Our breakdown and accident

Hello Montenegro and Serbia - and our first accident and first breakdown (hopefully also our last accident and breakdown)

We had a great trip through to Montenegro choosing to take the scenic route over the ferry at Tilvet, this meant we ended up on a one way road with traffic coming both directions so at times were passed with millimetres to spare and on our other side either a shear drop (1 metre) to the sea or a block wall.

We cruised around the coastline to Budva where we found a very local campsite.  Meaning the water for the shower was one temperature (depending on the heat of the tanks on the roof) and it dribbled out.  The toilets were hole in the ground affairs, but the location was mint.

The next day we cruised off towards Ulcinj, where a wrong turn instead ended us up in Podgorica.  We certainly miss Tomtom's navigational aid, even tough she can put us in very difficult situations at times.

As it was early we decided to press on to Niksic, where we soon learnt there wasn't a camp site in region.  So back top Podgorice to find the same situation.  Camp grounds are pretty scarce in inland Montengegro.

Again we decided to press on and see where we ended up, 5 km later we found a lovely small campsite, just in the process of being set up.   That suited us fine.

Their restaurant cooked us local dishes that night and again for breakfast.

The next day we set sail for Serbia.   About 5 km's from the border we were hit by a larger campervan (WM) coming towards us, it was well over our side and it's wing mirror clipped ours, causing our mirror glass to break.  It was a loud bang and gave us a hell of a fright.

Amongst all our tools and spares we had a small mirror to help with setting the points.  Daryl taped it in place at our next campsite, but it feel off in the night so I did it my way - nowhere near as pretty, but it's working get.  We will source a replacement mirror in Germany.

Our campsite last night was in Kremna, Serbia.  A very small camp run by this gentleman who also makes what he calls Brandy.  I call it moonshine, but it's very close to schnapps.  Obviously a acquired taste, but I'll give that one a miss.  It was served also with coffee that left a 5mm+ sludge in the bottom of the cup when finished.

Carevic cooked us trout for dinner and we talked half the night with the lovely young Latvia couple who were tenting for 2 weeks.

Today Komplit Lipinja for breakfast, which kept us going all day.

Less than an hour after we departed our lovely camp, declining nicely more offers of a post breakfast drink of his brandy, we both heard a clunk.  First I thought it was the passenger back tyre, but the tyre pressure sender still read normal, then maybe we lost a hubcap, but nope.

We pulled over to have look and the motor and underneath looked normal.  As we pulled away we heard a clunk, so stopped.  It ended up that we discovered a bolt had came out of the lower brake adjusting amount on the drivers rear.  We fixed and also checked the other side.

Later we were pulled over by the Police to check our passport and green card insurance, which was all good.  However he took offence to our Croatia sticker and ripped it off the window - the bastard.

We topped up the fule tank $4,500 diner - ouch!

After that the rest of the day was uneventful, we arrived at our camp and again it was a great wee camp, this time we have two other sites occupied.  Again we were greeted with shots of liquid fire, this time tasting more like Whiskey, so strong it made my lips go numb.  I liken it to drinking poison.

It's as hot as hell here

We are now in Dubrovnik and had to join the Naturist's club as it's far too hot to wear a swim suit (don't worry the only picture is decent)

Daryl decided we should bike the 7km into the old town, it was like having a bike ride and a sauna at the same time!

The old town was very beautiful

Today was Mildred's day for her service.  We can't seem to source any 20/50 oil from here, so have decided to go up to another 1,000 km without an oil change.   The service was rather more than just an oil change this time.  We checked out all the brakes, tie rod  ends, front end, CV bolts, wheel bearings, tappets, handbrake, fanbelt, etc  took a few hours in the scorching heat, but I think Daryl's done a great job.

Tomorrow we either go to Bosnia or Montenegro, not sure which, both seem a little scary.

This afternoon its back to our favourite beach (Cava) for more swimming and sunbathing.  Our tan lines are fading fast.

PS I forgot to mention it's so hot that we survive with about 5 + cold showers a day.  Everyday before we leave camp it's the last thing we do., stand under a cold shower for as long as possible then put our clothes on without towel drying - its the only way we keep sane.

Bog to Croatia!

