Day 31 Pula on the Istria Peninsula in Croatia

Heavy rain continued all night, making the camp ground quite sodden, so we had a lie in this morning, before hitting the road about 9 am headed for Pula on the Istria peninsula. The heavy rain continued as we drove, but when we arrived in Pula it thankfully stopped. The temperature had dropped quite a lot, so we wore sweatshirts and raincoats, just in case, but the rain held off, and we went for a wander round an ancient Roman Amphitheatre close to the sea. It was in very good repair, and we were able to go out into the centre, to stand where the gladiators would have stood and fought. There was also an interesting museum here, in the dungeons, which showed off various types of pottery vessels which would have been used for carrying anything from olive oil, to wine, to cereal. They were unusual in that they all had a pointed bottom, so had to be stood in a stand to stand upright. Apparently back in Roman times, the romans cultivated the soil and harvested olives and grapes to make very fine produce. Sarah managed to find a scorpion on the wall in the dungeons, so we spent a while photographing it before continuing on our way.

The weather held, and we made our way round the peninsula to Lim Bay, a narrow fiord where there was a marine reserve, and a cave Richard wanted to do a cache at. The cave was closed, but he and Hayden still went in, and managed to find a bat sleeping. It got a terrible fright when Richards camera flashed as the photo was taken!

The Istria peninsula is well known for white truffles, which are apparently very rare outside of this area. Richard managed to have a taste of some today at a small roadside stall beside a tower he wanted to climb up for the view. Unfortunately the rest of us were in the camper, so missed out on our taste of this delicacy. The area is also known for its fine wine and virgin olive oil.

We have made it round to the edge of the peninsula for the night, to a small village called Finida, and a camp of the same name. This is a four star camp, but the ratings are quite deceiving, as although it has all the bells and whistles, nothing is actually open, so in some ways we are worse off than in the lower rated campsites that are smaller, but at least have everything open.
The weather has remained fine, so hopefully we will have a nice drive to Slovenia tomorrow.