Pangaea Eco Camp – 17th June

Blog written by Magdalena Gründl (Pangaea 06 Mongolia Expedition Young Explorer)

As soon as the bus with the kids left, it was also time for us to leave. We said goodbye to Luana and Dima, who are now going to Poland to join the Baltica Project.

We decided that we will drive back on a different route, this time along the coastline. However, after a few hours the Bosnian customs were causing some serious problems for us. First of all we had to wait for ages for no apparent reason and then the guy asked us for our green card. A green card??? We are not in America… We had no idea but when Michael told him that we don’t have one he said one word: Problem… Becci and I thought that we might have to turn around and say good bye to the Croatian coastline. In the end Michael managed to get us a green card [we still don’t really know what it is or why we needed it] but at least we could continue our journey.

We were all surprised and amazed by Bosnia. It’s such a beautiful country, we were driving through canyons, along rivers and small villages. It was already midnight when we finally got to the Croatian customs. And again, we had to wait for no apparent reason. Late at night we realised that the place we wanted to go to is too far away since the customs really cost us some time and held us back. After 12 hours of driving non-stop we parked our van on a soccer field and waited for the night to pass quickly. 🙂 4 people in a fully packed van during a chilly night… not that much fun and sleeping and at 4:30 we started driving again. The three of us could basically sleep whenever we wanted, since it was always Michael driving. Finally we got to Split in Croatia and when Becci woke up she asked: “What country are we in right now?”. Everybody broke out into laughter. There are not many times in your life, when you wake up, not knowing what country you’re in.

As soon as we started driving along the absolutely stunning and beautiful Croatian coastline, none of us wanted to close their eyes again. We stopped for a swim and enjoyed the sea with its crystal clear water for a short time. Those were by far the best “driving-hours” of the whole trip.

After 30 hours of being non-stop in the car, driving through Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Italy, talking and discussing a lot, not even leaving the car for a proper meal we finally got to Lugano, where we spent the night. Lugano is a very lively and nice small town, which we explored late at night. Sunday morning we left early to go to Basel, where the three of us caught a train back to Germany. Saying goodbye wasn’t very hard since we will see each other soon again, this time in South Africa! 🙂

Thanks to Michael for driving us all the way!!!