It was during a long car journey that I received the offer to detect in Croatia. I’d just picked up Steve Gaunt from Luton airport and was transporting him to the annual Glemsford metal detecting Rally. I asked the usual questions about the laws of Croatia, and Steve assured me I would be working with the Museun in Vinkovci, who knew of my Hoard Hunter TV shows and were “Looking forward to meeting me”.
Richard Lincoln (Sheddy) was also invited and we decided to drive, as the equipment needed was impracticable to take on a plane. Even if we did fly we would still need a car for the three-hour drive from Zagreb to Vinkovci, so this was the most logical, slightly daunting, method of transport.
The detectors chosen were two CTX 3030 and a GPX 5000. These would then be made more versatile with a wide selection of accessory coils; the CTX 17 and CTX 06 for the CTX 3030’s and an array of Coiltek mono-coils plus 15"x12" Double D Commander. Other accessories included a PRO-SWING 45, PRO-FIND 25, waders, dry suits, scoops and spades.
The plan was to see if Croatian rivers were worth detecting. To see if there were any foreshores remaining un-dredged, and then finally to follow up on a medieval hoard site for missed coins. We were also there to promote metal detecting to the archaeologists we’d be meeting, and to demonstrate the CTX 3030 and how it could be used for recording of metal detecting finds.
The trip down
I traveled down from Milton Keynes to Richard in South End, we packed the Land Rover, had a bite to eat and set off to Dover.
Richard had a flexible three hour sailings slot to aim at, and after stopping on the way to fulfill Steve's shopping ”want” list of things an English man can’t buy in Croatia (marmite, vinegar, cider, beer, tea etc), we arrived 15 minutes before the last sailing... Apparently “just in time” is still classifies as early in Sheddy’s world!
The sailing was a lot smoother once we set off; we arrived in France shortly after 1am in the morning. Richard took the wrong direction on leaving the port, but thankfully this was to be the only mistake made the entire trip.
We traveled through France and Belgium in darkness into Germany. We stopped for fuel and the heavens opened with a 10 minute torrential downpour interspersed with the occasional flash and rumble from lightning.
We then continued to cross Germany for what seemed an eternity. Germany is a big county and not that interesting to look at from an autobahn in the dark. This all changed at daybreak when we got closer to Alps, the German scenery became breathtaking.
As we traveled through Austria the landscape got more mountainous until we traveled through a series of tunnels and valleys across the Alps, down into Slovenia.
Slovenia was a pretty country, although the towns we traveled past resembled 1960's South London with all its soviet high-rise tower blocks.
On leaving Slovenia at the border into Croatia we were asked for our passports for the first time since leaving England. We paid our €2 toll and drove into Croatia.
The sun finally set and we were once again driving in darkness. We were on our final four-hour leg of the journey, still driving on perfect motorways. A few miles from Vinkovci we rang Steve Gaunt (Cibs) and arranged to meet him at our hotel for a beer.
We arrive at 7:30 pm in the evening, met Steve for a briefing of what he had planned for us,; Party, Museum, river, archeology and then several days on detecting his sites. I drank my beer, eat a meal of cabbage rolls (mince lamb and rice rapped in a cabbage leaf, something I grew up eating in Canada), found my room and had one of the best nights sleep ever!All in all we had traveled over 1180 miles in 24 hours.
Sunday - Steve's party
I made it to the hotel restaurant around 8am for the first coffees of the day with strict instructions of being ready to be picked-up at 11am. Steve was having a house warming party, and we were told; the local “village people were eager to meet us.” So with time to kill, I finished my breakfast of bacon and eggs, met up with Sheddy and we went for a walk into the centre of Vinkovci. All the shops were closed for Sunday, but there were loads of busy alfresco cafés doing a roaring trade. In our travels we saw roman remains as well as shrapnel scares on many of the buildings from the recent Serbian invasion. The weirdest site was the British red telephone box in the centre of Vinkovci, something Cibs had been given for all his UK charity work. This was installed with a Croation public phone. I have to say it smelled exactly the same as the Phone boxes back in the UK, so the Croatians had embraced British phone box culture… if you get what I mean.
Steve arrived at 11am and we were ready and waiting drinking coffee in front of our hotel. We then drove out of town a few miles to Steve newly constructed summerhouse, or as Steve described it “My shed”.
There was a pig roasting over a shallow pit of burning wood, not a propane bottle in sight... A proper job!
We had a great day talking to Steve's friends and neighbors. Language was a challenge sometimes, but with the help of six Steve's kids we understood most of what was being said.
Suddenly there was music, as a band appeared singing traditional music... I was impressed!
As the singing continued through the evening and we are drank Steve's beer, the songs got more passionate. Steve explained they were all singing the banned songs from before the soviet days. It was great to see the obvious passion of the Croatian people, and their national pride.
So that's part one complete, I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for part two where I outline my first experiences of detecting in Croatia.
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