Motorhomers on Tour : Selce and The Island of Krk

We are on the Island of Krk, and Sonny, the motorhome is parked up on a lovely little campsite – Camping Slamni, Klimno (N45.15351 E14.61731), surrounded by olive and fig trees and right on the beach. It’s at the north-east end of the island in the beautiful Soline bay. It takes 35 motorhomes and 10 spaces for tents, but currently there are only 8 of us, 5 motorhomes and 3 caravans - Germans, Swiss and us Brits!

We have just battened down the hatches, as the rain has begun and is forecast to lash it down until tomorrow morning! We can’t complain though because we have had some lovely sunny and hot days in Croatia. We have just booked our ferry back to the UK – Amsterdam to Newcastle, an overnight ferry leaving at 17:30 on 21 November. We don't want to think about going back yet though, as we have a few more countries to visit before then!

Before leaving our last campsite at Selce we had a stroll around the town. There isn’t a lot to see but it is set in a really picturesque bay, and was once a big fishing village. It is a popular holiday resort and I can imagine it is packed full of tourists in July and August. The Adriatic Sea here is lovely and clear, with lots of little fishes swimming around in the harbour. Here we saw what we first thought was a massive diving board – any guesses?

Well, a quick visit to the Tourist Information Office informed us that it was used by the fisherman years ago to look for tuna fish. One of them used to climb to the top and when he spotted the tuna entering the bay he shouted to the other fisherman and they would pull their nets across, trapping and catching them in the bay. Obviously, this method is no longer used and it's just left rusting away in the bay.

There is a small war memorial in the town's square that lists the names of those who died during the war. Sadly a lot seem to have to same family surname.

Not knowing much about the history of WW2 in Croatia I looked it up. Most of us know about the civil war in Yugoslavia about 25 years ago when the Croats fought for their independence. But, in 1941 Croatia was an independent ‘puppet state’ within the Nazi empire. The Croatian authorities (Ustashi), under their leader Ante Pavelic, pursued a policy of racial and ethnic persecution as every bit bloody as the Nazis, creating their own concentration camps where they murdered between 70,000-100,000 people. As the war came to an end the Ustashi did all they could to destroy all evidence of the exact number they killed and Pavelic fled the country and was never brought to trial. Such a dark history for what is such a beautiful country.

Time for a quick tourist pose at the marina:

Kiss and Tell? Not likely!

What time is it? Beer O'clock of course!

We watched boats being lifted out the harbour, their hulls washed and scrubbed and probably put away in storage. A reminder that the holiday season is slowly coming to an end.

Leaving Selce, it was a short journey of 22 miles (35kms) to Krk Island, crossing via the Krk Bridge.

Approaching Krk Bridge to get across to the island

Coming across the bridge and on to the island there was another reminder that the season is coming to an end - a mass exodus of motorhomes and caravans leaving and heading north to go back home. Mostly Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Brits.

Yesterday, we took a ride around the island on the scooter. First stop Krk town, with its 2 thousand year walls, 13^th century Frankopan Castle and Cathedral.

Clambering on the rocks behind the fortress

Frankopan Fortress

Inscription above the town gate

Vela Placa Square - the only town square preserving the characteristics of a square , with a 16th century 6-sided well

Leaving Krk town we headed around the coastline to Punat, with its massive marina on the right-hand side.

Church of St Donat - a sacral monument of Croatian architecture and world heritage site.

From here it was north-east to the old village of Vrbnik – built on a cliff.

Within its walls, the clustered houses are on narrow, winding and criss-crossed cobbled streets. The world’s narrowest street can be found here – 43cms wide at its narrowest part.

The world’s narrowest street - breath in Sally!

The world's narrowest street from the other end

Just over a kilometre around the shore from the campsite can be found healing mud baths. The idea is you cover yourself in the mud, sit in the sun until you bake, then wash it off in the warm sea. This young couple were doing just that!