Croatia 26 - Salona with its roman remains/The Jones' s in the campsite /wine and cheese by the waters edge

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Gabby the motorhome was parked up in a tiny campsite in Tisno . Miles from anywhere and approached via a white dusty unmade road. I guess many a motorhomer would have looked at the road and made the decision not to bother carrying on. We however did carry on. Right to the top of the road and to the campsite . We missed reception and carried on down to the bottom of the site . We saw a few vans and boat owner painting his boat. The lovely campsite owner found us and directed us down to where we could stay. What a lovely site . Not a lot of amenities but the showers were clean, tidy and with plenty of hot water. The pitches were large enough and the views to die for. The grass had been kept long with ears of wheat growing amongst the yellow and orange tiny Marigolds. We heard bees, we sat under olive trees, we heard the chirping of very fat grasshoppers. There was a bar and we sat there drinking wine and eating cheese. Our neighbours suggested we moved to a different part of the campsite as there was building work going on. The rock breaking started at 7 and carried on through the day. In the end it became normal and we didnt even notice it . On the morning we left the receptionist looked very confused . I told her our name and she looked vague . You have just booked out . It turned out the nice man who asked us to move and us had the same surname. Jones a common one in Wales.

Gabby the motorhome is parked up on a dusty car park close to the roman remains of Salano. We have tried to find these before . They sounded interesting and we do love a bit of Roman history. Sion particularly if he can find anything to do with Hadrian.

We put information into Silly the last time we were here but she took us to a rural street in a housing estate . That was once she was lost having had to detour due to road works . We never did find the roman remains as we parked up looking at houses and washing lines. We made the decision that this would be a definate this trip. As long as we could find the place . Easier said than done. The sat nag was set with the co-ordinates and we had checked exactly where we were going using Google Earth. We needed the hotel , then the hotel car park and then the ruins. We had it all planned .

First thing we went past the hotel and had to turn round where possible . It wasnt the sat nags fault . More ours for not listening . It was easy to turn round or possible . Traffic was manic . But in the end we did and we spotted the hotel with the signs and turned in. It all looked highly improbable as an archaelogical site . We thought we had gone wrong again . How odd to find a roman site in the car park of a hotel .

But we had not and Gabby was locked up. We headed off for the site . Yes we had found it . We were in the right place. It was a short walk to the entrance gates .

We expected to pay but the gates were open and we were treated to the site of roman ruins. It was a surprise to look inside and see such a vast area covered in buildings. A city which had grown up outside of Split . Also a home of the dead. The Romans always kept their dead away from where they lived . What was a shame was the fact that there was no information anywhere about the buildings we could see. It seemed rather neglected. A site that had seen better days and could have been better looked after. The sarcophagi were very interesting all piled up one on top of another. They took up a large area of the site .

Salona was first mentioned in the 7th century as an Illyrian settlement but that had long gone and been overbuilt by the Romans who built walls that surrounded the city , a forum and ampitheatre and an aqueduct that filled the public baths. A very interesting complex of buildings shamefully neglected. We walked round most of the site before heading down into the area where the basilica had been erected. It was at that point that we were charged entry. We don't mind paying but it did gall to see us targetted but other couples were just ignoring the office and walking by. Money was desperately needed to maintain the site and folks were not contributing to its care.

The sarcophagi were the most interesting parts of the site . All empty , many broken in half . Some with plain lids still on top on the tomb. Others with ornate decoration. Decorations were both pagan and christian. Wandering around them was a surreal experience . The sight of them lying higgledly piggledly provoked odd thoughts. What would the Romans think of their tombs so desecrated? The best carted off to Split and the rest left in situ. Split just down the road. Again we could see the high rise flats stretching for mile after mile.

We had planned to revisit Split . Our last visit was marred by bad weather . Today it turned again and the sunshine of yesterday had been replaced by heavy rain so we made the decision to move on and give Split another miss . We are a third of the way through this holiday and time is marching on. So much to see and do and not enough time to do it . We still have to get over to Hvar, over to Bosnia and Mostar , back down to Dubrovnik and into Montenegro.

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