor road heading straight across that was a more direct route. We turned on Loche's phone, which also has a navigation app on it and it suggested the same road I could see on the map. It worked out about 50 km's shorter and about an hour less (you can only do about 30 - 50km's on these windy roads). So we decided to go with the shorter route. As we are going along the road, it keeps getting narrower and narrower and eventually we can see up ahead it turns to dirt. We stopped and saw two old men sitting on the side of the road and tried to ask them if we could get through on that road. While we are trying to decipher what each other are saying a car comes through with French number plates. So we waved them over and asked them - they said the road was narrow and a few bumps but it should be okay. So we decided to risk it. Keep in mind this would normally not be a problem for us, but we were towing the caravan behind us, which is not set up for off-road!

The road ended up being only wide enough for one car and luckily we didn't pass any cars as all along there were signs saying keep out / danger land mines!!! At one point there were some quite deep pot-holes and I had to get out to make sure the back end of the van didn't get stuck. After about half an hour of nerve-wracking driving we were very happy to see a T intersection and a much more used road ahead. When we were researching Croatia in Australia before we left, I found on the Smartraveller website a note saying stay to paved or well-used roads in Croatia as there are still landmines left over from the war in the 90's.

We were very happy to arrive at the campsite and the next day we set off to visit the national park. One thing I've found Croatia is very good at is inefficiency and finding every opportunity to take money from you. We asked at the caravan park if we could buy entrance tickets for the national park off them but were told they could only be bought at the main gate. We arrived at the entrance to the park and found an enormous line. We ended up waiting in line for over an hour and a half to get in (we were paying for parking during this time as well). We are at the height of European summer and they only had two people serving at the counters.

We finally got in and it was well worth the wait, but also very crowded. The park consists of wooden walkways that cross multiple lakes and waterfalls. The water is the clearest we've ever seen and you can see the fish swimming below and the fallen tree branches in the water.

The first section of the park is a couple of kilometres walking and then you come to a larger lake that you can only cross by boat (I think you can walk around it but it's even longer again - too long for a 4 year old). We arrived at the boats to find another very long line and over an hour wait to get onto a boat. We arrived at the other side of the lake to find more boardwalks, even more waterfalls and beautiful scenery. After another couple of kilometres walking we came to a stop and couldn't walk any further - yes, that's right another line to get onto another boat to get across to the other side of the lake - only this time we couldn't even see how far the line went before we got on the boat. After at least another hour wait we eventually got on a boat, got off the other side and started walking really quickly to get in front of everyone to make sure we got a seat on the trains that took us (apparently) back to our car. We ended up getting on the train no problem, but found it didn't actually drop us back at the car, but about a kilometre or so from the car park - so off we trotted again. We stopped near the car to buy Cara (and ourselves) a well-deserved ice cream. Cara had done so well all day, plenty of walking and heaps of waiting in lines. She was so good, we couldn't have asked for better!

The lakes were some of the most beautiful scenery we have seen - it is just gorgeous and the boardwalks literally take you over the lakes and along the shore lines and you get great views of all the falls. It is really well done in that respect but I would be avoiding visiting here in summer. When we were leaving the following day, we got away at about 6.30am and had to drive past the entrance to the lakes - there was already a large queue to get into the car park - everyone was getting in early to avoid the huge lines and crowds. It's not very well organised in this respect.

We headed south on the freeway back towards the coast and found a lovely little caravan park in Nin, which is just north of Zadar. We stayed here for about 6 days, there was a lovely little inlet which was great for Cara to practise her snorkelling. We bought her some flippers as well, and she couldn't wait to get into the water. Nearby the inlet, there was some mud and many of the tourists were plastering this mud all over themselves, sitting in the sun with it on to dry and then washing it off. It was quite entertaining to watch. Apparently it has very good healing properties and the guy we were asking about it said his doctor had recommended it for his sore back.

From Nin we headed down to a little village called Trogir which is about half an hour north of Split. We had a bit of an eventful time finding a caravan park. I think we stopped at about 5 or 6 before we found the one we decided to stay at. We were following some signs to one that Loche thought looked pretty good, but when we came to the turn, the road was too steep for the caravan to get up, we turned around and tried from a different angle, but again had no luck. We were holding up some traffic and Loche asked some locals on a moped what the park was like and they said it was good and to try the entrance road further down, as it wasn't as steep. So we got the van up the other road, went down a winding narrow track and found the caravan park only to find out they had no mains power - just a generator with no electricity through the night. We can get by for a night or two without electricity, but we wanted to stay in this area for a bit longer than that, so, after all that effort, we decided to go back to a caravan park we'd seen a few kilometres back. We were very happy to get there and set up after a seemingly long day of driving - but we only actually travelled about 150 kilometres.

