Croatia - Rovinj

 

29.06 – 06.07

 

Wonderful, sunny days spent cycling to the pretty town of Umag with it’s great alfresco eateries, square and port with a market. 

 On our return we found a coastal path which took us alongside the rocky inlets with pebble beaches, through campsites and villages.  We’re amazed at the size of some of these camps, they’re like towns.  40kms and back to camp.

Beers on the waterfront watching the beautiful sunsets. 

Met some awesome people from Holland and London.

Lots of biking along the pretty bike path to Novigrad for swimming, coffees, groceries and dinner at the restaurant opposite the Bay.  A fun night with Margaret and John, fabulous calamari meal with all the extras and beers (30 euros).  Well looked after by Boris who gave us free coffees with the meal.  Biked in the dark back to camp where we listened to a rock band.
 

Read our kindles by the sea, (Col surrounded by all his toys) and laughed at Buster having his daily shower, (shower time!).

We had some good news, the Camp found our ASCI Card they had misplaced.  Phew!

A final catch up and ‘goodbyes’ to everyone over beers and watching the sunset!!

07.07

We hit the road following the coast via Porec then inland around the estuary of the national park Lim Fjord, back to the coast and our chosen campsite ‘Mon Paradis’.  A quaint, little camp on the water in Vestar Bay.  A great choice selected from the internet.  Most ASCI Camp discounts end on 30 June in Croatia and start up again at the end of August.  We spoilt ourselves and chose a pitch 5 metres from the water with a spectacular view overlooking the tree lined bay, bliss! 

After swims, we went for a recce to find a good bike route we can take on our ride to Rovinj tomorrow.  We walked along the coastal path for about 4kms, passed  rocky inlets with wonderful views, through campsites with designated ‘naturists areas’ signposted ‘FKK’, to Camping Polari. The size of these camps is staggering, they are well catered for ‘towns’ with all the facilities including supermarkets, pools, restaurants, gelatos, entertainment, car and bike wash right down to ‘dog swimming areas’!  Camping Polari caters for 5,000 occupants!  We’re amazed at how clean and well organised the camps in Croatia are.  Full time workers keep facilities spotless and toilet paper as well as soap is provided!   

We vistied the camp reception ‘check in’ area where a very helpful chap gave us a bike map to Rovinj which also showed a bike route back to our camp.
 

Back at camp we met Ros and Rod with children Elliot, Freddie and Gwendoline and dogs Pax and Mertyl who have just arrived in their camper and parked next to us.  They’re from England but are living in the French Alps. 

 

08.07

We started the day with swims, a great habit to get into and a good way to wake up! It’s in the 30’s most days now, hot but fabulous and a beautiful tree lined rocky bay with a sandy bottom and pebbly beach with concrete areas to sunbathe and shower.

We ‘sun creamed up’ and carried the bikes across the pebbly beach to Vestar Camp next door where we began our ride.  Along the quiet road passed the Grill Restaurant with the pork spit outside (spits are popular here), 3kms to Camp Polari where we took the coastal path for 7kms to Rovinj. 

A very picturesque ride (no. 203) alongside rocky bays with crystal clear water, through large campsites and  eateries in the pine forests, passed the marina and onto the promenade to the beautiful old town of Rovinj. Built on an island close to the coast, it became connected to the mainland much later in 1763.  From 1283-1797 it was governed by the Republic of Venice.  We walked the traffic free cobble streets with  eateries, admired the Venetian architecture, and walked up to the bell tower for a wonderful view over the Adriatic and surrounding Islands.  We ate our picnic lunch over looking the marina and old town.  

30kms back to camp via a 4kms detour in search of a kettle at Lidl supermarket.

09.07    

Caught up with our chores and read inbetween lots of swims!  Later we battened down the hatches as a storm looks to be brewing.

10.07 

By lunch time the strong winds subsided and the sun came out.    
 

Went swimming in ome of the rocky inlets further around our bay. 

Had a fun evening with Rod and Ros.  They live in Le Burget-du-Lac and overlook Lake Bourget as well as a view of Mt Blanc nearby. 

 

Tomorrow heading to Pula!!