The Rains

Day 9 of Roadtrip: Croatia to Italy

A slow start sometimes makes for annoyance, but today it certainly helped with the relaxation we all needed. Some left to look at some strange thing called a Zastava, others went to get brake fluid changed, and some just finished packing up.
After joining those looking for brake fixes (read; small old French fixes) we went looking for a restaurant, and successfully found one that closed over lunch. So the supermarket it was.
After speaking to a garage who couldn't fix it for hours, Aleš led us on what seemed to be on a wild goose chase around Rijeka, so we (the Saab, Citroen and Suzuki) did the proper thing and buggered off for Italy.

Something like 500km mostly on motorway through Croatia, Slovenia and Italy was boring but at least it was straightforward. The rain specifically only in Slovenia was amusing too. The rest of the journey stayed under 30 degrees too, so progress being made (if dull).

Upon arrival at the campsite in Italy we had a lovely swim in the lake before heading into town the long, winding and beautiful way round to collect Maxsim. While his car still quite isn't ready he needed to join us. After wandering around town we jumped back to the campsite for some much needed food next door. Pizza when in Italy? Of course.

And that's about where the fun began. During the meal the skies lit up repeatedly with a lightning storm to rival that seen in Austria on the way down to Romania. Not as pretty - not in view - but much more frequent. Unfortunately it was indeed coming our way, and soon enough the rain began. Hoping it would pass however wasn't worth the effort, and kept going until well after we went to bed. Which in itself was one big effort...

Considering our cracked knowledge of the goings on with the other group looking at the Zastava in Croatia was that they had to return it we were very surprised to see it arriving a fairly long time before the 850, 205 and E30. Also by the extremely strong smell of petrol it emitted. A problem for tomorrow.

The effort to get into our tents meant using a Citroen as a taxi and discovering just how un-waterproof our tents are. Well the tops were fine but water just loved to seep up through the bottom. Placing tents on slightly higher ground is second nature to me it seems so mine wasn't so bad but Arron decided the car would be a better bet. He didn't realise how much that leaks, though. Despite the weather a reasonable nights sleep.