Advertisement
Let's for a change start at the end rather than the beginning. Books these days seem not to follow the pattern of a beginning, a middle and an ending. The authors jumble up the present and the past. They tell the tale in small episodes from each persons life. The whole thing only comes together at the end as all the threads are drawn in. We are sitting on an almost deserted campsite next to a pebbly beach and a small car park. The car park has a massive sign NO CAMPING CARS. Our neighbours are parents of a small baby who is quiet until his brother - a terrible two - prods him and wakes him up. The two year old screams and scream having tantrums throwing his bike over in temper. The only other guests are two elderly couples travelling together in a caravan and car and a small motorhome. They park well away from the screaming child. We can see the ferry to the island of Miljet. Only one ferry has been into the harbour since we arrived earlier today. It is a lovely evening and the sun is shining. A rare treat this holiday . There is
a TOMMY supermarket , closed although tomorrow we will see them stocking it up for the season ahead. We wonder how the owners make a living with so few guests. The toilets are adequate and there is a restaurant . We are the only ones there . We talk to the young lad who serves us. He was acting on reception when we arrived . Issuing us with receipts for passports, keys for the electricity box and giving me information on the much needed washing maching. The head cook and bottle washer who is preparing potatoes and onions was the lady who came to open up the washing machine block. They all multitask. We order our meal. Glenn has pork on skewers and I have tunny fish . Both are served with vegetables which are clearly frozen but they have managed to do something with them that changes their taste. We wash the meal down with a very nice Croatian white wine and two espressos . We asked how our host learned his English expecting him to say comics or the TV. Instead he had a friend who lived in London , who was a teacher and taught him everything
he knew . He understood English he said better than he formed his sentences . He used the usual For sure when he meant to say OK or allright . I wished I had his gift for languages. He seemed like many here to be able to switch language easily.
So lets go back to this morning ., Gabby was still at the old campsite but it was not long before she hit the road for Mali Ston. We had to cross the Neum corridor . The area of Bosnia which cuts Croatia in two. An area that looks down at heel compared to the rest of Croatia . Black paint has been used to cover the Bosnian language on road signs suggesting a very fragile relationship in the area.
Given to Bosnia after the war it has caused problems for tourists ever since . A trip through has to be done without insurance, with just third party or for us with fully comprehensive insurance for one week. Without that the only choice is an expensive boat trip across from Ploce to the Pelijsac on the other side and a serpentine drive back to the main roads. Last
time we were here there was talk of a bridge . It had stalled due to lack of money and the only thing that we could see was a pillar on each side , an road to nowhere and an empty construction site . The Bosnians had scuppered the project by refusing permission to access its sea passage. This year there is a bit of activity . Many construction workers huts , a couple of dredgers out at sea, some piling going on and a few cranes. It seemed that the Chinese had won the contract and the bridge was being built . Croatia ran out of money many years ago. The EU offered a huge amount to build the bridge but still it seems hard to imagine it will be built and open by 2022.
We did wonder though when we got to Mali Ston how much the place would have altered. When we came in 2013 we parked up for free on a totally empty car park. There was oyster farming but not on the scale where an Oyster Festival was being advertised. The car park once empty was heaving with cars and buses. It was no
longer free. I paid 14 kunas for two hours which should have given us enough time to eat , enough time to visit Mali Ston and make a decision about walking the Great Wall of Ston from Mali Ston to Ston and back. We found the town and the very expensive restaurants all full with the Ferraris we saw on our way in. We walked to the first tower and paid our entrance fee. It may have been free last time we called. We climbed and climbed until our legs were aching. It would take more than an hour to get to Ston so there was no way we were going to make the trip up and the return. There was building work going on along the fort walls. Some of it seemed sympathetic but other bits were not. I don't know if it would have been better to leave it crumbling or carry on with the renovations. Mali Ston was founded in the year 1335 as part of the republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) It was intended to be defensive protecting Dubrovnik. It is fair to say that the walls are impressive as are the towers. The Fortress of Koruna rises above Mali Ston and this is where we walked to. The port below was completed in the year 1490 and resembles Dubrovnik with arsenals , round towers and fortified gates but on a much smaller scale.
After paying to park we found the free parking a little too late. But just in time as we approached Ston we saw the motorhomes . Not using the official car parking but parked up on a bit of rough ground. Time to pull some kunas back. We had not actually been into Ston last time round so this was a first for us. What a delightful town lying beneath the Great Wall. The streets were being dug up and water channels cut out. It is going to look lovely when it is finished. There are tat shops, cafes and restaurants and a small church. Pastel coloured inside . We could only peek through the doors. Stun is larger than Mali Stone but only slightly. We called at the fortress which was in the process of being renovated. Again some sympathy but in places it just didn't look right. On each corner were cannons forged in Cremona in 1571. Most people and there were few here walked past them without giving them a second glance. On the whole what can you say about Ston and Mali Ston. Two lovely places now more commercialised than last time we visited, Fortresses and shops and the longest fortress system in Europe with a wall second only to the Great Wall of China. 5 kms of walls still pretty much intact .
The weather is warm and sunny but yet again it is not as hot as other times we have been in Croatia . It is not shorts and T shirt weather sadly. A change of plan is required so its back to the maps. That is the beauty of motorhoming . You can and do change your mind .
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 16; qc: 20; dbt: 0.0434s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Ston & Mali Ston
There is something about the feel of the antiquity of stone walls & buildings that only being there can describe. Must have been wonderful being there.