17 Nights at €15 a Night, Loving Croatia
Zagan’s doing a great job of shielding me from the hot Croatian sun as I sit inside a-bloggin’ from Camping Rožac (N43.50524, E16.25766).
Ju’s braving the heat at Camping Rožac
Our 2016 ACSI book still hasn’t arrived, and we’ve been here for 17 nights now. Ju’s arranged with the site reception they’ll send us a text message when the parcel comes, so she’s paid up and the Zagan Wagon will roll tomorrow! The receptionists here, by the way, speak perfect English. As it seems everyone under the age of 40 does in Croatia.
The bill from Camping Rožac, Ju had to explain it to me.
The cost, after some complicated process of adding in tourist tax and registration fees, and taking off a couple of free nights (it’s an 8 for 7 nights deal at the moment), was 1908 Kuna, roughly €15 a night. Even taking into account the fact we’ve bought no diesel or gas in almost 3 weeks, and have eaten down the food and beer stash, we’d still be well within our £41 a day budget. So we’re off out to eat again tonight, to say goodbye to Okrug Gornji.
Me ploughing through a Lee Child book Martin gave us
Ann and Martin headed out this morning, a continuation of an incredible 9 year (NINE YEAR!) journey on the road (or on water) – one helluva way to spend your retirement! We sat and had a beer with them last night, trying to learn from their veteran knowledge, chatting through a whole bunch of interesting topics. Including the time they spend house sitting and volunteering around the world; both of these are ideas we’ve toyed with for a while, and are slowly coming around to the idea of. The challenge for me personally is the fact these things create a fixed point in space and time, somewhere we have to be on a certain date. At the moment, we just don’t have that. We can do pretty much as we please, and believe me, that level of freedom is quite intoxicating. We’ll keep both options in mind as we go, all the same. As the past 17 nights have shown, the way we approach travelling might be changing as we travel more, so either of them could draw us in at some point.
There’s not much to do to detach ourselves. Cleaning the solar panel is one of them, it’s covered in dust held in place with pine sap. With no ladder I can’t easily get on the roof, so some jiggery pokery is planned for later on once everything’s cooled down, involving a stick, a sponge and some mild expletives. Also, we have a 12V hoover in here with us, as we wanted to keep the carpet to help arthritic Charlie avoid slipping about. It works well, but we (read ‘I’) don’t use it as much as we (I) should do, but we (I) need to use it today! Apart from that, it’s raise the steadies, unplug the leccy, empty the loo and try to remember how to drive.
Yep, solar panel needs a clean!
Not wanting to head too far, we’re thinking we’ll go to the Krka National Park tomorrow, and after that, dunno. Ju just asked whether I’m thinking we’d stay here when we come to get the book. “Errrr…” I replied, as we keep finding ourselves singing a particular lyric from Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”…
Have a great weekend folks! Cheers, Jay
You have one thing in your favour……. all the time in the world. Enjoy. ☺
“We can do pretty much as we please, and believe me, that level of freedom is quite intoxicating” and sometimes corrosive…
I *think* I agree Jamie. Might need a bit more detail to allow me to mull it over though. What are you thinking? Jay
How do you rate the vacuum cleaner J, do you think it will stand up to a few years of use? We are after a good one too, but have reservations about the brand B & Decker.
Works well Wayne, better than we expected a 12V hoover to. It has a paper filter though, which might need replacing after a year or two. Ju says the bristles on the brush take a hammering too, so they may be the first thing to break. All in all, we’re happy with it, good size and pulls out tons of dust and fur. Cheers, Jay
hi, I have had a http://jcb-vacuumcleaners.com/handheld/70385-jcb-7-2v-handheld {JCB Cordless Handheld Vacuum} for over 3 years and it does everything with no problems..ie cleans my Van, my sitting area in house..never let me down and easy to clean…charge last ages and suction is very powerful, just thought I would let you know if your looking out for one, from, Marcus
Bruce is now on a daily dose of a painkiller called Metecam, prescribed by our uk vet. Wonderful stuff for his achy, painful joints. The idea is to keep your dog confortable in his/her old age. We were given enough for our 4 months on the road. Lorraine
Great to hear Bruce is doing well. Think it might be the same stuff that Charlie is on, the brand is Loxicom, but I think the vet said it’s called Metecam if we need to get it while away. We bought 2 x 100ml so he’ll be sky high if we run out before we get back! He’s still on his seraquim too, some days he’s like a puppy – especially on the beach.
Great to hear about Ann and Martin travelling continuously for nine years as that’s our plan too if we don’t get tired of it. We plan to do a mixture of voluteering/house/pet sitting in between travel and maybe paid work if it suits us. We are on our first volunteering assignment now and really love it doing stuff we’ve never done before and working with another couple from the Czech Rep. We’ve been here over a week and spent about £10 so we are well under our budget:) We’re feeling fitter and happier than we have for years!
Hi Ju and Jay. We’ve been following you for four years off and on. And it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that you are one of the main inspirations for going full-timing almost two years ago. Find us under The Wanderlings, a WordPress site. Also, if you like Lee Child and Jack Reacher, maybe you’d like Unsuspecting Hero, my first novel written whilst travelling? 99p as an ebook on Amazon – well within your £41 a day! Hopefully our paths will cross one day. Roland and Claire xxx