The idyll of my beach-side sojourn was terminated at about 0900 by two diggers arriving to finish off grading the little beach, which involved a lot of dust.
I decided to head south following the scenic coast road, about 60km to Trogir, which is just before Split. I have been there before but it’s a small place and easy to reach; yet another Venetian settlement, on a little island, with a core of narrow alleys, and some interesting buildings, but very touristy. The coast road to it was a beautiful drive, often down to the sea itself, but most of the time with a view of the sea and pine-clad islands, the sea looking an inviting shade of turquoise. Dotted along the road are a series of little towns and villages on the coast, most with a marina full of swanky yachts, and boatyards with even more, and everywhere signs for accommodation and camping.
I decided to head south following the scenic coast road, about 60km to Trogir, which is just before Split. I have been there before but it’s a small place and easy to reach; yet another Venetian settlement, on a little island, with a core of narrow alleys, and some interesting buildings, but very touristy. The coast road to it was a beautiful drive, often down to the sea itself, but most of the time with a view of the sea and pine-clad islands, the sea looking an inviting shade of turquoise. Dotted along the road are a series of little towns and villages on the coast, most with a marina full of swanky yachts, and boatyards with even more, and everywhere signs for accommodation and camping.
 Trogir |  |
I had a bit of a think at this stage because I was in two minds whether to spend another night on the coast nearer Dubrovnik, before executing my master plan to drive up to Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina, or to go there straight away. After lunch, and deciding it was too hot to battle my way into the large city of Split (I’ve seen the sights there before anyway) I decided to head straight for Bosnia. This involved a 20km inland drive to reach the Croatian A1 motorway again, running south parallel to the sea, and I then drove 160km south on it, an easy drive with hardly any traffic. Rather than forsaking the scenery by leaving the sea, I found some more beautiful landscape, but very different. The motorway runs through the mountains above the sea, through a scenic but very stark rocky, scrub covered landscape, past spectacular mountains with snow.
The motorway comes to an end actually over the border in Bosnia. Having gone through the two sets of passport and customs controls without a problem I set off down the brand new motorway signed “Mostar/Sarajevo” which was so new my satnav didn’t recognise it and took me flying over nothing on the satnav screen. As I reached a toll point after 1km I wondered if I’d made an error as I had no Bosnian currency (although I’d heard unofficially, and confirmed after arrival, that everywhere will take Euros). The toll booth man actually asked for a credit card instead and I paid 2.5 convertible marks (KM), the equivalent of a pound; Lucky there’s no foreign transaction fee on my card!
Disappointingly the partially completed motorway terminated abruptly after just 5 km further, depositing me at a minor road that was badly signposted. Luckily the satnav knew where it was at this point and we ended up on the correct main road after a bit. It’s is only 40km to Mostar: There is a notable difference from the Croatian coastal belt in terms of visible affluence-but I’ve not seen enough of Inland Croatia to say whether that’s similarly tatty to this bit of Bosnia. Certainly my driving guide says that apart from Bosnia and Albania the roads elsewhere in South Eastern Europe are generally good, so seems to imply that I should expect a reduction in road standards. Lack of clear signage, and road markings seemed the main problem. Also I can tell I’ve changed countries as the road signs that exist are now in both Latin and Cyrillic script(the Bosniaks use Latin, the Serbs Cyrillic).Almost immediately I also encountered signs of the Muslim population, with Muslim cemeteries(tall thin stones, some of the older ones with turbans on top),and I passed some mosques. As I type this tonight I can hear a muezzin calling from a mosque across the fields.
I wanted to find the campsite I was heading for first before heading on into the city: despite the touristy element to Mostar (it’s the main photo on any Bosnia related tourist leaflets) campsites hereabouts are few on the ground, my guide offering two, both about 10km away from Mostar. I went for the most recommended one ‘Camping Mali Wimbledon’: it’s nice, but a world away from Solaris last night, there are spaces marked out in a small orchard next to the owner’s house, but there’s electricity and possibly Wi-Fi if I can get it to work, and a tiny shaded bar area (currently shut), and in the front of the house, two reasonable grass tennis courts (hence the name!)-but yet to be marked out for the season. The drawback seems to be that there’s just one toilet and shower for men, and one for women. But as there’s only two of us here that shouldn’t be a problem. The other is an Austrian man (at least the van has Austrian plates) who seems to be a long-term resident as he has an Alsatian in a wooden kennel next to his campervan and some pallets piled up. He wears combat trousers, and I’ve put him down as a fugitive from justice.
