To the mainland!

Leaving the beautiful island of Cres/Lošinj was definitely one of our most difficult transits so far – not because of any problems, rather because of the pull of such a gorgeous location with so much left to explore and enjoy. Still, we were continuing our island hopping and heading off to the island of Krk, which also looked to have a wealth of places to explore – and where we decided we would be guided in part by the feel of our next campsite as to how long we stayed.

It’s an odd transit this, as although our onward destination (Senj, followed by Zadar) is south of Cres/Lošinj, we had to transit north to get to the ferry to leave the island and then north again on Krk to get back to the mainland – before heading south.

Learning from our overly-long wait for the ferry onto Cres/Lošinj we made sure we had an up-to-date timetable for the ferry from Merag to Valbiska on Krk. Arriving at the approach road with what we assumed to be plenty of time, imagine our surprise to find a long queue, when the last ferry had (so we thought) had only recently departed.

Our surprise was then heightened when, as Mr B was walking back up the hill with the tickets, the queue started moving! Making no sense with the timetable we had seen on the web, nor the one posted on the ticket booth, we were just grateful that we were able to squeeze on a ferry that had already been partially embarked – being one of the last half dozen vehicles that were allowed on.

Once aboard we had a smooth 30 minute sailing to Krk, with some lovely views back to Cres – with us both agreeing that a return visit had to be on the cards.

The disembarkation process was again a bit of a free-for-all but nothing like the one on Cres/Lošinj and before long we were arriving at our campsite of choice, Camping Njivice on the north west coast of Krk. So far, we have had lots of choice of ACSI pitches on the sites, so we were perplexed when we were told we might only be able to stay up to three nights. This was soon reduced to two, then one, as the reception computer was updated…

Perhaps we should have guessed, as we drove past signs referring to the 56^th Europa Rally at Camping Njivice, and as it soon transpired, we had fetched up on the first of a five day pan-European rally of national camping clubs – hence there only being the one ACSI pitch left! We decided to take it without looking, as we didn’t fancy a trip back down the island (or off it) to find an alternative. So as we drove onto the last pitch in town, and realised why no-one had bagged it as we surveyed the bountiful trees and sloping ground, we were just glad to have somewhere for the night! After three attempts at getting an angle where (even with our giant ramps) we weren’t going to be facing a head-rush brought on by the sloping ground, we compromised with a rakish lean to one side but heads higher than feet and put the kettle on.

The site is well set out on terraces, and, notwithstanding our sloping pitch, we decided we would, had we the choice, have stayed longer than just the one night, as it’s a good base to explore the island from.

However, that was before we were serenaded by a ‘traditional’ troupe of Hrvatski pipe players and children – all in costume (think practice night for snake charmers for a feel of the music); followed by a multi-lingual MC on the PA system at the beach bar just down from our pitch, where the assembled Euro-rally-ers were enjoying their welcome drinks, dinner, (and later, live cover band with a distinctly West Coast repertoire) – after which we decided that the site was worthy of a longer stay – but perhaps not whilst it was given over to an enormous rally!

Although these big organised rallies are not our cup of tea, it was difficult not to admire the camaraderie and visible sense of fraternity shared by the various national clubs in Europe that had opted to come together in an increasingly nationalistic world (we spotted large groups from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland in our part of the site). Given that the ‘parent’ organising group has been running since the 1930s (the international federation of camping, caravanning and auto-caravanning – FICC) and that its international rally went ahead in Turkey earlier this year in May in spite of many governments listing it as a dangerous destination, and, that pan-European enthusiasm is not exactly at a high point in some countries, we decided us being limited to a sloping pitch for one night was no big deal in the face of such enthusiastic people still committed to European fraternity.

So it was with mixed feelings that we headed off Krk via the impressive bridge that links it to the mainland (no toll payable at the time we crossed) and set our sights to the south via the famous Adriatic Highway (the fabulously named, Jadranska magistrala). We’d read mixed reviews of this road, with many in favour of taking the motorway instead. Based on the section we did between Krk and Zadar however, it has to be one of the most spectacular and beautiful drives we have done in 20+ years of driving around Europe.

Before we had gone too far on the magistrala though, we stopped at Senj so that Mr B could explore the famous Uskok ‘Nehaj Fortress’. 

He’d spent most of his reading time on Lošinj learning about these so-called ‘pirates/corsairs’ who seem to have morphed from being viewed as opportunistic brigands, to proto national heroes of Croatia. Some of this might have something to do with the recent homeland wars of the 1990s, and some of the fort’s displays were given over to an unusual combination of artefacts of the main period of Uskok power (16/17C) as well as weapons and uniforms of the homeland wars.

The scale of the fort – and the views from the ramparts – were impressive whatever the history set out in the displays though, and after slotting our exploration between various groups of Croatian school kids (neatly identified by their matching school T shirts or baseball caps), we headed back to the van and the magsitrala.

At times dipping down to the sea so that you are so close you can see the bottom through the crystal clear water, at others climbing the rocky terrain that mirrors the much more majestic Velebit mountains to the east, and yet others presenting spectacular view after view of the islands just off the western shore, we eventually reached a state of ‘wow-overload’ and pulled in to one of the many shore-side parking areas to have some lunch and soak up the view whilst stationary.

The post lunch drive was equally spectacular and it was with some regret that we turned off to our chosen site north of Zadar near the historic town of Nin. Falling foul of a practice we had encountered in Portugal last year, where onward routing favours the toll motorways and there are no signs for the alternative free roads, we regretted not having a better, larger scale map of Croatia as we resorted to 4G and Google maps to get us (eventually, and after an interesting near perfect circular diversion) to our chosen destination – Camp Zaton.

As we turned off the main road and were stopped at the security barrier by the uniformed guards just inside the perimeter fence, to be told that reception was a further kilometre inside the grounds, we started to wonder whether we had made the right choice…

S&J.