Day 52 & 53 - The I-phone gets a proper bath and our Van sky light is lost when we hit warp speed.

Day 52 & 53 Goodbye to mum and dad and off up northwards into Slovenia

Van roof before June 29th

Van roof as of now......

Spot the difference..........our roof skylight is no more, ripped off as we hit our peak speeds to date. Late in the afternoon and in baking heat, we said our sad goodbyes to my mum and dad at Split airport and headed off again further up the coast taking the motorway for the 1st hour. With a good tail wind we hit 125+ Km/hr  down the hills and it was no doubt at these outrageous speeds that the flimsy domed perspex skylight finally had enough and parted company with its frame.

It has left a 16 " square hole in the roof. OK in the sun, not so good in the rain as we were soon to find out. When camping, we raise the domed perspex cover by a couple of inches ( when it was there !) to keep the inside of the van cool at night and also when cooking in the van; it has the luxury of a mosquito net below it. With the perpsex dome no more, we now have a supremely efficient vent but no rain protection....

It's different when travelling, as the mattress for the upstairs bed ( that Susan and I use to supplement our own memory foam mattress down below) sits right underneath it so you really can't tell that the dome is no more, well not until it starts to really rain hard as we were soon to learn,

04:30 a.m. Monday - the underside of the  roof skylight of the van

It was windless with clear skys when we went to bed, just a few hours later and the van was swaying in gale force winds with the night sky flashing with the fast approaching thunderstorm. The rain came quick and our response had not been adequately planned for....a bin bag was hastily laid on top of the hinged down mosquito net which we then lifted to jam the bag in position. The torrential rain then channeled into the bucket and pans strategically placed beneath whilst the bag flapped madly aorund in the wind; towels soak up the water that 'gets away'

The storm passed by within an hour and we awoke late. As I peered out through the curtains I could clearly see Susan's I-phone sat under 2 " of rain water collected in the well of the chair. I shot out and lifted it out pathetically drying the outside out with a towel. Susan is not happy.... ' why did you leave it out ?'....I am taken aback as it seems it is clearly my fault that her phone is now no more....... 'Why is it my fault ?' ........'well you were the last one to use it'. It all comes back to me, she is right, I used it late to call Tom and Jack., it was me.

Boy eating breakfast in the van boot

The phone is buried in a kilo of basmati rice and placed above the fridge compressor (the warmest part of the van) and I cross my fingers that the rice will do the trick and draw the moisture out and somehow it will work again.

The day before we had travelled further up the long Croatian coast and over the bridge to the pumice stoned island of Pag. 60 km long and no more than a few km at its widest it is a barren place, lots of salt pans, some cheese making and an occasional area of vines but little else.

Pag Island

The campsite is someones back garden and had just 5 pitches but was right by the sea - our french neighbours had been coming there for 30+ years with only a few years break during the Yugoslav war. Next morning we resume our journey on up to the north of the island and catch the 20 minute ferry back to the main land.

The skys then open and we drove on as the rain water soaks the mattress and spills down into the back of the van.

We spend our last Croatian Kuna and cross into Slovenia, our 4th and final ex-Yugoslav state. Slovenia led the way back in the early 90's to becoming an independent country without conflict  - it was the most prosperous of the 'Slav' states and joined the EU back over 10 years ago adopting the euro as its currency. Its a small country and has only 30 miles of coastline and it was to this that we headed camping in a massive campsite just 2km from the Italian border

It has a ten pin bowling alley, funfair, restaurants and a 50m length Olympic size swimming pool.

Set only 2km from some vast industrial port it's all pretty hideous but it seems to pull tourists in from all countries.

The i-phone is liberated from its day long rice bath and unbelievably ( and thankfully ) it all seems to work. The i-phone 5 clearly has improved waterproofing than Apple's previous products. The airbed bought for the pool at the house comes in handy and is installed over the open roof hole with the aid of a few clothes pegs...we will be dry tonight if it rains.

Funfair gets a quick visit before bed

We had arrived late and although there are rules for everything (e.g. only 2 pool visits a day) they are liberal with their BBQ rules ( most large campsites around the Med. forbid BBQ's due to the fire hazard)  and so we flash it up for a top notch meal as the sun goes down.



Post Script.....The loss of the skylight is much like driving around Albania wrecking the rear brakes with the handbrake still on - self induced and all down to my human error. The van does not have the luxury of a 'skylight lifted' warning light much as it dos not have a 'hand brake on' warning light for if it did we still would have a sky light. Some 4 weeks ago back in Turkey we rocked up at a petrol station after our 1st 50 km of the day and I saw that it was at some weird angle with 2 of the 4 catches broken; I had driven off with the flimsy sky light up. It did return to its closed position but not with its usual positive 'click'...from then on I suppose it was only a matter of time

Day 52  Trojir ( Cr) to Dinjiska (Pag Island)  ( Cr)        158 Km         Total 6958 Km

Day 53  Danjiska ( Cr ) to Ankaran ( Slo)                     251 Km         Total 7209 Km