We thought we would be leaving paradise behind us when we left Lucija, but it appears to be following us.  Croatia is beautiful even if very barren.

For the first time since reaching London our passports were glanced at when we crossed the Croatian border – no stamp though.

Croatia is greater developed than I expected, but still a very lovely country, the first day we found a great spot at one of many campsites just out of Novi Vinodolski.  It was so hot (over 33 degrees) that as soon as camp was set up we dived into the sea below us.

Today to avoid travelling in the most intense heat we left camp at 8.15am arriving at our current site in Privlaka around 12 noon.  After lunch and a walk about the small town we again had a long swim in the ocean – bliss.

Mildred’s fridge is struggling to cope in this heat, especially as we tend to be in and out of it more, so we have now decided to try buying our lunches/dinners to see if it has that much impact on the budget – it seems so cheap here even though the exchange rate from NZD to Kuna takes a bit of getting used to (roughly NZD $1 = $5 Kuna.

Here's Daryl relaxing with his Duff beer.

My birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and we had a fantastic day.  Starting early with still warm from the oven croissants, then opening my present of a retro toaster (for Mildred really), cooking some superb toast that we washed down with Moet.  Yum.

Caught up will all my emails (thanks everyone for the birthday wishes – please next time just send presents!)  and then we biked into Piran for lunch.  We lunch on fish soup and then a fish platter, both were devine then wandered the small streets, ending up at the point having a pina colada as we watched the sunbathers bake.

Biking home along the shore front that was packed solid on the Portoroz side.

We lazed the rest of the afternoon and had a lovely swim in the sea (maybe it was the cocktail’s influence but I decided to fit right in with the crowd and went topless).  Don’t worry we didn’t take any photos.

Today is a chill out day.  We will repack our top toolbag, as we found it had inches of water in it from the 10 days of rain.  Everything is now nicely dry.  Tomorrow we head for Croatia so must research that sometime today as well.

About to have a yacht race in front campsite.

Superb Slovenia

This country is under-rated but unbelievable it should be on all ‘should do’ lists – but that would probably ruin it.  It far out rates the Nice/Monaco coastline, is directly across from Venice, in fact we can get a day ferry there and back easily and its relatively cheap (especially on this primo seaside site.)

Having woke after our 10^th day of rain to a muddy (inch + thick on outdoor mat that took ages to wash down in the shoe/foot bath area in Lake Bled) to cruising the beautiful country side of Slovenian. 

Those that know me well, will be so surprised to hear we ended up in the wine Capital of Slovenia for my birthday - 4 days time. 

We lunched in the sunshine for the first time in days  during our Journey here – (it felt like weeks).  Arrived and set up without rain, got the first load of 10 day old washing done and hung out showered and then the rain started, but we were still smiling,  In with the washing, ate our dinner under the sun canopy gazing out at the Adriatic Sea which is currently sitting at a mild temperature of 26 degrees – nice.

Rain and wind has now stopped for the night and forecast for next 10 days is great – fingers crossed!

Oh and here's a picture of one of the beautiful roads in Austria, we tend to take the scenic route over the motorways if we can.

Liechtenstein and Austria

From Basel we travelled to Liechtenstein, again in the rain and arrived with good time to the only camp in the entire country.  We were one of two campers there and after setting up we walked into Triesen.

The next day we visited Vaduz where I managed to buy myself (really Mildred) a wee birthday present - (its my birthday this month!) and take a few photos of the castle on top of the town

From here we continued onto Austria into Innsbruck, to a very crowded camp - we felt like sardines - and we were the only ones not using very square inch of the allotted pitch.

It's still raining, so we got the buss into Innsbruck on Sunday (7.5 km) to visit the old town and finally sort out my old Cash Passport issues (ie Cashed it out).  Loved the old town!

We wandered about for the morning had lunch with the locals in a kebab shop then got the bus back to camp mid afternoon - lovely.   The only thing I liked about this camp site, even though it was rated top camp in 2010 was the bathroom displays, here's a sample:

Today we departed Innsbruck (actually it was Natters) packing up again wet in the rain and headed for Salzburg, along the way stopping at Swarovski for a look about their crystal museum.  As we changed our names to get in, becoming B Bower, we were allowed into the VIP lounge for pink champagne at the end and given a 25th anniversary gift for visiting members!  The entire place was amazing and very much along the tone of the Wearable Arts museum in Nelson.

