Croatia Tour

I should say up front that on various occasions I passed through Croatia without actually visiting it. The first time I came to this country was for work; I was a sports journalist for a TV channel and produced part of a report in Pula. The real Tour of Croatia I did in my Fiat Tipo, alone. Having bypassed Rijeka, I slept at a guesthouse on the seafront in Senj. The house that hosted me was in a splendid position, facing the promenade, and at night I could hear the surf. The next day I moved inland to Plitvice Park, full of waterfalls and streams. This is a spectacular green area where water and land merge and you can't tell exactly where one ends and the other begins. The water plays very strange games, forming waterfalls large and small in endless succession. Part of the park is explored on foot and part by a rubber-tyred little train, and it's well worth seeing.

Back on the coast near Zadar I reached the ancient former Venetian colony of Trogir, with the walls that encircle it right by the sea. From there to Split, with its ancient archaeological remains perfectly integrated as an integral part of the city squares. I then followed the Adriatic coast down to Ploce, a sad town where I took the bus for Bosnia and Herzegovina (the details of this trip are in the relevant itinerary). Back in Ploce I continued to the Croatian enclave located between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, where Dubrovnik stands. To reach the enclave you pass through Bosnia's only stretch of coastline, the Neum corridor. Beautiful Dubrovnik, the ancient Ragusa, rich in light-coloured monuments and surrounded by walls. I continued south to the closed border with Montenegro, a stone's throw from Kotor.

On the way back I slept in Drvenik in a small hotel that lapped the narrow beach and the sea. The next day I boarded a boat for the island of Hvar. Having got off at Sucuraj I crossed the whole island along its length to the very beautiful capital of the same name, with a square in Venetian style. Having reached Sucuraj again along the island's only road, I took the ferry back towards Drvenik, from which I set off for Solin, a suburb of Split where archaeological remains are found. This was the last stop before heading home.