Ooh, up a bit earlier this morning (not that early) for the 9.15 pick up outside of a nearby hotel which was easier for the driver to locate than our apartment! We took swimming kit, snorkelling gear, sun cream and I took a seasickness tablet to be on the safe side as we will be on a much smaller boat than the Hvar catamaran and Korçula ferries.
The driver arrived in a minibus a few minutes early and confirmed our trip which was good until I got a phone call asking where we were from the boat trip company. How were we to know that there would be 2 pick ups for 2 different trips on similar boats at the same time! Luckily after a brief conversation with the woman on the phone it was all sorted but we were literally the last onto a very full boat and had to initially sit up the front in the sun. We whinged a bit but actually once the boat turned around we were in the shade and it was very nice.
First stop for 3 hours on the island of Lopud.
By sheer luck we were just in time to witness the Corpus Christi procession through the town with a procession of girls in white confirmation dresses walking over ornate carpets of flowers arranged in patterns on the footpath. It was impressive but low key and genuine, not for visitors but a national holiday tradition which we had jay stumbled across. We didn’t want to swim on the island as we’d be damp and salty for the rest of the day but we did enjoy a paddle and fed the fish so we could watch ‘fish football’! We boarded the boat and the tables had been laid and it was time for lunch whilst we were moored in Lopud harbour. We had the hake and it was very good, especially washed down with Croatian chilled white wine.
Second stop was at Šipan, a small narrow island chiefly known for its many ancient olive groves. Just 45 minutes here but long enough for us to take a walk to see the olive groves.
Final stop of the trip at Koločep. We were really hot and decided this would be the place for our final swim of our holiday and it was really refreshing. Back to the boat and a final glass of Croatian white wine and we sailed back to Port Gruz. The return taxi journey was much more organised and we were back at our apartment by 5.30pm.
After a brief rest we started packing for our flight home tomorrow. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to fit everything in our cases as the luxury of a car means we can just lob things in the boot! We did pretty well before heading out for our final dinner at ‘Madonna’, a restaurant literally just around the corner. I chose it partly based on the TripAdvisor reviews and mainly because of a highly amusing exchange of views between a reviewer and the management. In the event we had an excellent meal and a great chat with one of the owners. We strolled around and then headed back.
