Saturday 28th April.
We drove into Opatja and eventually
parked up on the hill. We then walked along the Lungomare (coastal path
promenade) for well over an hour looking for Volosko supposedly a delightful
fishing village with small harbour – well an attractive small bay with a some
pretty villa and indeed a small harbour but hardly Port Isaac in the sun. After
a coffee stop we found the van and went south along the coast to catch the
ferry from Brestova to Porozina on the Island of Cres. We than drove onto the
eponymous main town Cres and found that for a quite island there was a huge
camp site with 1600 places including a nudist area – thankfully it was to early
in the season for the even the Germans or Austrians to get their kit off. It
was well run with a pleasant coastal path into the town for supper.
Sunday 29th April.
Having explored CresTown we setoff for
Valun a little seaside village set under the cliff. We had to park the camper
and walk down some steep steps to the little harbour side for a pleasant walk along
another Longamare and did coffee along
with the hordes that got off a sight seeing boat. Our next port of call was
Lubenice a medieval cliff top village genuinely unspoilt village which has managed
to remain more or less true to its roots even with the onslaught of thousands
of grokels. One of the locals had made a small display in a couple of rooms
about the local breed of semi wild sheep. They are the only real source of
income for Cres and Losinj other than
tourisim. They make a haggis like pudding but stuff it with rice and figs rather than
oatmeal, and also a single trantor bagpipe like instrument from lamb skin. Wild
boar were introduced on the islands to encourage foreign hunting which have
decimated the sheep population. Onwards and southerly down the island we
crossed the isthmus that seperates Cres and Losinj at Osor and pitched up at
Mali Losinj. We camped right on the edge of the bay looking westwards at the
sunset.
Monday 30th April.
It was a day on the bikes today, we set
off from the camp site rode the 2 miles or so into the village and then
followed the track around the peninsula, with many quiet little bays and some
not so quiet with a hotel or another camp site beside. 2 coffee stops and a soup
stop where Liz gave the waitress a hard time for 1. Soups not hot and 2.
Seafood soup with an empty mussel shell does not cut the mustard, we came to
the end of the metaled track and decided both our bike and we were not up for
off roading. We returned towards our camp site along the road that led to the
hotel on the point of the peninsula and diverted around Veli Losinj another
picturesque habour but not quite so picturesque “concrete beach” Back at the
camp we ate at the camp restaurant, Mrs R not happy about the amount of fat on
her pork ribs.
Tuesday 1st May.
Today we returned to the mainland
catching the ferry from Merag to Krk island straight across this island and
over a toll bridge but as 1st May is a National Holiday there was no
toll! It was then a climb with many hair pin bends over the Dineric Alps
stopping at a mountain hamlet for coffee and also bought some local sheep
cheese where they had grafted a portion of smoked cheese to a piece of non-smoked
cheese. We then linked up with a motorway and more tunnels arriving at Zadar.
The camp site at Marni was a couple of mile outside the town and had only been
opened for 2 seasons. It was next to a marble cutting and dressing factory and
run by the owner’s nephew. Needs some work such as running hot water and
weeding (!?) but has potential. Filip who was in charge took us into Zadar and
collected us later all for 80 kuna. Zadar has a old walled town with Roman
remains and we are told a better value café scene than Dubrovnik.
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