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The 7 night itinerary.
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Sea legs, a lack of sleep, a lot of Australian's, a hangover resulting in a 3 week cold and a lot of memories........ Sail Croatia
On the 10th of September we embarked on a 7 night, Sail Croatia "Navigators" tour from Split to Dubrovnik on the trusty Naval, with a handful of mates from back home. On board with us were 30 others, 20 of them were Aussies (majority from country Victoria), a couple of New Zealanders, a Yank, a bloke from Canada, two blokes from the UK, and the Croatian Crew.
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| The girls ready to SAIL! |
Day one - Omis
Still on the coast of Croatia we motored along for a couple of hours after departing Split around 12.30pm. It was roughly 27 degrees and overcast. Our host Maja did the formalities of introducing our crew including a Captain, two sailors, a cook and a waiter/barman. We had some lunch, did the rounds introducing ourselves and tucked into a few pints of Croatian draft beer. A couple of hours later we stopped for a cheeky swim stop before reaching Omis Port late arvo. Here we were able to go for a quick hike up to an old fort used to protect the village from intruders back in the day.
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| Mid arvo swim with some bevos |
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| half cut after an afternoon on the turps and trying to walk up a mountain |
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| The views from the top were pretty sweet - hard work was worth it. |
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| Matt Eales |
After our quick hike, we had some dinner and few more beers and banter. There was a beach bar at Omis and a few of the crew decided to head out - while we decided to pack her up pretty early and take it easy knowing it was going to be a big week of drinking and partying so we thought we'd take some baby steps.
Day two - Makarska
Still on the main coast of Croatia - Makarska is very popular Croatian and European tourist destination which in the past only accepted a minimum one week stay for visitors to the town. We left the port of Omis I think around 9am... Breakfast each day was 8.30 till 10am then we'd cruise for a few hours, have a swim stop around lunch time before arriving at a port mid afternoon.
The weather was tip top on day two, clear skies and temperatures in the 30's were a welcome site!
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| Swim stop on our way from Omis to Makarska. |
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Port of Makarska
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| its good luck to touch her breast |
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Makaska is home to a night club in a cave.....and Maja decided we would have a pirates and sailor dress up theme night to kick things off for the second night. After exploring Makaska for a couple of hours and buying some dress up gear, we went for a quick dip next to the port and hit the shower before heading out for dinner at a restaurant in the town. We got a bit loose at the restaurant playing drinking games and buying shots which loosened everyone up. We headed back to the boat to continue the priming before heading to the cave.
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| Having a great time in the rave cave! |
Day three - Stari Grad Island
Think we left Makarska around 7.30am to head for our first island stop Stari Grad. It was a solid night at the cave bar so everyone was pretty sluggish at getting up. We went to bed about 2ish, I think a handful of the crew saw the sunrise and didn't get back to the boat until 6.30 am.
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| Dolphins! |
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It was such a relaxing calm morning cruising the Adriatic.
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By mid-arvo we arrived at the port of Stari Grad. Stari Grad in Croatian means Old Town. Located on the northern side of the Island of Hvar. Stari Grad is considered to be one of the oldest towns in Europe settled by Greek settlers about 400BC. The old town itself was very charming, quite small and full of cafe and bars.
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| little ol' Naval... mighty vessel docked in Stari Grad |
We spent the afternoon wandering around, had a ice cream and coffee and nursed our hangovers before heading back to the boat. Maja had organised a deal for dinner at a local winery which included a feed of Lamb off the spit and all the wine we could drink. By the end of this dinner, we all had sore stomachs from laughing so much, quite a few shenanigans occurred including setting free a couple of donkeys who were tied up, a lot of wine sculling, Rakija (traditional Croatian Spirit, similar to gasoline) shots, a bloke eating a whole garlic, sculling of a whole bottle of balsamic vinegar dressing and a big fat Labrador (the owners dog) that was waddling around after too many cheeky handouts. As a group, we were really starting to gel and become a bunch of mates. The night ended with one of the fellas passed out in the back of a van, a lamb bone in one hand.
Day four - Hvar Island
It seemed like it wasn't a big days cruise to Hvar form Stari Grad. The little kicker was that and we couldn't get into the Hvar port until 7pm so we spent the afternoon swimming, sleeping and sitting in the sun before we all boarded a water taxi into the port around 5pm. We climbed up to the fort, watched the sunset and got some delicious burgers for dinner while we waited for our boat to dock.
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| All the boats waiting to get into Hvar |
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| The Naval Squad pre-squad jump |
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| cannon balllllllll! |
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the walk up to the old Hvar fort.
