August 20
Yesterday, we traveled to the Kornati Islands, part of which are
a Croatian national park. Basically, they are a group of
hundreds of islands off the coast of Zadar. Most don't look
to have much, if anything, on them. We left by boat for a
day-long excursion and I must admit that the theme song to
Gilligan's Island was in my head. The boat took us on a tour
throughout the islands. It took three hours out, and then we
stopped at one of the islands and got off to swim.
Our guide, V, rallied the troops as soon as we got off the boat and
instructed us to follow him to the other side of the island. It
would be more secluded and we could have an area just for our
group. It was about a ten minute hike, up and over the
hill. We had to walk single file and watch our step among the
rocks. There was talk of snakes, but I didn't see any. It
wasn't so easy a hike in flip flops, but we all made it ok. It was
totally worth the extra effort. The view was just as
spectaular, but without the other people from the boat.
The water was crystal clear, blue. In the shallower water,
you could see straight down to the bottom. Everyone
immediately dove in and we had two hours to swim before returning
to the boat, but the timing was perfect. There was no shade, and
the sun was beating down hard. You were either in the water,
or baking on the rocks on the shoreline.
After hiking back to the boat we all sat for a meal prepared for us
by the crew of the boat. The main dish was mackerel. Now, I
don't know for sure that they caught the fish right there
while we were away swimming, grilled them up and put them on our
plates - but that is exactly what it looked like. We each got
a whole fish - minus the head - grilled skin and all. It was
very tasty. And the side dish was like a combination of
potato salad and cole slaw, also tasty. I was pretty hungry
so I ate every bite. There was also a chicken option, but in
a setting like that, I had to go with the fish.
We took a more direct route back to the mainland, which took about
two hours. It was a day of fresh air, sun and water - we were
all exhausted and there we many naps being had before dinner time,
most of which took place around the hotel pool.
The coast and the islands were breathtaking. Absolutely
beautiful. It was a really fun day.
Sheryl