Dom daleko od doma

Once safely off the ferry we made our way to a small campsite outside of Dubrovnik in the coastal town of Mlini. After a few hours of exploring the local neighbourhood and a couple of espresso’s later, we caught the local bus into Dubrovnik. This was one of the more impressive ‘Old Town’s’ we have seen in Europe and we can see why it is such a popular tourist destination. We picked up some takeaway mojito’s and continued to wander within the old walls, ducking and diving in-between the narrow streets – a couple of hours flew by!

The following day was our much-anticipated private boat tour that we had booked ahead of time (and we sort of made up our plans around it). We had the boat to ourselves along with a skipper and a tour guide, there was no navigating or throwing lines from either of us, we left the Dubrovnik Harbour at 0930 not really knowing what we were in for. The weather gods were on our side and we somehow managed to get the last hot day of the season!

We stopped at multiple bays and beaches where we snorkelled, jumped off cliffs and intermittently lay on the front of the boat while we set course to the next destination (that was mostly me). A particular stop involved a swim to the secluded beach from the boat, escorted by dry towels, a camera and a bottle of chilled Croatian wine in a dry bag, we lay in the sun and enjoyed the quiet and private patch of sand our guide had thoughtfully picked for us.

One of the highlights was an underwater swim into a sandy bottom cave. While skeptical at first (the gap between the water and the cave was no more than half a metre) we took the plunge and were well rewarded. We stopped in at a small island for lunch of local ham and cheese, soup, fresh seafood, homemade wine and dessert before retreating to our guide’s family home for mojito’s on the terrace. The time flew by and before we knew it, we were at our last swim/snorkle spot before heading back to the harbour, the sun setting on our backs after a fantastic and very unique day out of the busy tourist hub.

The following day we bid goodbye to Dubrovnik and took the scenic route along the coast to Split, however our final destination was Supetar on Brac Island. It was around the half way point in our trip and we took a few days break from Big Karl to stay in a friend’s family holiday apartment. The daily hot showers and the ability to do washing was a relief, no planning, no wondering where we would spend the night, the goal was to just relax. Brac Island was a beautiful spot to visit and we will definitely be back!

Leaving Brac, we had one final stop in Croatia before continuing on to Slovenia, the not-to-be-missed Plitvice Lakes National Park. The photos speak for themselves – we spent over four hours exploring the park via walking tracks, boats and trains. The scenery was stunning and we were glad we went early to avoid the hectic tour bus crowds!