Dubrovnik 2018

[fbnss]

@Rosy and i decided we'd go to Dubrovnik, Rosy did all the planning, top man. Feeling sorry for @Trevor we decided to bring him along too. So on the 30th of june we set off.
The Eurotunnel was booked for 0650 so we all had to be there for about 0600. I got up at 0230 as i needed to pack the fridge only to discover that the M25 was closed clockwise which ment i'd have to go the long way around, left home at about 0330. On the way the signs were telling me the M20 was closed as well, all going great so far. Trev rang me and said he'd gone via Canterbury so thats the way I went. He'd got himself all a bit excited and left home at stupid o'clock. No word from Rosy yet. Think i was somewhere near Gatwick when Rosy got in contact to say he'd hit snooze a few more times than he should! I arrived at the termonal at 0600 and met up with Trevor and we waited to hear from Rosy while we stuck our beam deflectors on. The billboards flashed up that our train was ready to board so off we went, while sat in the queue Rosy turned up and annoyingly got on the train infront of us...
Our first camp would be in Germany and on the way we stopped at Adinkerke for road trip ciggys and reached camp around 1630
http://camping-diez.de/

Trevor had had some stickers made, we were officially on our Adriatic adventure!
Rosy and Trev worked together applying the stickers while i cooked tea, chicken fajitas.
Day two Gemany to Austria
We left after a lazy start and on the way Rosies truck seemed to be struggling a little bit on the motorway so we stopped for an impromptu fuel tank sock filter clean.

nice n gunky

after being attacked with brake cleaner
After a coffee we all left together and stopped off for diesel and a burger king v.near to the where I'd camped on the first night last year. After this we got split up as it can be difficult in convoy as evryone likes to drive at their own speed, vehicle and equipment dependent etc, so i ended up a little way ahead and pulled in to get the Austrian and Slovenian vignettes and waited for the others..... who never turned up. They had pulled in at the following services to get theirs and after a bit of messaging I had to play catchup (no tickets yet!) Turned up at camp about ten minutes after the others.
https://www.almtal-camp.at/
The others were set up and talking to a lone biker who turned out to be a priest, he spent the evening with us and shared his food and drink with us. He had bread and sausage (better than it sounds) and we had.....

seafood risotto, Yes thats right, trevor cooked!!! (and it was very tasty)

 

[fbnss]

This is Andrea ( Ithink) It had been discussed about stopping off in Slovenia on the way to Croatia as we were passing through it anyway. Trevor had done much research, found lots of tracks and selected a few campsites so on day 3 thats where we were headed.
We stopped for lunch at a petrol station in Austria with cracking views


unfortunately i'd parked next to a rubbish bin which spoilt the shot

And continued on and entered a new country for me, Italy and then on into Slovenia where we stopped at the border to take some photos.


Slovenia is a beautiful country and a couple of hours later we arrived at camp.
http://www.kamp-koren.si/
Rosy cooked much meat that evening and we drank a local beer.

We were joined by Felix, an Austrian who had visited Slovenia many times and he gave us some sugestions of places to visit.

 

[fbnss]

Day 4 forever will be known as Slov1...
Started off with a healthy breakfast

and then we set off to do some tracks near the campsite after packing away.

The first track was right next to the campite running next to the river.

The next one was only a bit further away starting in a village called Livek.

It was a nice gentle track with some great views. we stopped for a cuppa and I let some air out my tyres as id pumped them up for the motorway and it was getting a bit bumpy.
The track looked more and more unused the further we went. After consulting the maps we decided to plod on
It started to get a bit rocky
and then got rather steep
chief photographer at work
Then after reaching the bottom of that tricky section I got out and had a look for the track, which had been overgrown in places before but.... ummm... it seemed to finish at an old hut. I wondered down the (v.steep hill) looking to pick it up again but there was no sign of it. there was another logging track a couple of hundred meters away but to get to it was close to impossible without a chainsaw and if we'd reached it then there was a vertical drop of about 15 feet. So after much deliberating we decided we could only go back the way we came. Trev went first as he had muds and winch. ANd promptly needed both of them.

It must have taken a good hour or two to get him to a place where he could drive out un aided, Dam that hill was steep!. We then rested for a bit and discussed our options. Neither of the 80's had winches and both had bfg at's on. It was about 4 0'clock. Should we go buy a winch from somewhere? Could we find somewhere that sold one? Trevor sugested a flip flop winch so we got googling and started to watch a youtube video on the subject when my phone decided to run out of battery so im afraid i don't have many pictures of the next bit. so we went back down to the logging track and decided that that was a definite no no.
I decided to give the hill ago, after all it's an 80!
Having watched the 120 with muds get stuck at the first corner... and the second corner I gave it some beans and almost made it. But almost is not good enough so after a couple of attempts at the final hurdle let some more air out my tyres. The front locker had finally gone in si rolled back a bit and gave it another go, alas i'd got as far as i was gonna. TRevor was about a hundred meters away up past the last bit he'd needed winching up. We got all our straps together, joimed them with loops and sticks so that they could be undone. Attached it to the front of my truck and trev reversed his car down as far as he needed to so that he could pull me forward a foot....

