We flew out of Gatwick at 6am Wednesday morning, having stayed the night before at a hotel in the airport. We landed in Split around 10am, and had a minor panic when we found we couldn't withdraw all of the cash we wanted from the ATM - luckily resolved quite quickly - and took the bus to Split harbour where our boat
Providenca waited for us.
We signed up for the "Explorer" cruise with Sail Croatia, which is the cruise for young professionals and "young at heart" - i.e. not a party/STI/drinking cruise! We left from Split and spent a week along the Croatian coast before returning to Split.
Our friends Stacey and Blair had just moved over to London and were joining us on the cruise, they'd had flown out a couple of days earlier so we met up with them on board. The boat was big, with about 30 passengers and spacious double cabins. There was a bit of a mix of nationalities and ages on board - people aged from 20s to 60s, and from South Africa, Germany, UK, New Zealand, Australia and the USA - you could usually hear the Amercians before seeing them, though they were friendly and a good laugh. After the intro and safety briefing, we sat down for lunch and the boat left Split harbour, heading south.
Our first stop was rafting down the River Cetina. We were dropped off on shore and then driven for about 45 minutes up the coast and inland. The rafting was very nice, calm and picturesque and at times becoming a bit more exciting. It was only a low/medium grade difficulty so no major dangers there. We also made good friends with Becky, a lovely English school teacher in our raft who we hung out with for the rest of the cruise.
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| With our rafting guide afterwards |
We were then driven to Makarska where the boat was docked for the night.
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Rach perving a statue in Makarska
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Interestingly, because the ports are quite small there's limited space for larger boats like ours; so we had to tie up to other boats in Makarska and a few other ports, and often had to walk across other boats' decks to get to and from the shore.
After getting back on board and changing into some clean, dry clothes the five of us wandered the town. Makarska itself is quite small, stretching along the waterfront. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant - including squid and shellfish - which was fairly good but a little pricey. We then began the holiday tradition of getting ice cream every day.
Finally we went to Deep Makarska, a club in a cave on the waterfront for a couple of drinks - and Blair had his very first jaeger bomb which he seemed to really enjoy.
Thursday
We set off the next morning from Makarska.
Here was our daily routine on board the Providenca:
- 8am to 9am: continental style-breakfast of cold cuts, fruit and cheese (my breakfast), along with a few hot items like eggs or bacon (Rach's choice). We never skipped this, though increasing numbers of the passengers did as we went through the cruise
- up to 11:30/12:00: cruising - often we would read up on the top deck in the sun loungers and admire the scenery. Luckily every single day was clear and sunny, at around 28-30 degrees.
- 11:30/12:00: first swim stop
- 1pm: three course lunch, and daily briefing/talk from Maya our guide
- 2pm to 5pm: excursion and/or second swim stop
- 5pm onwards: explore town on foot and have dinner (the only meal not covered on the cruise)
For Thursday's swim stop, I got in and ventured out into the deep water for the very first time (in my life) by holding on to the rope at the back of the boat. I've always enjoyed being in the water, but had never before been in water deeper than shoulder level. The Adriatic (and the whole Mediterranean as we later found out) is very salty and makes you very buoyant, and I couldn't sink even when I tried - which made swimming much easier for me.
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| Thursday's swim stop - when the swim stop looks like this it really helps. |
We then arrived on Korcula Island for our buggy excursion. The buggies were quite fun, but not the fastest - I think we may have cracked 45kph at one point - and the narrow roads made overtaking almost impossible. Though Rach being the daredevil did manage to overtake an American couple when she drove. They said they were going to win and she wasn't going to let that happen!
At the halfway point, we had a half hour break so went for a swim at the beach. After we dropped off the buggies, we were driven to nearby Korcula town, which is sometimes called "little Dubrovnik". The old town is built on a very small peninsula which is walled off from the main part of the island, and is built with a fishbone style layout of a main street with several small streets running off it. It was very picturesque with its old buildings and narrow streets, especially as the sun set.
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| Korcula town |
The five of us had cocktails and wine at Cocktail Bar Massimo, a bar set at the top of an old tower. We had to climb a ladder to get up there, and drinks were sent to the top via a a pulley system. We also had great views over the water.
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Words of wisdom.
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| The pulley system in action. |
Afterwards we had pizza for dinner in the central square. Rach, Becky and I shared a litre of red wine which became our staple for the rest of the trip, Blair tended to have a beer and Stacey had cocktails or coke. We then wandered around the now lively town and listened to a busking covers band playing on the waterfront.
Friday
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| Serious breakfast |
We set off as usual after breakfast and had our normal couple of hours cruising towards Dubrovnik.
We docked quite far from the old town, which meant we needed to bus in. We were dropped off at the Pila Gate, the main entrance to the old town, and began to wander through.
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| Pila Gate, Dubrovnik |
One of the cool things about Dubrovnik is that the TV series Game of Thrones was filmed a lot on location here - so it was cool to wander around and try to figure out the scenes.
