Friday 11th October: Onwards to Dubrovnik today! We were going to drive through the Naum pass which takes you briefly through Bosnia and Herzegovina, but decided against it after having a lengthy chat with a woman I met in the women’s block. Our insurance didn’t cover Bosnia but we originally thought we could ‘risk’ it or buy insurance on the border but according to this lady the Naum pass border was the only border point where you couldn’t buy insurance. She also said that the border is usually patrolled with lots of police so the ‘risk’ was greater. Not wanting to risk it in case of a fine we decided we had better get the ferry across instead, so off we drove towards Ploce to catch our ferry over to Trpanj.
We got there nice and early and parked up in the tiny queue before getting out and going for a little stroll around the waters edge where we saw lots of little fish. We then boarded the ferry and stayed on deck in the glorious sunshine whilst my poor husband chased our energetic son around everywhere. I could see he needed help so suggested we go inside and hoped he would settle better. He did but only slightly. However, upon going back to the van for something I noticed that some passengers had decided to stay in their vehicles. I didn’t realise you could do that (we later found out you can only do this on open top ferries) so we thought it would be best to go back too. Of course our little boy protested against this idea and made himself heard but at least he wouldn’t be annoying anyone else with his screams…just us! It made us feel less stressed to be honest.
We drove to a campsite called Lavanda Camping and parked right down the bottom near the sea. The views were stunning. We decided to go onto the little beach for a little walk but it quickly turned into a clean up as I kept noticing bits of plastic here and there and soon I had my hands full. I went back to the van with my little girl to grab one of our re-usable bags before we scuttled on back to the beach to carry on with our clean up operation. It became a very good lesson for my little girl who wanted to know why I was doing such a thing. And so we spoke of Climate change, endangered species and the protection of marine animals, recycling and “doing our bit” to help save our beautiful planet. So many times we have heard the phrase “but what can I do? I’m only one person” and we didn’t want her to think like that so we spoke at great length about doing what you can because if everyone did ‘their bit’ to help, then the world would be a better place and that way you can make change. If everyone thought negatively like the original statement then nothing would ever change and everything would either remain the same or get worse. She listened and asked lots of questions along the way and although she probably didn’t understand some parts I was so proud of her for helping me, and taking an interest by asking so many questions. She truly is extraordinary. She is a very kind little girl with a heart of gold and I could see from her little face just how much love this little girl had to share with the world. And so I would smile as I watched her run all over the beach, at first methodically (the way I like to do it) but then she’d see something in the distance or off to one side and off she’d run to retrieve whatever it was she saw. She laughed her little head off when we stumbled across some wet pants that had washed up on some rocks. It melts my heart to hear my children laugh. I would do anything to keep them laughing through life.
Soon enough our bag was absolutely full and so we went back to show Daddy and little man. My husband was amazed by how much we had collected on such a small part of the beach. It just goes to show just how much crap gets thrown out and either stays on the grounds or gets washed up in our oceans. It’s really sad. Aside from our full bag, we had a plastic crate and a long piece of rope too. There was a lot, and I mean a lot, of lollipop sticks as well as bottle caps and also bits of foam from surfing boards but there was also a flip flop, and lots of tiny bits of indistinguishable plastic. We emptied our haul into the plastic recycling bin and then called it a day.
K.E.E.N Explorers 