The park we ended up staying at was just out of Trogir and had it's own beach which was great for snorkelling and for Cara to keep practicing. It also had a kids club for an hour every day, which Cara enjoyed going to. There was a French family on the pitch next to us and we became friendly with them and Cara and their daughter Chloe (who is 6) played very well together. They played on the beach together and swam together. The night before they left we all went out for pizza and we've been invited to stay with them in France on our way back to England.

The night before we left Nin, Cara managed to spill a large amount of Milo all over the keyboard of the laptop. Loche pulled it apart and tried to dry it as best we could but when we switched it on the keys weren't working. We left it switched off and while we were in Trogir, we drove into Split to try to find someone to repair it. After driving around to about 6 different shops we eventually found one that could look at it straight away for us. We left it with them and they called us the next day and told us the keyboard was fine but the trackpad no longer worked but we could just use an external mouse. We later found out that the letter x also didn't work, but all in all it could have been a lot worse.

We went into Split again another day and had a walk through the Palace of Diocletian. Diocletian was a Roman Emperor and he built the palace for his retirement (in 305 AD). The Palace was eventually abandoned by the Romans and left empty for several centuries after which locals started building houses within the palace and running businesses inside it. When we were walking around the Palace you can still see some of the houses and people putting washing on lines and watering their gardens.

From Nin we headed south to a little caravan park in the village of Krvavica which is just north of Drvenik where you can catch a ferry across to the island of Hvar. Since we'd been in Croatia we'd heard the islands were beautiful and were worth a visit, so we decided our best option was to do a day trip in the car instead of trying to tow the van through. So we drove down to Drvenik and hopped on a ferry and drove pretty much the whole length of Hvar Island. We had a look around the town of Hvar itself, which I must say was a bit of a let-down after what we'd heard. We did manage to find a couple of lovely beaches to go for some swims and for Cara to do some more snorkeling. At one beach Loche went snorkeling with her but she had flippers on and he didn't. Before he knew it, she was off - swimming way out of her depth and he had to swim pretty quickly to keep up with her. She has no fear and thinks it's great that she doesn't have to come up for air. It's funny because as soon as she doesn't have the snorkel on and she can't touch, she starts clinging to you - put the snorkel on her and she has no fear and is way out of her depth with no worries at all!

We arrived back in time to catch the 5pm ferry but found a long line of cars also waiting (it's first in, first served - you can't book a specific ferry, you just have to turn up and take your chances). We missed out getting on the ferry - the car in front of us made it, but we didn't! In the end it worked out for the best - we had an hour and a half wait for the next ferry, so we went for a walk through the little fishing village of Sucuraj and found a bar and watched the sun come down over the small marina. It was lovely and relaxing!

From Krvavica we drove down to Dubrovnik, which is about 160 kilometres. We didn't realise this but to get to Dubrovnik you actually have to go through Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). As part of the war in the 90's Bosnia was given a coastline of about 25 kilometres. We found this out back at our first caravan park in Croatia when Loche got talking to an English guy. Luckily our car insurance covered us for Bosnia (it doesn't cover us for all countries) so we drove through it. I think this would have to be the most boring border crossing for the workers there…I think in tourist season most of the cars are just passing through. They didn't even check us at the other end, just waved us through. They have number plate recognition so once you've gone through the first checkpoint they are pretty much waiting for you at the other border.

Even though we were only driving 160 kilometres it was another very long day in the car (there are no freeways to go on, you follow the coastline most of the way and it's winding and most of the time on a high cliff). But the reason it took so long is because we stopped at about 6 caravan parks on the way. Some of the better ones were just too expensive, others just had nothing there. We stopped at one Loche liked but I thought we were too far out of Dubrovnik so after driving the car and caravan along this very narrow road on the side of the ocean and holding up traffic while we checked out the caravan park, we decided to turn around in the park and keep going! We found another one that was just perfect but once we worked out how to get to it, we couldn't get the van up the driveway. We ended up about 40 minutes south of Dubrovnik in a little fishing village called Molunat. We were so happy to arrive and we got there at about 17.30 after leaving at about 9.00. It was well worth the heartache though. It was lovely and quiet with a beautiful bay and a quaint little village. The restaurant also had delicious food and wine and the waiter was very friendly and helpful.

