Saturday, 29 June 2019
We set off — from in front of SERŠ. GoOpti picked us up, a reliable choice from previous years. Even though it was one of the busiest Saturdays at the Croatian border, we trusted the driver to get us there on time. He did mention there was already an hour's queue at the border, but we got into the van optimistically and set off. Nothing suggested a jam.
Just before the border, the driver turned onto the old road to avoid what was by now a two-hour queue. There: a road closure, a word with a police officer and a detour towards Trakošćan — we'd be faster that way.
And we really were faster at the border, with practically no queue. Then it started: cars parked on both sides of the road and traffic impossible in either direction. We thought it was a bit early for mushroom season, and after an hour in the jam we found out the Croatians were celebrating some holiday and everything was parked up because of a nearby church. We lost another 2 hours and reached Zagreb airport only just in time to sort everything out and board our flight to Dubai.
Just under 6 hours of flying, then almost 4 hours waiting for the next plane, which took us straight to Sydney (another 14 hours). At the airport we headed for the first taxi, as we were in a hurry to get to the hotel, which would only hold our booking until midnight. We arrived about 20 minutes early and, after a good 31 hours on the road, successfully checked in.