Overland 1972 - Day 21

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Day 21 - Friday 3rd March

Hurray this time the promise of a lift was true (unlike Varese). However it was a slow journey as my driver stopped at several chemists along the route - maybe a sales representative ! The scenery along the route was fairly pretty but not devasting - it was also noticeable where the main tourist beaches were situated. I arrived at Ancona at 11am. Plenty of time to exchange some travellers cheques ( a good rate for Lira) and to buy some food for the next couple of days journey before reaching the next main destination of Dubrovnik. I found a nice looking supermarket with friendly staff and just about managed to avoid knocking over one of their displays. As the ferry was due to leave in the late afternoon, there was not a lot of time for sightseeing but I did manage to walk to the Cathedral, which also provided nice views over the harbour.

I was relieved to see Michael and Heather and so we went to buy our ferry tickets to Zadar in Yugoslavia - 3300 Lira less an unexpected 10%!s(MISSING)tudent discount. The ferry was due to leave at 4.30pm. At Day 21 I had spent £19.35 on daily living expenses just within the target budget. The ferry discount meant that I had a few extra lira in my pocket which quickly vanished on a few food treats. The ferry was quite plush and was relatively empty. The ferry had some games facilities and we occupied ourselves playing table football and arguing about how many days to spend in India - we had some time limitations as we had to arrive in Kuala Lumpur by 5th May as Michael's mother is flying out for a visit. Unfortunately there were no facilities on board to buy Yugoslavian dinars.

The ferry arrived at Zadar at 10.30pm. Immigration officers were extremely thorough in reviewing our passports and it was slightly disconcerting to see that the security guards had very visible guns - I had never seen this before. There was a ferry leaving for Dubrovnik within a very short time so we rushed to find the office - it was closed. We were directed to another office and bought our tickets for 80 Dinar each (luckily we had decided to buy a few currencies in advance in London as a precaution and we just had enough dinars). The ferry would thread its way through the coastal islands of Yugoslavia and so we could look forward to an interesting trip. This internal ferry was much older and there was a very unpleasant smell inside but at least it was warm. The ferry left about one and half hours late and it was about 1am before I managed to get to some sleep despite the noise from the many people who were still drinking at the bar.

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