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| This harbour was used a lot for boat departures in Game of Thrones |
The old town itself is very nice, with a lot of old buildings and narrow streets - though the huge crowds of tourists did kind of ruin things a little. Those damn tourists. That kind of made me appreciate Korcula a lot more.
We explored the town together for an hour before doing a walking tour. Rach was very excited to find the "Steps of Shame" featured in Game of Thrones.
Afterwards we went up to walk the wall of Dubrovnik. We timed it to catch the city at sunset, and the views were pretty stunning. We probably took twice as long to do the walk, as we had to stop every 50 metres to take photos. We took far too many photos so I'll let a few of them do the talking here..
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| Sunset over Dubrovnik |
We then had another pizza dinner: pizza is really, really popular in Croatia but luckily its pretty good quality (and I was happy to find a goat's cheese pizza). We then had a few drinks at a bar called Buza, which was set on a sea cliff face where you could jump into the sea. By this time it was pitch dark so I was very happy that Rach decided against jumping off.
Saturday
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| Sunday swim stop |
Saturday was our turnaround point, where we began to head back towards Split. The s
wim stop was the best yet, with no currents or wind for quite a while. I finally swam without using the rope for the first time. It was exciting but also slightly scary at the same time, especially when I thought about all of the deep water below me. But having nice warm, buoyant water definitely helped.
We shortly afterwards pulled into Pomena, a town on Mljet Island. The five of us went to explore the Little Lake and Big Lake (those are their real names) which are in the national park. We all swam, and Blair and I snorkelled for a bit, which was my first proper snorkelling since Goat Island a few years ago. We also took the ferry over to St Mary's Island which had a little monastery on it, and a donkey or two which started trying to eat Rach's back, but only managed to get her shirt.
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| Lakeside, Mljet |
We also had fun in a little channel that connected the two lakes. The water flowed quickly between them so it was cool to just lie on your back and be shot through under the bridge to the Little Lake.
That night was the barbecue night, one of the only dinners done on board. The five of us were the only ones on board not to opt for the bbq - it was 160 kuna each with no drinks which was fairly expensive, and we enjoyed being on land and exploring a little. We managed to find a nice little place across the port from the boat, where we had a good dinner plus a couple of drinks each for 156 kuna - score! But even better was the view of the sunset from the restaurant.
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| Sunset from our restaurant on Mljet |
Monday
We left Hvar early the next day and went a short distance around the island to Stari Grad - literally "old town" this was the main town on Hvar island until the town of Hvar was built. The morning swim stop was our least favourite due to currents and wind.
The afternoon excursion was a wine tasting at an old farm. It was really interesting hearing about the history, as the area was
settled as a Greek colony around 400 B.C.The land was divided up into little plots and the boundaries have remained the same ever since, with the land being farmed for almost 2,500 years. The three of us (Rach, Becky and me) did the excursion where we tried two white, one red and one rose wine; three types of olive oil (standard, virgin and extra virgin) and some nice anchovies, cheese, salami and olives. The wine was ok, but the location was outstanding, in a little set of buildings in the middle of the fields.
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| Ancient olive press, Stari Grad |
Afterwards the three of us were dropped off back in the town and walked through the winding old streets, before finding a little bar where we had another litre of red wine in a sunny courtyard lined with flowers and kiwifruit vines.
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| Alleyways of Stari Grad town |
We headed back to the boat afterwards for our final dinner, the Captain's dinner. The meal was tasty - all of the meals on board were pretty good quality, but we wished they'd come with a description of what was in them. I was ok, but Rach wasn't particularly keen on all of the fishy / seafoody surprises.
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| Sunset over Stari Grad harbour |
Tuesday
We had a fairly turbulent start to our last day, with a lot of wind and sea spray so our final swim stop was fairly cold.
We arrived back in Split harbour in the early afternoon after lunch. Stacey and Blair had already seen the most touristy parts of Split so were happy to wander around other areas by themselves. The remaining t
hree of us explored Split.
The most impressive attraction in Split is the ruin of Diocletian's Palace, which the Roman emperor Diocletian built around 300 A.D. as a holiday residence. The dungeons of the palace are still intact so we looked around there, and the walls of the palace complex were gradually incorporated into the buildings of the city. We also went up the bell tower and wandered through the streets.
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| Diocletian's Palace dungeon, Split - aka Daenarys' dungeon for her dragons (with a little added CGI) |
The five of us then regrouped and went to a nearby nearby beach for pizza and a few drinks. We finished up with some ice cream on the city waterfront, then returned to Providenca to pack for our early departure the following morning and said our goodbyes to Becky. Our fellow wino will be missed!
Wednesday
We got up at 6am and took the bus out to the airport for the next part of our adventure - Italia!
Our first stop was rafting down the River Cetina. We were dropped off on shore and then driven for about 45 minutes up the coast and inland. The rafting was very nice, calm and picturesque and at times becoming a bit more exciting. It was only a low/medium grade difficulty so no major dangers there. We also made good friends with Becky, a lovely English school teacher in our raft who we hung out with for the rest of the cruise.
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