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Published: September 27th 2022
We had a really wonderful day today, on our boat trip to the Kornati Islands, and most of the day was lovely and sunny. Despite the crappy weather forecast! We were so afraid that it would rain and the trip would be cancelled, but we were lucky with the weather, right until the end of the day.
So, we started the day with breakfast in our apartment (yogurt, leftover bread from last night’s dinner with hummus, dried figs, banana). We had it on our balcony while admiring the view of St Michael’s Fortress in the sun. We met the others down the hill at the civilized hour of 9:30. I managed to publish the blog this morning before we left, after having lots of problems last night. The SIM card we’ve been using for our phones, which we thought were good for 30 days, turned out to be good just for 15 days, so they stopped working yesterday. And the wifi in our apartment here in Šibenik is very spotty, it continually goes in and out, so doing the blog is very difficult relying on wifi. I was using one of our phones as a hotspot, but couldn’t do that
St. Michael’s Fortress in Sibenik
In the morning before leaving for the Kornati Islandsonce the SIM cards were no longer active. Suffice it to say, it was a major annoyance for me to try to upload and caption photos, and publish the blog. But anyway, back to today.
We met the others on the waterfront down the hill and boarded our small speedboat (three double seats up front, and a couple in the back), which would take us to the Kornati Islands. We had an almost two hour boat ride to the Kornati Islands, first passing St. Nicholas’ Fortress at the entrance to St. Anthony’s Channel, which leads to Šibenik. The city is in a very protected location.
The boat ride was lots of fun, the weather was beautiful, and the scenery was lovely. We had a great time bouncing around the waves on our small boat. After close to two hours, we arrived at the village of Piškera, on the island of Piškera, where we were greeted by our hosts, Jacob and Anna, who live on a property on the island and who produce olive oil, and honey. The husband’s family has lived on the island for generations. They have a 3 month old lamb, named Mary, who follows them
around like a dog. She was orphaned (her mother and all the owner’s other sheep were killed by a jackal some months ago). They have raised Mary and she is very spoiled! They also have several lovely cats.
We were shown the property, then we all sat down for a lesson in beeswax candle making, around an outdoor table surrounded by olive trees. It was fun even though our candles left something to be desired! After admiring our candles, we had a look at the village church (built in the 15
th C) then we headed off for an hour hike, up the rocky hillside to a viewpoint. Susan and Jim decided to stay and relax, and the rest of us headed up. It was a rather challenging hike, through some loose rocks, and all uphill through very rocky terrain. I enjoyed it though, and the views from the top were well worth the hike. On the way down, Jacob collected some large tree limbs to use to cook the fish we would have for lunch, on the fire. Down I went, carrying what felt like a small log on my shoulder 😂.
We sat down for lunch, around
the table in the olive grove, and I started with a beer which really hit the spot after the hike. We were served delicious grilled fish (Jacob had caught it that morning, then cooked it over the fire), with a potato-onion dish, and lovely bread. This was accompanied by our choice of beer, white wine, juice, and water. After my beer I moved on to the white wine. The locals have white wine with with a carbonated mineral water, that is slightly salty. I tried it and quite liked it. We finished with nice Turkish type coffee.
After our lunch feast, we boarded our boat and rode for ½ hour or so to another island, where there was a beach and the remains of a movie set (what looked like a really old deserted village turned out to be a movie set!). The movie is called “As the Sea Rages” (apparently not a good movie). Some of the group hiked up to the movie set, and Jade went for a swim and I went wading. After my wade I changed back into my pants (I had put shorts on at Jacob and Anna’s place). Though it was a fairly
warm day, mid 20s, it was chilly on the boat. We bought a few things that Jacob and Anna produce (including a small jar of sage honey). The only kind of honey they produce is sage because that is what the bees forage on – it grows wild all around the rocks.
We set off on our return trip home, stopping back at Jacob and Anna’s to pick Anna up (we were giving her a ride). The first part of the boat ride back was just great, but then the drops started to fall, and before long we were getting quite wet in the open boat. We dropped off Anna, and the boat driver decided we also would get off here, and get a taxi the back to Šibenik, as it was just too wet to continue on the boat. We waited awhile for the taxi, sheltering under umbrellas at a closed camping area. It was about another ½ hour drive back to our apartment in Šibenik. We were going to go for a group dinner tonight, but as we had such a big, late lunch and were all tired from the day on the water, we all were
happy just to return to our apartments, especially as it was around 7 at that point.
Susan and I organized our things for our departure tomorrow, and shared our second little bottle of Maraskino with a few snacks. We will have a leisurely morning tomorrow as we don’t have to meet the others until 9:50 at the bus station. We’ll have to lug our bags to the station, but at least this time it will be down the stairs and down the hill! We are off to Trogir, then later back to Split where Susan and I will have one more night. I can’t believe our time in Croatia will soon be over!
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Carolann
non-member comment
Fabulous
Wow, how spectacular! Thinking of you both! Carolann