Coming to a crashing halt

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It's been a quick few weeks, after racing through Serbia and Montenegro (see previous "amended" blog) I caught up with Tans and Andy in Dubrovnik. they've been working in France for the last few months and, as it turns out, are currently on a whirlwind trip of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Quite a contrast to my "keep it slow and warm" philosophy. Luckily we were both flexible and had no big ideas.. i.e. no short-term plans or long-term cash 😊

This time of year on the Croatian coast is a real low point in their tourist season - the last campground closed two days after we left, and all "regular" tourist services were on completely irregular timetables. It was great, there were still enough people around to make it interesting, the make believe timetables put paid to any sense of urgency, and the coast was still in the grips of something of an indian summer. The deserted Adriatic beaches were perfect for swimming and relaxing.

Lucky really.. the three of us go back to my first "real" year at university and there was a lot to catch up on without the distraction of anything "to do". we lay on the beach a lot (like three days solid) and did a minimal amount of.. well anything really. it's a nice place though, i'd totally recommend it, sure there's plenty to see 😊

we eventually snapped ourselves out of our introspective mainland beach paradise, realising there was more to life... we packed our bags and made a quick hop to an almost deserted island beach paradise (Mjilet) where external communication wasn't even an option. the island had been abandoned for winter, there were two places to eat and one place to sleep, and an all important bakery (open 4hrs a day) in our tiny village - and i thought Europe was jam packed with people 😊

walking, swimming, relaxing - photos really tell the best story. i'm not even going to make a stab at the history of this area, but it really is a beautiful, unspoilt place to finish a couple of bottles of excellent Bulgarian wine.

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Photos

Waiting for the girls
Long bus journeys do strange things to the mind :)

No title required
Andy, Tams & I hiking to the top of Mjilet Island

Old town Dubrovnik
Sunset from the fortified port

Sun, stones, and snacks..
A fitting end to a good bottle of wine

Standing out!
Camping kiwi style

Another ferry sunset
Mjilet Island in the distance

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There are only a few cars on the island, I assume this is explained by word of mouth

The intrepid feline adventurer
(The cat) this one followed the girls for hours, leaving his little brother far behind and them quite distraught.. until some more girls walked past and he took off after them without so much as a glance over his shoulder ;)

Comments

[Andy]

what are friends for
if not for putting hideous and humiliating pic's of you on the Net for the world to see. And I can't even blame the artist himself, since the rest of your pics are really quite stunning. I think I will have to rely on inner beauty :} what you didn't get a photo of was the green snake we saw ...well, snaking, amongst the grass about a metre away from us. A rare sight for Kiwis... Weird that something so small and green can give you the shakes!

[Ol_boss]

Hey you can't complain too much.. you are looking quite stunning watching the sunset on the ferry :) And as for the snake, you and I both know we were all too scared to do anything but run away ;) .. and Tans reckons she's hardened in aussie!? :)

[Matt G]

Andy you are a magnet to all creatures, animal and man alike. But where is the mountain whale?