Farewell to Austria, wave at Slovenia in passing & say hello to Croatia. It was actually quite sad to leave this morning as this really has been the most friendly site we've ever been on - but we had a small contingent of Dutch neighbours to wave us off. We WILL be back.

We had to stop at services to buy a vignette for Slovenia to allow us to use the motorways - our windscreen is getting more & more full with stickers    €15 this time for 7 days use as opposed to €8 for 8 days in Austria; I think we should adopt this & charge foreign visitors for using our motorways.

There are various tunnels en route and the border between Austria & Slovenia was in the middle of one, simply marked by a shield but very blurred in my photo! We only stopped for lunch in Slovenia & soon entered Croatia, which actually had a real border post, with police scrutinising passports - the first we've ever seen on mainland Europe. 

We chose to cut off 55km by leaving the autocesta & going over a range of hills.......yes it saved those Km but it was full of hairpin bends, very slow lorries and dreadful surfaces so it was nearly 70 mins of pain! The Croatian toll motorway however was wonderful - smooth and virtually empty with interesting scenery & a few sights: I liked seeing a whole string of horses tethered beneath an ancient castle - but the effect was rather spoiled when I realised they all had horseboxes & modern vehicles pulling them!

Our site is still in mountains, but this time on the edge of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, our destination for the next few days. Camp Borje is slightly sloping with huge pitches - you just choose where you want to stop, legs down & plug in - and there are actually 3 other English outfits here. One is a couple about our age travelling in just a Toyota Hilux - they have an awning to sit under and a tent that goes on the top of their vehicle, making us feel rather overdressed in our posh Hymer. Each to his own, but at least we can sit in comfort listening to the cicadas.

The facilities are excellent and there is also a nice restaurant - I had sautéed turkey in mustard sauce with button mushrooms & rice while R had "Peasant's Platter", a typical Croatian dish of mixed meats, chips & sautéed cabbage. Quite a lot of the menu had sautéed something, so I think that's going to be a feature here. We washed it all down with Croatian beer & very nice it was too.