From our wild camping To Pula

Day's Summary
"After a thankfully undisturbed night we woke up to brilliant weather. Drove town to a ferry terminal but it was too expensive to be worthwhile. Stopped at Senj and walked into the very attractive town. Then continued towards Pula through a landscape that was becoming quite reminiscent of Italy. Drove into Pula going past a complete Roman amphitheatre and then along the waterfront to our parking. Cycled into the town and got lost a couple of times before getting to the forum which had a number of Roman structures. Then went to the amphitheatre, through the old city wall to a Roman arch and then back to the parking going past a ship building yard. Moved the camper to the campsite and explored the rocky shore as the sun set."

We woke up to brilliant sunshine and enjoyed the view across to Pag Island in the morning light. We were relieved to have an undisturbed night as wild camping is illegal in Croatia. We walked up the rough road adjacent to our bridge for about one kilometre, but there was no sign of any reason for its existence. A short distance further on we turned off to the ferry port to the island of Pag. The winding road went down very steeply to where the ferry had just arrived. It was a big double ender and could take at least two big trucks plus at least ten cars. Although there was a bridge to the island near Zadar, it was the only connection for many kilometres and probably very important. It would have cost us R 520.00 (222 Kuna) to go across so although it was very tempting we decided not to as we did not have time to make it worthwhile.

So we drove back up the steep road and continued on the winding E65 heading for Rijeka. The islands just off the coast were very barren, with hardly any visible vegetation, looking almost moon like. At Senj, at the major intersection with the road coming down from the motorway above on the escarpment, we stopped at a rather scruffy garage for a quick coffee. It would appear that every tour bus and vehicle coming down the mountain stops here for a toilet stop, because a whole stream of German tourists walked in. As we drove past a castle and the walls of the old town, we came across a huge parking area at a Plodine Supermarket. Marianne insisted that we have a quick look at Senj and we found a way through the city wall into the old city. It was a very special town with a defensive wall and narrow streets which we wandered through to get to the harbour. Senj was already inhabited in prehistoric times and was a thriving trading town in Roman times. It had withstood many wars and was even part of the Austrian Empire in the early 19th century. As we emerged a the waterfront we came upon a typical, but once again delightful harbour scene , with some newish buildings that blended in very well.

Then it was back on the road, as we had to get to Pula and there was much to see along the way. The road was now less twisty and quite pleasant to drive, but we were both surprised how barren the islands appeared to be and how rocky the rather steep mountains adjacent to the coast were. At Rijeka we turned briefly onto the E 751 and then onto A8 for Pula. This was a very impressive toll road with the 5.5 kilometre Ucka tunnel, shorter tunnels and some very impressive bridges, but also long stretches of road works and single carriageway road under construction. Although quite hilly this area was much more forested and farmed with a number of small towns, quite unlike the barren mountains we had driven past. We were now in the province of Istria and the landscape has a remarkably "Tuscan" feel to it. After all we were very close to Italy!

As we entered Pula, we saw the amazing Roman amphitheatre. Wow! Pula was quite a big town and we followed Google girl to the parking area identified by Park4night. She took us almost through the centre of town and past the harbour and a ship building yard to a parking area located about 4 km from the town centre. As usual it was bikes off the car and we cycled to the old town after having the rolls we had bought in Senj for lunch. I got it very wrong and tried to take a short cut and we went to the top a quite a high hill. We did get to see an attractive park and the observatory, but had to retrace our way to avoid going down lots of steps. We ended up following the route Marianne had wanted to take and we were soon in the town square (the Roman forum) where we were astounded to find the Roman Temple of Augustus, the oldest preserved building in Croatia. This was a lovely space and locals were setting up a festival so it was pleasantly active. We then rode towards the amphitheatre and found it to also be remarkably complete. Inside it was pleasantly quite (unlike the Colosseum) and we spent some time relaxing there. In the basement there was a very interesting museum setting out the history of olive oil and wine production in Istria. There were lots of old artefacts and models of the various types of presses that would have been used. Our next stop was McDonald’s where we had ice-cream and enjoyed them adjacent to the Roman arch of Sergii. It’s not every day that I get to eat an ice-cream touching Roman carving and watched by James Joyce, whose statue was on a terrace overlooking the arch. After this we went back to the forum, which was quite remarkable and very Italian feeling, with the church having a detached campanile and the town hall also being Italian in style. There were also ancient walls and other old Roman gateways with some of the ancient streets still paved with Roman stones.

It was starting to get late and we headed back to the camper. There was a campsite just out of town and we drove there. It was very big and there was plenty of space. There was quite a range of prices and we had a job finding our blue number (one of the cheaper ones). When we found them we had to look for a flat site. After supper we cycled around the huge campsite. There were some great views and the rocky coastline on the peninsula was very impressive and we watched a beautiful sunset. We realised that there were lots of sites taken, mostly by campers, but it looked as though there were hundreds of vacant sites! We moved the camper again to a flatter site and I got to see my hedgehog!

Geschreven door Leartravels