Le Palme Camping, Lazise, Garda.

Mid October at Lake Garda and the fine haze hovers over the Lakes edge, shrouding the mountains and disguising the fine detail of the many villages that sit along the lakes shoreline. The sunshine is strong casting flickers of  light across the blue water. Its hard to believe that its autumn as the almost summer sun refuses to die away. the daily temperatures are in the mid 20's making these the most perfect of Garda days. The tourists are now heading home for advent and the long tortuous preparations for the winter festival. For us the freedom and flexibility of motorhoming makes us wonder when we will continue our journey home its so nice in the sunshine away from crowds.
We've now had 5 nights  here at Le Palme Camping and yesterday I rode into nearby Lazise, a wonderful town with ancient battlements and towers. The half term German kids have now left and yesterday we had the entire heated swimming pool to ourselves. Another fine site on the lake shore. We should have departed days ago but keep putting our journey off.

Jonesy meets Arthur

On the next pitch at Punta Sabianni was Arthur the Airdale. One morning he was that keen to go and see Arthur that he shot out of the motorhome and pulled Barbara with him. Unfortunately she fell and injured her calf. Has been struggling with a walking stick the last 5 days.

Venice

We arrived in Punta Sabbioni on Sunday afternoon with the sole intention of visiting Venice on the Monday. They say you should never return to the places you fall in love with and as I had visited Venice with my family as a 15 year old I was worried in case a second visit would disappoint. This would also be an opportunity to knock one off Barbs bucket list so we walked the 700 metres from the campsite to the ferry terminal at Punta Sabbioni with Jonesy in tow. We had a fabulous day just walking around the city. What I liked most about Venice is its seemingly refusal to create anything modern. Nearly all of the architecture is very old. A great place and a really good ride in on the ferry.

Sistiana, Italy

Saturday 6th October. We left Rovinj and managed to skirt along the Slovenian coast avoiding the toll road. We ended up just passed Trieste in a place called Sistiana. The campsite was excellent, positioned on a high clifftop with views over the bay. All facilities were top class apart from the restaurant where they provided microwave meals at Jamie Oliver prices. Still a good overnight stop and managed a 6 mile clifftop walk.

Rovinj

We reluctantly departed from Fanzana. Everywhere we've been to on this trip we've really enjoyed but Fanzana was a surprise mainly because of the weather. Usually as we head home and north the weather deteriorates and so we push on further and faster, not really enjoying the return trip. However the weather looks good for the next week so we intend to make the most of our stopovers. Next stop Rovinj, a place we last visited in 1983 when the socialist government of the time offered to take all of our money and replace it with 'coupons' to spend in almost every place. We gladly accepted this offer as it came with an additional 10% in value. We were on a coach/ tent trip with Tentrek , an 18-30's holiday group. They took you by coach and provided you with ready erected tents. The coach was packed with characters and we laughed all through the holidays. Jugoslavia was cheap in those days, you could get drunk for less than a pound and we were happily introduced to pizza and charcoal grilled dishes.
Rovinj has kept its good looks but seems to have developed a lot more in order to cater for a greater variety of tourists...Americans are plentiful with there tendency to empty their brains and thoughts with constant chatter. The Japanese are evident with their overuse of cameras and technology. The Brits and the germans are well represented and always have been. Rovinj is still popular and deserves to be. Unfortunately with only £50 of Kuna's left we need to hit the Eurozone soon.

Fanzana

Presently in a picturesque place called Fanzana, another remarkable sunset last night as we sat at a restaurant having our meal. Large excellent site that is rapidly becoming like the graveyard most of its ageing motorhoming residents are getting close to. Everywhere is getting quieter as the season draws to an end.

Starigrad/Paklenica and Marina Camping Istria

We left the site at Sibenik on Monday and travelled about 65 miles to Starigrad. The weather was still warm and we took Jonesy for a walk to the edge of the Plaklenica National Park. It was a lovely warm evening so we ate outside at a nearby restaurant but noticed the weather starting to change. That night we had a terrific thunderstorm and the following day there was a powerful wind coming in from the sea. As we were leaving the site the receptionist warned us that the coast road and the motorway were shut due to the winds. She offered us an alternative route but as we started to use it we saw some movement on the motorway. Conditions were treacherous and limited to one lane and 30mph but after about half and hour the wind inland dropped and the weather improved. We decided that we would spend the last few days in Croatia checking out some of the Istrian sites in case we ever wanted to combine an Italian lakes trip with Istria. First one was Camping Marina near Lapin. A very good site mainly occupied by serious divers. It had most things but the 5 mile narrow road leading to it and the lack of a nearby town might put many off. We liked it but only committed ourselves to the one night.

The Infinity pool