Today we went into the old town of Dubrovnik and found that we’d missed the start of the walking tour we wanted to catch. I saw a few people standing around with t shirts on saying “sea kayaking info and booking” on them so we spoke to one of them then decided that we would go on a sea kayaking tour. It also went around a small island, which actually looked quite big for kayaking!
First we went into a big semi cave which we parked and went snorkelling for a bit and saw all kinds of fish which was also cool and refreshing. Then we carried on and the guide told us a story about the 1991 – 1995 civil war, when we were looking at a 5 star hotel in which a fight broke out which lasted 5 days during the civil war. We started kayaking again, past a massive cruise liner docked for the cruisers to see Dubrovnik, and then into a cave. The island we went around was called Lokrum, which was originally owed by monks living in a monastery, who were ordered to leave so they put a curse on the island on their last day by lighting two candles and holding them upside down then dripping the wax onto the rocks around the edge of the island three times round, and the curse meant that any owner of the island get bad luck until there is not a single drop of wax on the island. The Austrian King, Maximilian man who didn’t believe in the curse had a holiday house built on the island. Later he was executed and his son committed suicide and his wife went crazy. That was when people started believing in the curse and ever since then no one has lived on the island. Then we kept on kayaking and by then my arms were sore because we’d been going for 2 and a half hours. When we got back, we walked home after a great sunny day of kayaking!!

Click here for some photos:

https://www.icloud.com/iphoto/projects/#3;CAEQARoQkm3q2wuk9Px8MDzdW_flOw;B39D90E5-3B3E-485E-9980-A9F216936B59

Nilay

After leaving our apartment in Hvar (me and Mama claimed we were dizzy which, when we left the apartment, found out from our host Sandra, that it might have been the south wind, a possibility as we had a south facing balcony) we headed back through the Pitve tunnel heading to Sućuraj on the east side of the island of Hvar. On our route both before and after the tunnel we saw something strange. On the side of the road every now and again men stood on the road, with rifles in hand, with rather large ammunition, probably to shoot a deer or wild boar? (we hope!)
In Sućuraj we boarded a 30 minute ferry to Drvenik on the mainland, which we had a short siesta on before having lunch ( I know, siesta before lunch?) in Drvenik. Once we’d finished our ham and cheese toasties we finished our journey to Dubrovnik with a 2 hour drive taking us out of Croatia and into Bosnia then back out of Bosnia and into Croatia again where we came to a great apartment where the owner kindly, as the next door apartment is not currently being used, let us let us use the next door balcony which has a great view of the sea & the Old Town. We finished our great day with( for me and Nilay) a shared pizza which was so big Nilay and I couldn’t finish it together, and a catch of the day( which was sea bass) each for Mama and Papa.

Milan