Part of the reason it takes so long is that the bus stops
constantly for little 15 minute breaks that last at least 30, there were at
least three of these. We also spend close to an hour sitting at the Croatian
border while the border guards go through everybody’s passport and take a few
people off the bus. I’m not sure if they got back on and for the most part was
rather clueless as to what was happening during the stop but the noise levels
in the bus did go up and people got rather twitchy once we got to the border.
In any case we got to Dubrovnik around 2:30 in the
afternoon, driving down the coast on the way in. We had two more border
crossings to go through, as Bosnia has a very little 25 kilometer corridor down
to the Adriatic Sea, but at least at those we did not need to stop long and
pull out our passports again.
Getting to the kayak office proved to be a bit of a
challenge as the streets in Dubrovnik are not well marked and the language is
rather confusing to me when they are. Additionally there are a lot of stairs to
deal with and if you can’t stand climbing stairs then stay out of Dubrovnik. It
was quite warm when I arrived and I figure in the upper 80’s or lower 90’s
Fahrenheit. I eventually found the office and dropped my bags off leaving about
1.5 hours to explore the city before we had to leave. I did not do a whole lot
other than visit the war photography museum. The photos are great and I did not
realize that the fighting in and around Dubrovnik lasted a full year. It was a
lot less intense than what occurred in Bosnia but still much more than I
realized. They also have a write up on each photo that tells you more about where,
when and what was going on. During the second night there was a war memorial
across the street from our restaurant with around 20 names of locals who were
killed during the fighting. Unlike Bosnia, the signs of the fighting in Croatia
have been largely repaired and you have to get away from the tourist areas to
find anything left over.
First night was camping in Zaton Bay and I got a chance to
meet the others on the trip.
Borna is the guide and from Zagreb Croatia. He is 30 and has
a scruffy beard and long hair that he pulls back with a hair band and looks
rather like a wise man from the Old Testament if you dressed him for the part.
Simon is from the UK and I am guessing around 55. He is on
his own as his wife is not too keen on kayaking.
Dorothy is from Vermont and 73. She too is on her own and is
a bit of a character. She knows something about everything and liked to eat
things she would find along the road, berries, nuts, etc.
Adrian and Jan are a couple from the UK and I guess also
around 55. They are pretty lively and usually one of the first to try
something.
JR and Christy are also a couple whom I guess are around 28
to 33. JR seems a little older. They have a house in Pensacola Florida but now
live in Germany most of the year.
The first night (Sunday) was pretty uneventful other than we
had a few drunk tourists from Britain ask us for cigarettes at around 2:00 in
the morning. In the morning was windy and we head out around 10:00 after getting
our equipment. There is some chop but after a little bit the sun comes out and
it becomes a beautiful day. We arrive at our next stop around noon in time for
lunch at Trsteno. The place is very cool with a boat dock and a bit of a castle
feel to it. Our camp site is at the top of the hill so we have to hike up a lot
of stairs to get there. But once there we camp in a grassy spot with olive and
walnut trees growing on it. The place just smelled good and it was really quite
nice and my favorite spot to camp during the trip.
Dock at Trsteno
After lunch and a quick nap, I went swimming in the Adriatic
and practiced an eskimo roll with the kayak, which is righting it with your
paddle once you go over. I was not able to do it so for me, it is best if I
don’t flip my boat out in the sea.
The water here is very warm and an incredible sapphire blue
and very clear. The bottom drops off fairly quickly but close to shore you can
see the rocks that line the bottom. They are almost a white color. The water is
also very salty so it is easy to just float without working to stay up.
In the evening we have dinner at a local restaurant and get
to bed around 9:30. There is not much to do around here after dinner.
