Tirrilstrip12
 Days 112, 113 & 114 Day 112 It’s really too hot to do anything. Took the easy way out and decided to stay here another day. Besides, they have a chart of daily traffic flows in Croatia, with dire warnings about traffic jams at weekends all through July & August. So, we committed to a day of lazing in the shade, with an occasional dip in the sea. To be fair, we did venture out this afternoon to take Tirril for a walk – but even he slowed right down and started doing some ‘shadow-hopping’ – trotting ahead with his stick until he found some shade, waiting for us to catch up and then repeating the process. Fortunately there seem to be no lizards in this area, and his fascination with grasshoppers (of which there are plenty) has been short-lived, so at least he wasn’t doing any manic chasing and getting even hotter. He was pleased to get back to the dog shower (it’s a posh one here – in a little room just for dogs), although he’s been surprisingly reluctant to learn about the benefits of a cool shower in a hot climate. However, he seems to be getting the hang of it now. Had a late afternoon swim. I’m not a big one for swimming, but I have to say that it’s lovely having a dip here – the sea is warm enough to get in without too much wincing, and cool enough to give relief from the heat of the sun. The surroundings are beautiful and the water is so clear you can easily see the sea bed. By the way, I did a bit of research earlier, and I think the bugs (see Day 111) are cicadas. There’s a load of them around here chirruping away all day. Day 113 Hard to get going to pack up today – mainly because of the heat, but also because it’s been a really good site here. Headed for Omis where there’s another site recommended by our erstwhile neighbours – they reckoned it’s got a bit of beach where dogs are allowed. Followed the coast road up, passing briefly through Bosnia where the rather surly looking border guards seemed happy to wave us through. The coast road has stunning views all the way, although as we got further north there was endless road-side parking where people just clamber down onto the rocks to swim. Where there are beaches, there are campsites galore. Got to Omis early afternoon – turns out there isn’t a beach for dogs, although they are allowed on after everyone else has cleared off. Shame. It’s a big, expensive site with pitches close together (although we are on the ‘cheapest’ of the 3 price categories of pitches) – right on the beach but not really our thing. Never mind – decided to stop for the one night and head on tomorrow. Next issue was how to watch the tennis final. No signal on our TV and not even any commentary on the radio. There’s a restaurant here, but the TV is not set up – obviously not much call for tennis fans here, so probably not much point walking into town to find a bar with TV. Last resort was to try streaming the TV on line (there is wi-fi here, but at a hefty price!), but failed miserably in trying to work out how to do it. Even the BBC on-line commentary seemed not to be working. Gave it up as a bad job and went for a swim instead! Walked into Omis this evening – really crowded. We’ve certainly hit holiday season now. The old town was quite nice, but it’s so busy and I find people’s reaction to Tirril quite upsetting. He’s behaved really well walking through the crowds on his lead, but there seems to be so much distrust and apprehension about dogs amongst the eastern Europeans (the vast majority of the crowds here). Got back to find out that Andy Murray has, after all, upheld the tradition of plucky Brits giving all but not quite making it. Day 114 Drove further up the coast enjoying the views, but starting to get a bit sun-weary now. It’s relentless. Doesn’t drop below 30 degrees even at night. Anyway, got to our recommended campsite and weren’t too impressed. Carried on driving up the coast, checking various other sites along the way. But they’re all so busy, with not very shady pitches and expensive – the final straw was a site where they were going to charge around £50 per night!! Brief diversion: although Croatia suffers from the same issue as southern Italy – nowhere shady to stop when you’re driving – what a relief it is to get back to some logical, clear road signs & marking. No more confusing road junctions with no white lines, no more endless and irrational changes of speed limits as you drive along, no more indecipherable road signs or multiple signs (we had one set of sign posts in Italy with 57 different signs) – and how nice to get back to red & amber lights before they turn green. All those weeks driving in France & Italy and I still couldn’t get used to the red light suddenly turning to green. So where was I? Oh yes - in the end, we gave up and headed inland to some sites near the Krka National Park. That’s better. Nice little site set amongst pine trees and only £13 a night, including free wi-fi. They do all-day excursions from here into the Park involving a minibus, some walking, a boat trip and a restaurant stop for lunch. Seems Tirril’s OK to come, so think that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.
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Diary Photos
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 Monastery to get away from it all |
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 Change in the weather? |
 Tirril admiring the view |
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