Days 28, 29 & 30: The Road Home

We left Hvar Island, catching the car ferry from Starigrad to Split. It was a sad moment, because we knew that now the journey home began, and the whole road trip was nearing an end. From Split we were quickly on a motorway, heading north toward the Slovenian border. The northern part of Croatia looks to be quite arid, and it wasn't until we neared the Slovenian border that widespread agriculture became apparent.




Again, we took a very minor road to cross the border, and it took only 2 or 3 minutes to get through. We enjoyed our drive across rural Slovenia, dawdling through some villages, taking the back roads. We stopped for a break and were served an enormous ice cream sundae by a youong woman who seemed very excited to see some real tourists from another land. All too soon we crossed the Italian border, and headed north again. We stayed the night in a small village a few kilometres from the motorway. The mountains in northern Italy are quite dramatic, and may be worth exploring in another trip one day.



We had an interesting itinerary the next day... breakfast in Italy, morning coffee in Austria (after going through some huge long tunnels), lunch in Germany, and dinner in France. We spent the night at the municipal camping ground in St Merthould in north-east France, a bargain at €4.80... and they had hot water!!!

The following morning we drove to Calais, and got in to the waiting queue for a Hoverspeed ferry. Our ticket had been for 3 days earlier, and we were brusquely told that this was the second-busiest day of teh year. However, we got on the first ferry that arrived in port, and we were back in Surbiton by not lomng after 3 pm.

From Calais, back to Calais, we had driven 5,246 miles (8,443 Kilometres)... and all we had done was put petrol into the car, nothing more. Thank you Mr Mazda, you did a great job!!