I marked where I had got to with a log and then it was Rosies turn....
We lowered the pressures in his tyres before he started in the hope he may just get up in one, He stormed up but got stuck at the same point that I had. We attached the straps and off we went in A team 160 convoy. It must have taken about 3 hours from bottom to top and we were exhausted (rosy and I, trevor was operating the winch) View attachment 146991

 

[fbnss]

After that was nice and gentle back to the camp

The closest sign to where we were.
Livek done!
and the river next to the campsite.

 

[fbnss]

There is plenty of video to follow but I havent had the time to sort it yet.

 

[Andy]

Good write up nick, looks like fun was had!

 

[clivehorridge]

Great looking trip Nick, fantastic photos! Looking forward to the next post....

 

[fbnss]

Great looking trip Nick, fantastic photos! Looking forward to the next post....

Just having my tea, will.continue shortly

 

[MarkW]

Looks cracking Nick and reminds me I’m behind with my last 2 trip reports!

 

[fbnss]

Day Five, a very special day...
After making my coffee for the day and morning ablutions came back to find this...
aww they'd remembered and we set off to do another track, would appear ive got things slightly mixed up. This is the track right next to the campsite by the river

and after completing that we set off for the Stol mountain pass, We were wary not to do anything like the day before and this seemed a nice gentle forest track.

trevor stopped to cook a cuo of tea, while Rosy and I took photos.
and then it opened out and the trees were getting thinner
We reached the "top" went round a corner and stopped for more photos. There were cows and pigs up there.

 

[fbnss]

Rosy had a play with his drone but I seem to have misplaced the footage...

Finally a picture without that bloody car in the way!
It reminded me a lot of @clivehorridge s ridge run
we got back to camp and Trevor had smuggled a chocolate cake all the way here and we had pizza from the restaurant for tea, awesome

 

[fbnss]

Day 6, off to Croatia! Our friend Felix had told us about some magic place to camp on "turn 8" near osilinica so thats where we planned to go, he also said the border crossing is a lot quicker as its not a major route.
Wile we had been eating our pizza the evening before a group of Jeeps turned up and one 200 series landcruiser.

The owner got talking to usand recomended a couple of places which we promptly forgot until I saw a sign for Postojna on our way, after a brief discussion on the CB's we decided to go
https://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/
In the car park there was a row of classic cars.

Please forgive the quality of these photos but the train was moving and i had to take shots one handed without dropping the phone!
Ah, Katerina our guide...
On the way in to the caves we had seen a pig on a spit and we couldnt wait to go eat it!
It was absolutely stonkingly good and man size portions too!

 

[fbnss]

We left and continued on our journey. Not knowing exactly what "turn no 8" was we stopped at a track and Trev disapeared for half an hour while Rosy and I did some googling. We decided it must be on the hairpin bends that were coming up so counted them on the map and it wasn't till we reached them we found out that they were numbered...
Turn no 8 had a sort of parking area and a track that went off down a steep hill, we decided against getting stuck again so headed for Croatia.
After one of Trevs special detours we arrived very late at camp
https://www.jadran-crikvenica.hr/en/autocamp-selce
Trevor was as impressed with us as we were with him at this point

But he cooked us more of his seafood risotto which went down well.

 

[fbnss]

Day 7, we headed to Plitvica lakes, as recomended by @Rich Sims Though we skipped the air base.
We parked up at one of the car parks, paid our money and walked over to the lakes, turns out we only had a short boat ride from where we were, but there are longer ones depending how much time you have.

You pretty much follow a wooden path round as theres water everywhere.
mmm

proffessional at work...
and then you get a bus back to where you started, a unimog bus!

 

[fbnss]

It had been a beautiful day and as we were approaching the campsite it ****ed it down, the hole place was flooding, it was brilliant!
https://np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/en/plan-your-visit/hotels-and-camps/camp-korana/

Trev on wife duty

That evening we had Rosies amazing pork curry
and cos its funny... dude.

 

[fbnss]

Day 8, Bout time we got to our destination, Dubrovnik!
We got up early and left to catch the ferry from Ploce to Trpanj, we got there with plenty of time to spare for the one we hoped to catch but it was full so we ended up waiting for nearly 3 hours for the next one. It was bloody hot! UNless youre a smug twat with air con...

Great wall of China
and some sea views on the way. It really did feel like somewhere you go to on a plane at this point.
And then we arrived at camp
https://www.camping-adriatic.com/solitudo-camp-dubrovnik


proffessional at work.
sweaty git.

local bear

 

[stumog]

Did you find the shot up house in Dubrovnik?

Trip looks like loads of fun.

 

[fbnss]

Did you find the shot up house in Dubrovnik?

Trip looks like loads of fun.

Didn't look for one stu, Think Trev saw a few shot up places on the way down from the lakes. It was a great trip, not so fussed by Croatia but Slovenia was brilliant!

 

[fbnss]

Was having a play with the settings on the phone, there might be one good one in here. It was pitch black at the time.

 

[fbnss]

Day 9
All kitted up

We caught a bus from right near the campsite to old Dubrovnik town. wondered into the tourist office, looked at the tours on offer and picked the "game of thrones tour"
Had a little wonder by ourseves (and a million other people) and met up with our guide. He's holding up a book with screenshots from the series. There is mucg cgi involved
she seems to be leaking