The temperature is already 29C when we check out at 10:45 and head back up the D8 to Ploce. We are stuck behind a tractor for a few miles which means we are going slow enough for a good look around. There is no haze this morning and the sea is shimmering blue.

The tractor eventually lets everything pass and we get to the ferry terminal that takes us to Trpanj on the spit of land called Pelijesac. We have to do this to avoid driving 17km along the coast of Bosnia-Herzogovina which would require extra insurance cover.

While we are queuing our tractor arrives for the ferry. The crossing takes around an hour and costs about €32. The ramp drops at Trpanj revealing a postcard town of stone buildings and colourful flowers.

A few miles outside we encounter roadworks and find ourselves on a stage fit for the World Rally Championship; the entire road surface has been removed and we are driving over abut two miles of loose, rutted gravel and stone.

The drive down through the spit is breathtaking. There are extensive vineyards with very broad-leaved vines, tasting houses and huge limestone escarpments. We are never far from the sea, deep blue and peppered with islands. Around the shoreline white rock reflects and refracts in the crystal clear shallows.

We stop alongside a beach where they get out and paddle, the water is warm. A local is swimming, catching prawns. He point to the house we are parked beside [maybe his] and the bright pink hydrangeas which he calls hortense, same as French.

We drive on up and down steep, long mountainous roads, and past more tiny beaches and vineyards and seascapes, all the time marvelling at the beauty and intense colours. It looks like the brochures with a polaroid filter in front.

At Ston there is a huge defensive wall marching across the mountain. Soon after Ston we get better roads n the mainland again towards Dubrovnik. As we cross the suspension bridge there are thre cruise ships below, reviving memories of our cruise here eight years ago.

After a long day's drive we reach the campsite, check in and are all set up under some shady trees before 17:00

We've made it!

We wander up to the entrance and watch one of the cruise ships depart, exchanging long siren blasts with the others which echo around the harbour. In the evening we visit the site restaurant for the set meal; soup, main and ice-cream for €9.00