Skip to main content

Across Croatia

Sat - Mon 21st - 23rd Oct





What’s the issue with UK broadcasters and people like me who want to access sports events when abroad? They know it’s me, as I am logged-in to my account on ITV X or BBC Sounds. I have declared that I have a TV license.

I can listen to the rugby build-up but at the moment of kickoff, I can’t listen anymore “due to rights issue”.

What a load of tosh. It’s me. It’s just that I’m here, rather than there. Let me watch the rugby.

Well they won’t, so for the first time I do a simple thing. I get a new app and join the thousands of others who have already done this. I am magically in the UK. Now I can watch and I do.

I watched England v South Africa (in the RWC semi-final) using the iPhone 5G providing a hotspot for the iPad.

A thunderstorm had raged from the moment we got here into Croatia from Serbia. The chosen campground at Ranc Ramarin  was rejected just before nightfall because a wedding was about to start. From experience they van be very loud and very late. I doubt the last dance would be at midnight.

We therefore moved along the road and used Park4night to find a big green space behind a bar where the attached hotel was closed. The young woman at the bar shrugged and said “no problem” when I showed her our request using Google Translate, saying “no money”’as well.

We drove 100m into the darkness and over long wet grass, lifted the roof in the increasingly heavy rain and then stayed inside for about twelve hours and ducked every time there was a flash and a bang.




The storm lasted quite some time but we fed and watered ourselves and then Dawn retired and I settled down with the iPad and headphones. 9pm kick off meant that I crawled into bed, very tired and deflated, after a 10 hour drive and that one point losing margin.

On Sunday we had a shorter drive across northern Croatia, along the border with Bosnia. We listened to an Archers omnibus and looked at the lovely scenery. This looks so much more prosperous than those villages in southern Bulgaria.

Early arrival at Brcko mini pet farm (click here) meant a nice lazy late afternoon. Nic proudly showed us the recently constructed (by him) rustic style facilities and the animals. A Minnesota pig, two horses, plenty of ducks, and lots of small goats.



It is no doubt heaven for kids. Nic is trying to develop this business, along with the campervan pitches, financed by his main work as a joiner and roofer.






We liked the double shower room building with the timber features. There are some nice touches like galvanised bucket washbasins. Unfortunately the authorities have already said that the timber building must be replaced with concrete and all the statutory blah blah blahs that they require. 

Poor Nic is showing the signs of stress with a viral infection and he’s only in his twenties.


Labels:

Comments

Mark M. said…
Final few days of travel to come. Hopefully it all goes smoothly.
25 October 2023 at 07:05
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On y va

Hooray. We are off. The ferry was booked a few weeks ago and the pressure was then on to get all sorts of jobs finished on the house and Landy. Major cosmetic work was to cover the grey front doors with paint that matches the rest of the vehicle. On the engine a coolant leak had developed behind the water pump and so the P gasket and adjacent core plug were renewed. Also a cheapy head unit from those Chinese people replaced the old Sony fm radio. Now we have opened up the wonders of Car Play and all that comes with it. Finally the 9th gen iPad with WiFi became a 9th gen iPad with WiFi and ‘cellular’. This means we can use OsmAnd Maps which need no data and get their gps position off the ‘cellular’ chip in the iPad. More on this useful map in subsequent posts. We headed towards Portsmouth for a mid morning ferry via our old neighbours in S-I-V. There we had a great few hours updating each about our families and then proceeded to save the NHS, the country and the world too. I mean why no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Escaping the weather

We stayed in Potes for four nights and during that time the weather was very hot, with the last two days maxima in the mid 30s. Bizarrely, last Friday night was one of the hottest, as at bedtime it was 27C and even in the middle of the night it was 25C. The forecast though, was ominous for the Picos (and worse for the UK) and so we made the best of the day by zooming up the valley to Fuente De. Here with perfect planning, we had booked the cable car for 10:30 and were whisked up in one cable catenary swoop, from 1,100m to 1,800m. It was sunny with wide views and we walked up a barren valley until we reached a steep scree-crossing path, where we turned around. Any further and it would have needed full kit and sleeping bags, as we were heading for a refugio . We got our fill of that high mountain and were back down in time to escape the mountains before the weather broke. The committee had decided that a city break to Leon was next and we had an overnight opportunity somewhere along ...
2 comments
Read more

Potes and environs

Potes is a bustling town that’s clearly ‘in the mountains’ but isn’t quite a mountain town. Well that was what we thought until we went for a walk. More on that later. First we got to know the site ( Camping La Viorna ) and the neighbours. After the squeeze of the first night near the pool, we were upgraded to a pitch at the end of the lowest terrace which had a superb view of the eastern massive of the Picos. So although this was still a squeeze pitch, somehow we felt good about it. The ‘squeeze’ happened later in the day. ☺️ Happily our immediate neighbours were quiet Dutchland people who like to eat their tea early and retire in good time. They always enjoy taking to us Brits, rather than those Germans and soon I was engaged because I was asked a question. “Why do you have a UK flag on your number plate, rather than a Welsh Scottish or English flag?”. Tricky! I explained that England isn’t a country like Wales or Scotland. They have their own  parliaments and make rules for them...
5 comments
Read more