When we got back outside Mildred was surrounded by old vintage cars from an Austrian Classic car club

Including a very nice Karmann Ghia

We decided to change Salzburg for Hallstatt, so this is where are are tonight, right by the Salzwelten salt mines - here's a picture from the sliding door of Mildred the Panaromabahn (you see one on the track going up) takes you to the oldest salt mine in the world

That's all for now having a traditional meal tonight, not sure what it's  Kohlrabicremesuppe, Kummelbraten, followed with a desert of Kirschen mit Eis.   I hope it tastes as good as it sounds!

Triple borders

We are camping in France, shopping in Germany and sightseeing in Switzerland - all in a day on our bikes!

Yes we are at Basel in northern Switzerland and enjoying the best of three countries at once.

Each morning I bike to the local French bakery for fresh croissants, then we wander over the River Rhine into Germany for groceries and bike to Switzerland for culture and art.  What bliss!

Today we lunched at a German pub and what a feast!  Weiner schnitzel - it was so enormous and we washed it down with fine German Ale.

WOW just as I am writing this the skies opened and dropped giant hailstones on us!!  I went into complete panic mode on Mildred's behalf and wanted to quickly move more under the tree beside us, we were too late as a car got there first.  Instead we were partly shielded by the tree and we used our bodies, mainly Daryl's head!  The stones were huge!!

See the where Daryl came of second best trying to head-butt a hail stone.

I hope that's the last of that as my heart can't handle that again.  At this stage we think (hope) Mildred is un-scarred.  Lucky we still weren't out on our pushbikes.

Superb Switzerland

Well to be honest the drive into Switzerland was uneventful, we expected this time to at least have our passports looked at, but nope.  We stopped for a vignette our first toll sticker, and at the time I had a hard time justifying to Daryl the NZD 56 sticker – it proved invaluable later.

Had our first night at Agno at the lake edge and although the temperatures were comparable to the Italian Lakes it felt fresher.

The next day we moved onto Lauterbrunnen, just south of Interlaken.  We decided not to take the motorway as we wanted views, and again I had to try to justify that sticker!

We drove through the villages and then came our first Swiss Alp, 2431m high.  Half way up we hit he cloud and from them on could only see a few metres in front, relying on tomtom to tell us where the corners where.  Why did we take the scenic route with huge mountains and no views?

We passed through snow at the sides of the road and when we crested the top to begin our descent we were suddenly above the clouds!  And it was FANTASTIC , we stopped for photos and a play in the snow.  Of course that was the day I decided to wear shorts, t shirt and jandels.

We had amazing views down and Mildred ran extremely well.  We stopped at Wassen for a lovely lunch at a picnic area and let our smelly hot brakes cool down.  We were ready for the next alp, bring it on!

As we left the village we seen a sign saying Geschlossen – we thought – oh maybe that’s caution and we are definitely cautious!   So we continued, until about 12 km up the mountain when Daryl said why is that car parked on the road outside the coffee shop – well because 50 or so metres up the road was closed!

So back down we go and now have no option but the use the toll motorways – I knew there was a reason we brought that sticker!

So off we go on the motorway thru heaps of tunnels the longest of which was 9.3km several 5 km and 3 km ones as well, in fact we both started to get tunnel eyes.

And the rain started, just as we fuelled with our first Swiss fuel (v expensive), the heavens opened and the road also became a river!

We arrived at our Camp Jangfrau, Lauterbrunnen, at the foot of the towering Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau peaks in a valley of the 70 waterfalls (yes straight from their brochure)

Planned to splash out and go up the world’s highest railway to the ‘Top of Europe’ some  4,158 m but only if the weather cleared we weren’t prepared to part with just over NZD400 for a trip in clouds.

Needless to say the next day was crappy weather wise so we wandered through the village and had a Swiss Hot Chocolate.  Have decided on Cheese Fondue for lunch then a walk closer to the main waterfall.

Trying to have national dishes at each country, Pizza and Pasta for Italy, Tapas Spain along with this lovely soup that had an egg in the bottom of it, Portugal fish and veal and France Croissants and Pate, although I still hope to get back for some snails.

Off to Lucene tomorrow.