The next morning (Tuesday) we have 18 kilometers to paddle
and set out for Slano. The weather is great and long the way we pass a sea cave
in the cliffs as well as a white cross erected on the cliffs just above the
water. I am not sure if it is because somebody drowned there or ran off the
road which is just above us. Lunch is at a beach restaurant and one thing I
have noticed is that there is no sand on the beaches here, everything is small
round, white rocks. That evening we camp for one last night in a campground
that definitely could use some improvements. It is all old trailer homes and
dirt and not the prettiest thing I have ever seen. But the family that owns it
feeds us at their home that night and that part is fantastic. The breakfast
they give us the next morning is incredible too.
The next morning (Wednesday) we get an early start as
weather is supposed to be moving in. We are staying at a B&B just outside
of Ston and it is another 20 kilometers so the idea is to get there before the
weather turns rough. We have to kayak across a large open crossing that takes a
lot longer than expected but the weather holds and we have a perfect day for
kayaking. And because we left a bit early and did not stop on the way we have
more time in Ston in the afternoon.
Link to video I took this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTiBxnQJ9zI&feature=share
Link to video I took this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTiBxnQJ9zI&feature=share
The B&B is easily my favorite place to stay on the trip.
It is a big house on the bay about a 20 minute walk from Ston down a country
road and everything is very comfortable. They serve us lunch on their front
terrace which was full of flowers and other great smelling plants, and homemade
moonshine, which was also quite good. More of it was being whipped up in jars
out front.
Moonshine in the making
After lunch I walk over to Ston with Simon and we wonder
around the city which has high walls similar to the Great Wall of China. In
fact we are told they are the second largest in the world. They were built to
protect a salt mine or salt flat that is located here. The city is old and
there are a lot of buildings that sit abandoned with the roof caved in. Some of
this is probably from the war, on the walk over we noticed a building with lots
of bullet holes in it still. But there was also an earthquake here in 1996 that
also accounts for some of the damage. In a lot of cases the people were killed
or moved away and nobody is left to care for the property. Borna did tell us
that if you squat in vacant property for 7 years it legally becomes yours in
Croatia. But it sounds like you have to be a Croatian citizen to do this, too
bad.
Ston Croatia
Empty hotel on Sipan Island, needs some work
On the walk back we hear coyotes yipping off in the distance
and discover that Dorothy has been eating berries along the road. Once Borna
discovers which ones she ate, he is like, “no that is bad and they are not for
eating” so we joke about the book Into
The Wild and finding Dorothy dead in her kayak. She seems unfazed but I
notice she stops eating things, or at least telling us she is eating things on
the road.
Thursday morning the weather has moved in with a lot of wind
and we can’t kayak to our next destination. So Borna arranges for a fishing
boat to pick us up and take us over to Sipon Island, pronounced “Ship On”.
There is a funny little mark over the S that I can’t type on an English
keyboard. The fishing boat was rather small for 8 of us and kayaks, but this is
the islands and it is not like there are tons of boats to choose from, so we
make it work.
The sea did not look rough in our bay and I think everybody
was rather second guessing taking a boat, which was until we started moving.
The seas were actually really rough and the boat ride should normally take only
30 minutes or so took over an hour to make the crossing. Once we got out of or
protected area the seas were easily 4-6 feet and the waves were coming in quick
succession and from multiple directions. Add in that we were down below deck
which smelled of 40 years of musty smells and body order and had the diesel
fumes coming into the cabin, and everybody was rather happy to reach the
island.
The boat was probably from the 60’s or 70’s and had wood
paneling inside and all the windows were blacked out, save one small porthole.
So you had no idea what was going on but you knew when the captain would slow
the motor we were about to hit a big wave. I was penned into a corner and
really could not escape any of the smells and had the theme song from
Gilligan’s Island running through my head most of the trip. Add in that under
the shelves you could see where the boat had opened a big crack in the hull and
has been patched over. The light shown through the fiberglass and the waves
would make shadows as they splashed by. But all and all it was good and just
added a little bit of interest onto the trip. One of those things you would not
choose do to but make a good story at the end.
We got in around 11:00 and the rest of the afternoon it just
rained and stormed and the power on in our hotel on Sipan Island kept going on
and off. Between the rains I walked around a little bit but otherwise there was
not much to do other than drink beer and read a book.
