Croatia, Hungary and Romania

Roof tents are great – when it’s not too windy! After our last post we headed south-east to the northern Dalmatian coast (and we even saw a Dalmatian dog!). Quite early on in the day, however, the winds picked up to gale force, whipping up a frenzy on the sea. People were sent scattering from the beaches, trying to maintain control of their inflatable dinghies, and the road was closed to motorbikes and caravans. Not Land Rovers though, so we carried on past the barrier arms. Man, was it windy. It looks like it might be like that quite often, too, as there was hardly any vegetation above four feet tall. As the day wore on our thoughts turned to our camping situation. At an altitude of six feet above ground level, the roof tent tends to cop the wind a bit. "Maybe we should use the dome tent on the ground?" Catkin suggested. "Just wait until the sun goes down, and I’m sure the wind will drop," I tell her. "We’ll be fine." When the wind actually picked up after sunset, the dome tent was looking promising, although I’m not sure if that would have withstood the gusts either. Finally at around midnight the wind did drop to satisfactory roof tent levels, albeit with the fly tied down, and even then it was still a pretty noisy night. On top of all that, I don’t think we really ventured far enough south to get the best of the coast.

We had a more important mission. With our newly acquired insurance green card, mentioned in a previous post, we had a small window to get through Romania, so back north and further east for us. Stopping at the Plitvice Lakes (on another tip from Marcus), we spent an afternoon wandering around the boardwalks marvelling at the turquoise water. Took heaps of photos, but so far the memory card has refused to release them for public exhibition… Instead you get to see a picture of a stork nest on top of a power pole. The nests are massive, and are quite a common sight.

Crossing into Hungary we made for Pecs for a few essential purchases and a night in a great little family-run campground, and then onto Szeged. Over the last few days our focus has changed slightly, in that we have been covering a lot more ground and seeing a lot less touristy sights. Consequently we’re taking fewer photos, but have included a night shot of the Camel in front of the Tisza river in Szeged, Hungary.

Since then we have made it into Romania and the roads have got worse (and the driving). We spent the first night at another family-run campsite, Route Roemanie, were the owner was very helpful in giving us advice on routes and things to see in Romania. I think he was a little disappointed that we were driving through so quickly, but understood when we explained that we had to get to New Zealand.

Last night we chanced our arm on the shore of a fishing lake in Transylvania. We got a few odd looks from the locals, and I think we may be camping at one of their best fishing spots.

We've currently in Sighisoara, where Dracula was allegedly born, and have just had a delicious lunch at a small cafe, although what was delivered to the table bore no resemblance to what was ordered!