Bosnia 2 - another let down

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We left our little piece of heaven at Camping Nevio with a sense of sadness. We took a last look at Korcula town and the lighthouse whose light had kept us company for the last few nights.

The road we followed back was exactly the same – butt clenching in every way. We passed through Ston again and viewed the Great Wall of Ston for the opposite direction . It is an amazing feat of engineering whatever way you look at it.

On the road side we stopped to pick up a bag of oranges, apples and cherries for 55 kuna. Lunch was spent on the roadside Beans on Toast not exotic or fancy in any way but filling non the less and followed by Lemon Swiss Roll. Simple food but heaven especially with the chocolate hit from the Swiss Roll.

Where has the last week or so gone . It hardly seems five minutes since we were going through Bosnia on our way down and here we are on our way back to travel again through the Neum corridor. Yet again we were not stopped as we left Croatia but simply waved through. The Bosnian guards stopped us, looked at our British passports and let us through the border. A friendly Croatian guard at the next stop asked us if we were Tourists – well yes we are in a camper van so it’s fairly obvious. She was probably trying to be friendly and waved us on ., No stamp again on the passport and much disappointment.

We saw evidence this way round of the new bridge which should avert the need to go through Bosnia. The road has been started just before Neum but looks abandoned. The piles for the bridge supports can be seen in the distance the other side of the water but again look as if they have been left. From what we can gather the work should be finished by 2015 but money has run out so it looks as if it will never be finished unless E U money is invested in the project. So yet more misery for tourists travelling across the Neum corridor can be expected for the rest of this year and into 2014.

Our wish list if we came this way again would be for the bridge to be completed and for a visit to Mostar either under our own steam or on an organised trip. We did see trips from our campsite last night but they only ran if six people wanted to go and out of season this was highly unlikely.

Our stop for the night was Camping Stobrec at Split. An ACSI site at 16 euro or the equivalent of 148 kuna approximately. The site was hard to find and poorly signed. Reception was very friendly and we obtained maps of Split, information on the bus into the city which ran from outside the campsite although rather infrequently on a Saturday. We were given bracelets to use of the shower and told to park up on plot 147 which turned out to be rather waterlogged. The plots were larger than average and every other plot had a water and electric supply. Our plot had the water supply and that was why it was wet so we asked to move to 146 next door which was dry. There was no problem moving . The site is shaded with trees. AS it was out of season there was only one shower block open which had wash basins and four shower cubicles. We used the washing machine at 40 kuna but again there were two machines but only one worked.

The main visitors to the site were Dutch and German with the odd French and one other Brit. I got talking to one of the men who worked on the site and it turned out he used to sail to Liverpool, South Shields and knew our country of Wales as he had sailed to Llandulus just up the road from where we live. Small world indeed.

We tried the on site restaurant and had Spagetti Bolognese and a Pizza Not very inspiring and not the best meal we have ever had. But better than cooking. Hopefully our visit to Split tomorrow will make staying at this campsite worthwhile. We have decided though that we prefer quieter campsites away from the mad rush. Perhaps this isn’t what we are looking for. Our idea of heaven is not the bigger campsites or the ones full of people, children and dogs. We love the peace and quiet, the ability to just sit and listen to nature and to get to know a country.

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Photos

Bosnia
Here we go again