Sipan Island
The hotel itself was very nice and comfortable so I watched
an old episode of ER with Croatian subtitles and took a long hot shower. They
also had a bar in the hotel so I made use of that as well. Between the rains I
walked to the top of the hill and did some quick site seeing but that was about
it.
The next day (Friday) the sun was out but the wind was still
blowing, but we continued on with our trip and headed for the outside of the
islands. The seas outside of the protection of the islands was also very rough
and the further we got to the end of the island, the rougher everything got. To
add to it the storms were still around we just did not see them due to the
mountains on the islands. For around 2 hours we paddled two strokes forward and
one stroke back and it was all I could do to concentrate on keeping my kayak
upright. If I went over here I figured I could get back in eventually but it
would take a while and I would not be happy. The worst part was as we passed
the end of the island and had to turn back into shore as we were sideways to
the waves and they were bigger here. Finally we managed to get into the shelter
of a bay and rest for a bit but I was ready to get to our next spot. That was
another 45 minutes of paddling and we arrived at Lopud Island just in time to
beat the thunder storms that were returning. We somehow managed to miss all of
them while out on the water.
Outside of Dubrovnik, Lopud Island is very touristy and has
the gift shops and such that we did not see elsewhere. Also plenty of bars and
a couple of big hotels. There was also one old semi-abandoned hotel that was
being worked on called the Grand Hotel. This was right next to where we were
staying and is reported to have the largest palm trees in all of Europe. The
place has been empty for decades but it looks like it is being fixed up a bit,
or possibly used as apartments by squatters as there was laundry hanging
outside. If fixed up this place would be a perfect hipster hotel and could make
a lot of money. It has the perfect location just off the water and right on the
bay where the boats dock.
Grand Hotel
In the shower I managed to hit my head on the valve for the
toilet as the shower was only 2.5’ x 2.5’ and it was hidden behind the shower
curtain. I have noticed that space is a premium in Europe so the bathrooms are
kept small and tight, I don’t know how a fat man would cope in them. The result
of hitting my head was a gash and blood all over the towel. I was a bit dizzy
for a half hour or so but nothing too bad and after a walk and short nap I felt
fine. During my nap a cat wandered into my room and I awoke to it making a
bunch of squeaky noises. I came to find out it was a cat that always hangs
around the hotel trying to get guests to feed it or scratch it.
Our final day of paddling (Saturday) we again paddled
outside the islands but the water was much calmer now and we could paddle close
to shore. The cliffs came straight down into the sea and all along were rocks
sticking out of the water and caves made from the Adriatic crashing into the
sides of the islands. We were able to paddle into several of them and a few
went quite deep into the side of the cliff. We also paid a visit to the “Blue
Cave” which had a very small entrance but opened up into a big space once you
were inside. The water glowed a light blue from the sun and white sandy bottom
and it was quite pretty to watch the light dance off the walls.
From there we headed off to lunch on Kolocep Island at a
local restaurant on a bay and back across to Zatan Bay where our trip ended.
That night we were staying in Dubrovnik and had a very nice dinner in the Old
City.
The next morning most everyone had an early morning flight,
the exception was me and Dorothy who had an evening flight out. In the morning
I walked the Old City and took pictures and met up with Dorothy for lunch and
then we walked the outer walls before I headed off. The night before I found a
car to rent that was rather expensive I thought for a week, but much better
than being tied to the bus schedule.
On a side note, I hate Enterprise. They are always expensive
and when I asked about dropping the car off in Prague, they told me it would be
a 1,000 Euros just to drop the car and then more for the daily rental. 
The drive out along the coast Sunday afternoon was very nice
and I have to say that I have rather missed driving. The car is way more than I
wanted to spend but having it is nice for a change and it totally frees up my
schedule. I drove the coast for around 1.5 hours then headed inland to Mostar
Bosnia, arriving right around 7:00. The passport controls were easy to get
through this time and it was nice driving along the sea then through the
mountains.
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