Day 29 – Split to Rovinj (Saturday 11th May 2024)

As all Intrepid tours do, this one formally ended at 8:00am this morning. Bashkim was long gone, having caught an early flight to Zagreb and then on to Budapest to start his next assignment – the Balkan Tour we did with Ivana. Rumour had spread that breakfast was included in the tariff for this hotel so Kerry went to check. Sure enough, it was, even though no mention was made of that in the tour itinerary. Indeed, it explicitly said it was not. So down to the dining room we went to enjoy a really good breakfast with the few remaining comrades who were still here.

A young chap in a taxi picked us up a quickly delivered us to the Sixt Downtown office just a few of kilometres from the hotel. He flashed a lovely, appreciative smile when I commented on how nice his car was. A couple of other Aussies of around our vintage were finalising their rentals when we arrived. The chap who served us was friendly and efficient. We were both really happy with his level of service and care. I had ordered a little Fiat 500 because it would be big enough for us and our luggage and was the least expensive vehicle. As seems to be often the case, there was not one available so we were upgraded to a brand new manual, diesel Renault Clio – just like the one we had in France in 2013 and just like Kerry’s car at home. It would have been fun to drive the Fiat but I was equally happy to be in a very familiar car. After giving instructions to GPS-girl we headed off for the long drive to Rovinj in the far north of Croatia.

Google Maps has told me that the journey was 503kms and would take 5hrs 3mins. My maths told me that therefore the road must be freeway almost all the way – and it was! We picked up a ticket at the first toll booth on the outskirts of Split and gunned the little Clio out onto the highway. I’d also guessed that the speed limit was likely to be 130kph for most of the way – and it was! The diesel Clio has a surprising amount of “toe” so was able to quickly get past slower traffic and quickly get out of the way of fast-approaching Ferrari’s, Maserati’s and big Merc’s and BMW’s. For all you petrol heads out there, of course I got the Clio above the old “ton” (162kph) briefly on a couple of occasions, but only in the interests of safety and good traffic flow, you understand. And she had no problems getting there too!

Along the 400kms of toll-way we stopped a couple of times for a breather, to stretch the legs and get something to eat and drink. The big motorways service stations appeared frequently along the way so there was no excuse to not stop. The scenery is spectacular up through the central part of the western half of Croatia. To help you envisage that Croatia is shaped like a boomerang with part of Bosnia tucked into the elbow. Rugged, high mountains ranges accompanied us for the first 200kms of the journey. High bridges across deep ravines were frequent as were tunnels straight through the mountains, the longest being the Mala Kapela Tunnel at 5,821mtrs in length. On occasions we spied the Adriatic coast to the west and at other times small villages clinging to the shoreline between mountains and sea on quite, little estuaries. I just cannot imagine how hard it must have been to travel through this part of Croatia before the toll-way was built. Road maintenance slowed us down a little from time to time but for my money the toll-way was worth every cent of the €25 it cost to use. That’s just over €0.06 per kilometre.

We still had a further 100kms to travel once we were done with the A1, most of which was also completed on a toll-way at the more familiar maximum speed of 110kph. Then some ordinary roads in ordinary condition and finally into Rovinj.

We’re staying at a private apartment called Apartment Iva. Our room is up some external stairs above her place of residence. In the ‘burbs but just 600m up the hill from the old town and the marina. In the Balkans and the Dalmatian coast it is customary for places like this to be named as this one is. If I rented out such an apartment in Croatia it would be called Apartment Greg. Our small but very comfortable apartment has everything we need including the two most important things – a kettle and a washing machine – both of which were put to immediate use.

At a nearby supermarket we grabbed some essentials (beer, wine, cheese, bread, prosciutto etc), had a drink in a bar there and then headed home for dinner and an early night after a good but exhausting day.