There’s a 10km section along Croatia’s coastline that belongs to Bosnia. We’re not covered on our insurance to drive there, even though it’s a tiny, tiny section to drive, with our luck we’d probably crash. A bit like how we crashed in Hungary, the only country in Europe that fines you if you have an accident!

Luckily, there’s a very scenic alternative which involves driving along a thin, 60km long peninsula that runs parallel to the mainland. It gradually moves away from the coast till it’s a one hour ferry ride back to the mainland and past the Bosnian section.

The drive began with forested hills and dried out vineyards. It was nice enough, but we wanted sea views so followed a beach sign down and from there found a little gem of a road that skirted right along the coast. We passed picturesque coves with turquoise waters, green islands and peaceful villages.

The road gradually rose up as we drove along the edge of a mountain. We kept going up and up and the drop to my left was about 300m. The metal barrier came and went, revealing sheer drops down. It was an amazing drive and we only passed two other cars.

The further north we went the better the views became; a huge rocky mountain appeared ahead, and across the water was Korcula island with a few miniature islands scattered around it.

I had hoped to do some island hoping, from here to Korcula, and then onto swanky Hvar. But we found out that the car ferry didn’t go to Hvar, so in the end we decided to just get the passenger ferry across to Korcula island. From there we could walk to Korcula Town which sounded like the main highlight of the island and is said to be like a mini Dubrovnik.

After running for the ferry we had a 3km walk to the walled old town, and as soon as we stepped between the thick walls, it totally clouded over. It really was a mini version of Dubrovnik though, but being much less visited, it lacked any vibe with a lot of the shops and restaurants closed.

Eventually the sun came out again and we managed to get a view of the town from above. We had ages until our ferry but somehow time slipped away and we had to run for that one too.

The next day we went for our first swim in the Adriatic. Most of Croatia’s beaches are made of gravel or pebbles, which is fine by me as sand is like glitter and you find it weeks later and it drives me mad. The water was wonderful; crystal clear and pretty warm, there was none of that tippy toeing to keep your crutch out the water business. It’s definitely the warmest sea we’ve swam in on this trip. The only issue was once we got out, the sea breeze was rather chilly and enough to totally numb our fingertips.

We managed to misread the ferry times heading to Ploce on the mainland by 15 minutes and had our 3rd frantic dash for a ferry in less than 24 hours. How rookie.

On the plus side we saw dolphins from the ferry! They were really active, diving and splashing for fish. Sadly we only noticed them when they were quite far away, the boat probably went right past them. Oh well, I was still a very happy bunny and didn’t expect to see dolphins here so was super chuffed.

That night the winds really picked up and the gusts were so strong that Pablo was being shaken like a gang of youths rocking her back and forth. ‘Are we safe here? What was to our side?’. It was dark outside and we didn’t really want to find a new place to stay so Craig opened the door to see what was to our left with his head torch on. ‘Its a black abyss! I can’t see a thing…which probably means we’re next to a cliff edge’ ‘but there was a fence next to us wasn’t there?’ ‘Yes Lauren, but it’s made out of chicken wire!’ ‘Shit! Let’s get outta here!’ Craig opened the other slide door and the wind howled in, I was struggling to catch my breath. Then everything inside was blowing around in circles like a mini tornado was inside Pablo.

That’s as bad as Croatia gets, it’s rather windy. But that was a seriously bad night for it.