Dubrovnik

Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th October

Today we’re heading for Dubrovnik, well to be precise a little south of Dubrovnik to Autocamp Kate and a town called Mlini. If you don’t know, Dubrovnik is right down in the narrow southern strip of Croatia and after Mlini there’s probably only about another 30Km or so of Croatia before it’s border with Montenegro.

I hadn’t been feeling too well today and felt like a bit of a cold was looming which seemed a bit strange given the fantastic weather we were having. I’m tempted to say that the drive southwards was unremarkable, but only because of the fact that it was still that gorgeous coastline and scenery that Croatia had been spoiling us with, in fact no, it was remarkable, and we shouldn’t become too complacent about the experience we were having. It was a trouble free drive though, except perhaps for around Dubrovnik which was very busy, especially with coaches.

We were hoping to find a supermarket because we were a little low on provisions. We were also a little low on fuel but we found nothing suitable on the way to Autocamp Kate and before we knew it there it was, the Autocamp Kate entrance right on the bend of the busy main road and with no warning. We swung in and had to stop fairly quickly because reception was right at the entrance.

Autocamp Kate is not going to win any awards, although to be fair it’s location just a few kilometers away from the ever popular Dubrovnik is a strong point in it’s favour. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing bad about the site, it was just a little tired and in need of a bit of TLC. Maybe the end of a season after an exceptionally long hot summer had taken it’s toll. We found a good pitch with a reasonable view over the Adriatic and set about investigating the local area, the possibility of getting some provisions, and the all important boat trip tomorrow into Dubrovnik.

The site is quite elevated from sea level and the walk down to the sea front is via a series of steps accessed through what appears to be someones garden. It’s what everyone was doing though. We soon realised that there was going to be no shop for provisions, this was a tourist area with hotels and apartments for packaged tours. The sea front and harbour were nice and it didn’t seem too touristy, but alas no shops. We later figured that the nearest shop was about 2 Km by foot and so it was going to be make do with what we had in tonight.

By now I was feeling a little poorly. The cold I thought was coming never materialised but I did feel unwell. Ruth made herself an omelette and I abstained, feeling that I just couldn’t face eating anything.

The other problem for us with Autocamp Kate was that there was just nowhere to walk the dogs. OK, we could take a stroll down to the sea front and harbour but that’s not really what our two dalmatians are used to. On the Tuesday our plan was to take the boat into Dubrovnik. We knew that Lily wouldn’t like it that much but hopefully a day strolling around the town would make up for the lack of a suitable walk.

The boat trip into Dubrovnik takes about 45mins. Vincent was lapping up the attention of fellow boat passengers whilst Lily was perched next to me and not at all happy about the noise and vibration from the engine. She was really keen to get off but perhaps less so when she realised were in quite a busy town. We headed for the quieter parts of Dubrovnik where we could and generally took in the magnificence of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is striking. It may not be the kind of place where we would want to be based but to come here and see the splendor of the architecture and history was a real experience. What struck me was the thought that 25 years ago the whole place was a wreck having suffered the most intense bombardment from Yugoslav forces. Look out the photos that are on public record to see the devastation that was wrought on this town, and then marvel at the reconstruction effort that has taken place to restore the town to it’s former glory. The marble streets polished by the footsteps of thousands of visitors daily bear no trace of the dust and rubble from 25 years ago.

Oh yes, visitors. Now we were lucky on the day we visited but didn’t know it at the time. Whilst waiting for our boat to get here we got chatting to a couple who were staying in Mlini and taking day excursions to various other islands and towns. They hadn’t been to Dubrovnik at that time but had obviously done their research. Apparently on the day we visited there was only due to be one cruise ship in Dubrovnik (in fact there was two but one was quite small), the next day there was due to be four ships. Each of these ships can offload thousands of visitors so you can imagine how busy the town can get. By chance we were lucky but if you ever plan a day trip to Dubrovnik it may well be worth your while finding out which ships are visiting on what days (and how big they are!).

We found a nice little restaurant in a quite spot to have a bite to eat, well Ruth had a bite but I was still feeling under the weather and decidedly not like eating so just partook in a little water. We also exchanged some cash for Croatian kunas as we were running a little low on the readies – we had been told that exchange rates in Croatia were quite good but were a little sceptical about doing this in such a tourist location. However, we were pleasantly surprised and got a similar deal to that we achieved back in the UK.

We had found the morning fairly quiet but by the afternoon there had obviously been an offloading from the cruise ship and it was significantly busier. Walking around Dubrovnik with two dalmatians can be a very slow experience, especially on a busy afternoon. “Oh look Dalmatians in Dalmatia, can we take a picture”? I couldn’t possibly estimate the number of photos that were taken of the lower half of Ruth and I, I’m sure that we have the most photographed lower legs in the world, and they must be plastered all over social media by now – so if you see an image of a couple of Dalmatians I’m sure that our legs are there somewhere!

Lily was a little more comfortable on the return boat trip, maybe she was tired, but we soon got back to Mlini and the campsite. For me, I was really pleased to get back because by now I really wasn’t feeling great and decided to turn in for an early night. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say that I was quite ill later that evening, but thankfully began to feel much better shortly afterwards. I think I must have picked up a bug of some sort, from somewhere, but I was so glad to be feeling a little better.

When we arrived at Autocamp Kate we hadn’t decided how long we would stay but given that we really needed some provisions, and there was not much for the dogs here, and Dubrovnik had been done, we decided that we should move on Wednesday morning and start our slow trip northwards.