At about 5pm it was still hot and sunny so I thought I’d drive into Mostar to take a look at the bridge. I was given directions from the campsite to a suitable parking place near the bridge but after driving round and round for a while I couldn’t find anywhere. I had thought Mostar was quite a small place, but actually it’s a large town and even has a small airport. Its traffic is very busy at 5pm .I saw the old bridge from 200 yards away 3 times as I crossed and re-crossed the river on another bridge but I just couldn’t find a van-sized space to park, so in the end I gave up, feeling tired after a day’s driving .I’ll try again tomorrow morning .
The motorway comes to an end actually over the border in Bosnia. Having gone through the two sets of passport and customs controls without a problem I set off down the brand new motorway signed “Mostar/Sarajevo” which was so new my satnav didn’t recognise it and took me flying over nothing on the satnav screen. As I reached a toll point after 1km I wondered if I’d made an error as I had no Bosnian currency (although I’d heard unofficially, and confirmed after arrival, that everywhere will take Euros). The toll booth man actually asked for a credit card instead and I paid 2.5 convertible marks (KM), the equivalent of a pound; Lucky there’s no foreign transaction fee on my card!
Disappointingly the partially completed motorway terminated abruptly after just 5 km further, depositing me at a minor road that was badly signposted. Luckily the satnav knew where it was at this point and we ended up on the correct main road after a bit. It’s is only 40km to Mostar: There is a notable difference from the Croatian coastal belt in terms of visible affluence-but I’ve not seen enough of Inland Croatia to say whether that’s similarly tatty to this bit of Bosnia. Certainly my driving guide says that apart from Bosnia and Albania the roads elsewhere in South Eastern Europe are generally good, so seems to imply that I should expect a reduction in road standards. Lack of clear signage, and road markings seemed the main problem. Also I can tell I’ve changed countries as the road signs that exist are now in both Latin and Cyrillic script(the Bosniaks use Latin, the Serbs Cyrillic).Almost immediately I also encountered signs of the Muslim population, with Muslim cemeteries(tall thin stones, some of the older ones with turbans on top),and I passed some mosques. As I type this tonight I can hear a muezzin calling from a mosque across the fields.
I wanted to find the campsite I was heading for first before heading on into the city: despite the touristy element to Mostar (it’s the main photo on any Bosnia related tourist leaflets) campsites hereabouts are few on the ground, my guide offering two, both about 10km away from Mostar. I went for the most recommended one ‘Camping Mali Wimbledon’: it’s nice, but a world away from Solaris last night, there are spaces marked out in a small orchard next to the owner’s house, but there’s electricity and possibly Wi-Fi if I can get it to work, and a tiny shaded bar area (currently shut), and in the front of the house, two reasonable grass tennis courts (hence the name!)-but yet to be marked out for the season. The drawback seems to be that there’s just one toilet and shower for men, and one for women. But as there’s only two of us here that shouldn’t be a problem. The other is an Austrian man (at least the van has Austrian plates) who seems to be a long-term resident as he has an Alsatian in a wooden kennel next to his campervan and some pallets piled up. He wears combat trousers, and I’ve put him down as a fugitive from justice.
At about 5pm it was still hot and sunny so I thought I’d drive into Mostar to take a look at the bridge. I was given directions from the campsite to a suitable parking place near the bridge but after driving round and round for a while I couldn’t find anywhere. I had thought Mostar was quite a small place, but actually it’s a large town and even has a small airport. Its traffic is very busy at 5pm .I saw the old bridge from 200 yards away 3 times as I crossed and re-crossed the river on another bridge but I just couldn’t find a van-sized space to park, so in the end I gave up, feeling tired after a day’s driving .I’ll try again tomorrow morning .
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