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| Port and city of Hvar |
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| Girls enjoying the sunset |
Everyone was pretty rattled from the last few days/nights of mass drinking, so for our boat it was a pretty dull night for us in Hvar... We went to one bar which offered us a free shot, bought one beer and headed back to bed. Hvar has a famous nightclub on an island a short water taxi ride from the main port. A few of the squad went across but it was pretty uneventful otherwise.
Hvar itself was pretty nice and possibly the most commercial island we'd visited on this trip. It's well known for the rich and famous stopping here with their private yachts. Because it was the end of the season there weren't many on display unfortunately.
Day five - Korkula Island
A lazy afternoon spent exploring Korkula, climbing the bell tower, eating ice cream and relaxing on the beach. The endless drinking and parties was taking its toll on a lot of us.
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| The old town of Korkula was designed specifically to aid in directing wind either into, or out of the town. In summer the wind blows south and gets directed into the town to cool it, during winter the cool wind blows from the north and is supposed to be deflected away from the town centre. |
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| The day the Naval had an oil pump failure, resulting in a tow- photo cred. Candice |
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| tanning time for the girls |
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| Up the bell tower.. |
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| I had a claustrophobic moment in this stair case. |
Day six - Mljet Island
We only stopped at Mljet National Park for a few hours to explore, it was a shame actually because it was really pretty place. We hired bikes from one of the many local places and rode around the park. We went for a swim through the two channels dividing the big and small lakes. The channels had a bit of a current which pulled you along. There were also little fish that nibbled on you if you sat still too long in the water.
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| Mljet NP |
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| Float lyf. |
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| The larger bridge and channel with Brendan floating down. |
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| The small channel |
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| Mljet National Park |
After visiting Mljet, we moved further down the coast closer to Dubrovnik and docked at a small village called Slano - it was a pretty un eventful night, the week had taken its toll so we had a BBQ on the boat, had a few drinks and reflected on the week.
Day seven - Dubrovnik
We rolled into Dubrovnik reasonably early to ensure we got a good spot in Dubrovnik's port, if we arrived too late we could've been forced to stay in it's second port which is out of the way of everything and a fair hike into the Old Town.
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| On zee boat |
On arrival we signed up to do the historical walking tour of the old town, Dubrovnik itself is rich in history and becoming a very popular tourist destination for tourists throughout the world.
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| Couple of the Sail Croatia boats on the way to Revlin Night Club - BEST night club I've ever been too, we had a bloody blast dancing and carrying on as a full group until the early hours. A fitting night to finish off the week! missing: Amy and Sarah who were off on their own drunken adventure. |
It was a tough week I can't argue that... a handful of the group decided to ditch the last night on the boat and booked accommodation elsewhere in Dubrovnik, it was bloody hot and noisey (on the top deck where we were) on the boat each night, below deck I believe it was a lot quieter but hot and stuffy.
Because of the time of year, our tour was on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and the weather was mostly overcast and toward 30 degrees. The water was inviting but a little chilly (however a lot warmer than the Australian ocean)
The overall experience was a great one, we got to see some amazing places, met some legends and will take some amazing memories with us!
Dubrovnik info:
We stayed on in Dubrovnik for a further 3 nights before a 10hr bus ride to our fourth workaway.
Dubrovnik was its own Republic outside of Croatia during the middle ages and due to its wealth and skilled diplomacy, it was a city ahead of its time where it furthered the development of the Croatian language and literature. The Dubrovnik Republic abolished slavery in 1416 and established trade links with the Turks, Italy and Spain when each of these empires were trying to conquer everything.
In 1667, Dubrovnik suffered a massive earthquake which destroyed the majority of the town.
It wasn't until Napoleon reached Croatia that the Republic of Dubrovnik ended and eventually it became a part of Dalmatia of Croatia officially in the early 20th century.
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| View of Dubrovnik old town from Srd Hill |
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| Well worth the hard work for the climb up there vs taking the cable car 15euro per person each way. Good chance to sweat out some of the grog for the week. |
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| Views on the way up to the lookout |
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Walking around the wall of Dubrovnik, its about 2km around - unfortunately our camera went flat at the beginning of the walk...
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| Amy sizing up the old standard measuring system under Orlando's Column in the centre of the old trading square. |
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| This was the standard length of measurement used for fabric trading. |
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| Hard to see - but this is graffiti dating back to 1597 |
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| Changing of the guard. |
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| From one of the scenes of - Game of Thrones. |
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| Couple of cruise ships at the port - the most cruise ships this season to visit at one time was 9, bringing something like 40,000 people into the town. It was about a 3k walk from the port to old town Dubrovnik. |
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| Old town at night.. |
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Russian hotel built into one of the cliff. Pretty impressive.
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