Relaxing at last with dogs and donkeys!!

Hello everyone. Hope you are all keeping well. To start with, my travel tip! Number 3: Just try to accept things the way they are..... For example! If the Croatian word for cream is 'slag' and you can't find it on the shelf.... don't be embarrassed to go up to the counter and ask for it by name! Also, don't keep trying to calculate the cost of things into Australian dollars all the time. You go nuts, believe me! A kuna is about 5 times the Aussie dollar so if we have a 200 kuna note, we think we are really rich and get upset when it disappears quickly! Better not to think about it, I think.
We are finally on the move again. We have a new dinghy (Costas II) and I am not speaking to Craig as he has confessed to preferring it to Costas the first! I am horrified and asked him how long it would take to replace me with a new model if I was stolen! It does the job, however (I would never betray Costas the first and still grieve for her!) and gets us from A to B when needed. I know I am being unkind, but I can't help myself.
The last week has been magical. After a fantastic road trip to the Plitvice Lakes to fill in time while we were waiting for delivery of the dinghy, we said goodbye to Maree and Sandy on Friday (which was a bit sad as they have been great company and we hope to catch up with them soon!) and thankfully left the marina and spent the night at the anchorage in Sukosan. One of the positives about having a hire car for our road trip was that we were able to provision well before we left Zadar. We had full food, water and fuel stocks..... but no wind! Ah well, can't have everything...
We headed north (I know, we are supposed to be heading south, but what the hell!) towards Veli Rat at the northern end of Dugi Otok. We anchored in a beautiful, peaceful anchorage to the east of Veli Rat. We had the anchorage to ourselves and a partially submerged wreck (nothing to do with my driving, honest.... but very interesting to have a peek at).
We spent two nights there and went ashore in Costas II to have a look at the area and to walk to Veli Rat. As usual, there were no restaurants open, hardly anyone around and not even a shop. We did manage to get a post office to buy some credit for our internet dongle and I bought the last 200 kuna of credit that the lovely lady had.
Yesterday we headed south (at last!). There was some wind and we actually managed to sail for most of the way down to the southern end of Dugi Otok. We spent last night in the Luka Telascica bay, which is part of the Telascica national park and are staying here tonight also. It is beautiful here!!! The only light we saw last night was the masthead light of another yacht.
We went ashore today and walked to a salt lake and to some amazing cliffs. Surprisingly, I was not even tempted to push Craig over the edge, even though it would have been easy to do so as the usual Croatian WPH&S regulations are in force with not even a simple barrier at some places to stop you plunging 30 metres onto the rocks below!! The warning signs about the 'dangerous cliffs' were bits of paper pasted onto the occassional tree!
We found a nice restuarant open, which although wouldn't serve us pizza, did serve us the important part of the diet... alcohol! We sat and had a tipple whilst patting the local dogs and donkeys who wandered along the path beside our table! Just wouldn't happen in Oz.....
Sitting here now in perfect peace and quiet. On a mooring, so we don't need to worry about our anchor dragging..... and just finished my latest culinary experiment of prawn and butter bean omlette (acually much better than it sounds!). How much better can it get... Oh, and the sun shone all day today resulting in me getting some sun burn for the first time.
We continue to be very happy with Shirley Valentine. It is amazing how fond you can become of a lump of fibre glass. She is a very comfortable boat and is serving our purposes very well so far.
The strange thing over the last couple of days has been the lack of aeroplanes in the sky. We watched with interest the unfolding 'volcano' story which has meant that Craig hasn't had his usual vapour trails to watch and has been quite lost, having to give me attention instead! It is nice to see planes in the sky again today. I think the locals are very worried about the slow start to the tourist season and this has probably added to their woes.
The nice thing for us is that we have all these magical places pretty much to ourselves. Bet we won't be saying that in a few months time......
Anyway, bye for now. Please take care. We miss everyone and are looking forward to catching up when we get home.

xx
Craig and Lesley