The night we arrived we walked up to the restaurant for a meal. I took Cara into the toilet and while we were gone Loche said he was sure he saw car tail lights disappear into the water on the other side of the bay - near the caravan park. When we finished our meal we walked over to have a look and sure enough there was a crowd near the edge of the water and a young guy sitting on a chair nearby nearly in tears. It was his car and his mother had somehow managed to drive it into the water. There was no one hurt and the car was retrieved sometime during the night, so unfortunately we didn't get any photos.

We stayed here for a week, going into Dubrovnik a couple of times to look around. The first day we went into Dubrovnik we had a walk through the old town and went for a ride on a glass-bottom boat. The glass-bottom boat drove around the island of Lokrum, which is a national park. As we drove around further we saw more than we bargained for as the boat approached a nudist beach! They didn't seem too worried about tourists boats going past them every hour or so, which seems a bit strange considering they must go over to the island to get away from everyone.

Dubrovnik old town is beautiful and we had a lovely day strolling through the streets - they were pretty crowded but we climbed up some stairs (a lot of stairs) and found we were out of all the hustle and bustle and it was just lovely wandering through the narrow alleyways of the houses. The best view of Dubrovnik is looking down on it from the highway, you can see the old town and the port - it's just gorgeous!

We returned to the car to find we had a parking ticket. This is our first parking ticket the whole time we've travelled through Europe and considering some of the places we've parked, it's a pretty good track record! We looked for a parking metre before we left the car, but found one that far away we figured it wasn't for us and we didn't have to pay…oh well! We went to pay the fine straight away but as it was a Saturday afternoon the office was closed, so we went back in on Monday and sorted it out. The ticket cost us about $35 AUD, which is a lot cheaper than trying to park in any car park in Brisbane, so we weren't complaining!!

One day we drove a couple of kilometres south of the caravan park to Prevlaka Fortress which is located on a peninsula at the southernmost point of Croatia. Another eventful day - the train that takes you around the main sights of the peninsula wasn't leaving for another hour after we got there and we didn't want to wait around and were told it was only a half hour walk to the fortress (yeah right) - so off we trotted. We got to the fortress but there was very little to see, so we started following a track in the bush that would hopefully take us back to the car. We were given a map that wasn't very good and Loche kept walking ahead to see if we were heading in the right direction. Three Aussies, wandering through the bush in Croatia wearing thongs and Cara ended up taking her shirt off she was so hot. About halfway through we started remembering about landmines and were hoping like hell there weren't any in here!! We ended up back on a main road and Loche went up the hill to see the view, Cara and I had enough so we went downhill and heard the train coming. We flagged it down and hopped on and passed Loche halfway up the hill on his way back down. So he had to turn around and go back to the top where the train stopped at the lookout. We arrived back at the car and got our swimmers on for a well-needed swim in the beach nearby. As we were getting back into the car, Cara and I were surrounded by about 6 wild donkeys. I think they were just looking for food but they were getting very close to us and I didn't have anything to give them. I quickly got Cara into the car and got in after her - I couldn't get to the front seat because there was a donkey in the way!! Oh the things you see and do! Meanwhile Loche was taking photos of them on the other side of the car.

We eventually got away and headed further south into Montenegro for a bit of a look around. It was past lunchtime so we decided to find a restaurant to have something to eat. The food was lovely and it was very reasonably priced. On the way back home we passed a car that had a trailer attached but the car had rolled into a ditch on the side of the road. It had only just happened but luckily the occupants of the car had all gotten out without any major injuries.

We had been thinking about where our next stop was going to be, we were originally going to head down to Greece, but we couldn't drive as our insurance doesn't cover us in Albania. We had researched ferry prices and would have to go across the Adriatic Sea to Italy and then back across to Greece (there is no direct ferry from Croatia to Greece). This was going to cost us over $1600 AUD. We decided against that option. The other thing that was playing on our mind was around that time, war ships had been deployed into the Eastern Mediterranean for potential strikes on Syria. We then decided that we would head north and away from it all, so I planned our next stop to be on the northern coast of Croatia (on the Istrian Peninsula). The night before we were leaving, Loche got talking to some Hungarians who were also staying at the caravan park and they told us they had just come from Sarajevo, Bosnia. We had talked about going here, but had dismissed the idea. Well these guys said they loved it - great food, very cheap and friendly people. So we changed plans at the last minute and headed off to Sarajevo. This gave us a bit of a new lease as it was a new country and one we hadn't really planned on going to, but had such a tumultuous history it was bound to be interesting!