Korcula and Dubrovnik, Croatia

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Well, what a day – I think we are going to run out of superlatives to describe what we're seeing, but here goes – the ferry crossing to Orebic was interesting as 6 Harleys pulled up and so we compared bikes – unfotunately they were not very interested in looking at the Honda!!!
The Harleys were all old models from the 60's and had obviously had a tough life – all kick starts and quite a bit of DIY repairs, and as they were from Bosnia Hercegovina, I guess parts are a bit hard to get. They all revved up the bikes on the boat before leaving, as you do, and of course I wasn't able to even compete – I followed them into town thinking maybe the Fat Boy should have come, but too late now and the Honda is being very reliable at the present and easy to ride.

Anyway, after finding a campsite in Orebic we headed off to get a drink and something to eat – the beer was $6 for half/ litre and $2 glass of wine, so we downed a few watching the boats, then went in search of an internet cafe – the first one said they had internet so we ordered a drink then found out they didn't know the password, so we had to down that drink and move on – we eventually found an internet connection and as soon as we logged on, our daughter Rachel came up on Skype – she had just arrived in Germany and we had a good old chat with her – the only problem was her microphone didn't work but she could hear us – that made it all a bit strange and I think she thought we'd had too much to drink....

We caught the local ferry across to Korcula the next morning – about 20 minutes – Lonely Planet said this place was a mini Dubrovnik and we were not disappointed – basically the town is on an island and had stone walls for protection – inside the town are all these old alleyways and sculptures and very interesting old architecture – its supposed to be the birthplace of Marco Polo so there were bits and pieces about him everywhere. The views are fantastic – all red terracotta rooves and brick walls, with the odd church tower and bellfry in the midst – as the water surrounding it is azure blue, its all very picturesque – even the visitors dress up – we saw one women dressed in tight gold hot pants, a gold fitted top and lace up sandals – looked like an Amazon!! After the required swim at the beach ( small round stones – almost sand but not) we headed onto Dubrovnik, about 100kms. Along the way we came across this place called Ston, where they had salt lakes as the reason for existence, but what was of interest was this stone wall they'd built up the side of the mountain, which connected with the town wall – we couldn't figure out why they had built the wall up the mountain as it didn't seem to serve any purpose – may have to google that one sometime.

Onto Dubrovnik, and our first sight of the city was superb – a huge cruise liner was just pulling out and with the town featured in the background, it looked amazing – tomorrow's job is to tour round Dubrovnik – that should be very interesting....  We had trouble finding a reasonable camp ground as a couple of them were completed desserted and derelict and we didn't fancy stopping there.  So ended up about 10km out of Dubrovnik at a nice spot called Mlini with a nice little beach a short walk down the hill.  A german family and a french family were camped nearby and we enjoyed chatting with them quite a bit.   Most people are amazed we have come from New Zealand, and a little awed at the distances we are travelling.

Dubrovnik
Well, after Korcula we actually were a little bit disappointed with Dubrovnik – it is obviously the cruise boat favourite as there were 4 huge cruise liners in port and that meant that the old town was crowded with tourists – they can do a 1 hour walking tour so there were groups everywhere, and the buses were lined up taking them to/from the cruise liners all day. The city itself is beautiful with lots of old churches, buildings but mostly designer shops with expensive stuff. We wandered around all the little old streets soaking up the atmosphere. We found a lovely little cafe that was perched on the outside wall overlooking the sea...picturesque. The Yugoslav army bombed Dubrovnik in 1991 and caused quite a bit of damage but they have restored it to its former glory – but you can tell the new works which is a bit of a shame.

Our impressions of Croatia as we leave for Montenegro are that it is a beautiful place, but is letting itself down a bit when it comes to tourists – the prices are quite high ( eg $9 for a litre of water at the National parks, $50-70 for a campsite etc) yet the service isn't up there. Usually counters are understaffed and the documentation processes for check in etc are archaic. it also seems that the quality of workmanship is poor and maintenance is non existent –  The drivers are erratic, always trying to pass on blind corners and straddling the white line. On the positive side, the water is azure blue and crystal clear with lovely litle coves everywhere, the towns are stunning with their terracotta rooves, and there's lots to see and do as the photos show...