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Thursday
8th. July 2010
We woke up in Pomena on the island of Mljet. It was a bright sunny day with the
temperature in the mid 20's and a nice cool breeze. After breakfast
began our bicycle ride. It began with two hill climbs of about 39 metres
vertical climb, but after that it was either flat or gently downhill. We
rode around the shore of the Big Lake (Veliko Jezero) and saw the
sights, then walked
the last few hundred metres through the tiny village of Spilja, and on
to where it widens out into the Adriatic Sea. We then back tracked to
where the Big Lake and the Small Lake (Malo Jezero) join and left our
bikes, and took to the water in two person canoes and paddled about 1,500 metres across the Big Lake to a tiny island on which stands the 12th.
Century Benedictine Monastery of St Mary. We moored the canoes and
enjoyed lunch beneath the walls of the monastery. After lunch we
explored the island and the Monastery then paddled back against a head
wind to where we had left our bicycles; rode back to our hotel in Pomena,
arriving at about 3:30pm for a well earned rest.
Friday 9th. July 2010
We left the hotel early and caught the ferry back to the mainland. Then
took a bus south along the coast road into Dubrovnik.
We dropped our
luggage off at the Hotel Ivkr and then went to visit the old part of the
city. Lunch was included in the tour price and afterwards we went on a 2
hour tour of the walled city. Our guide took us past the Cathedral
dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption, through the Rector's Palace
(the Rector was like the President of the area in times gone by), past
the Church of St Blaze and the Customs Building which is now a memorial
to those who died during the bombing by the Serbs and Montenegrins from
October 1991 until well into 1992. We also received an insight into what
the Homeland War was all about
Saturday
10th. July 2010
Today is the last day of the Croatian leg of our journey, and it
began with a bus trip up to the main road above the city for a photo
shoot of ourselves and the city below. We then descended on the old town
again and "walked the Wall." The wall surrounds the whole of the old
part of the city and was built during the 10th century with some
modifications in the 13th. century. From the autumn of 1991 until May
1992 the Yugoslav army dropped over 2,000 bombs on the city. Being a
UNESCO protected site much time and cost has been put into restoring the
damage. The view from the top of the wall is one of coloured tiled roofs
and private back yards of the inhabitants. I took a photo and video of
an old fellow playing a local instrument and whose foot tapping was
reminiscent of Chris Smither.
After lunch we took
a short ferry ride to Lockrum Island. This is a nature reserve and there
are many native Australian trees in the Botanic Gardens. I climbed up to
the old fort for a better view of Debrovnik and on the way took some
photos of seagulls perched in the tops of the pine trees. After a short
swim in a rock pool joined to the ocean through cavities beneath the
rock we returned to the hotel in preparation for our final dinner.
Thanks goes to our
guide Antonia who tolerated us and whose patience was tested for nearly
two weeks and did a lot of work behind the scenes changing buses if they
weren't adequate and ensuring our every need was met etc and was always
happy and enthusiastic. |
