Kayak Journey (Day 85)

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Spent the morning here getting organized for the next part of my trip. Walked down to the bus station to get my bus ticket up to Mostar for the following day and then walked over to the Jadronlinija ferry offices at the port to book a ferry ticket back to Italy the night of the 8th. From there I'll just train it back across Italy to Sorrento.

There is this island called Lokrum that sits just off the coast near the Old Town here. Apparently it's a pretty popular place to spend a day in the summer with nice beaches, soccer fields, cafes, lounge areas, good hiking, etc. You can take a ferry out there but I decided to rent a kayak and make my way over there myself and it was well worth it. Did it in the early evening when the sun wasn't too bad, the views were spectacular paddling just outside the city walls. The terrain here is spectacular with only this mountain range seperating Bosnia from the Dalmation Coast. Made it over to the island in about 30 minutes and found a cool place to lay out overlooking the sea and a few other smaller islands to the south near Montenegro. It looked straight out of a post card. Relaxed there for a bit before heading back to the beach to grab my kayak and head home as I had only rented it for two hours.

Continued my tour around the island and on the side farthest away from Dubrovnik I found the nude beach I had heard about. It's a pretty cool spot for it, completely isolated from the rest of the island and fairly popular. And just like in Italy there seemed to be a minimum age requirement. Did not spend too much time over there and moved on to check out some of the caves that go under the island that you can paddle through which is quite neat. After paddling for another 15 minutes I had made one full orbit around the island and was heading back to the Old Town just as the sun was setting on it. I really did end up timing it perfectly. Wish I could have taken more pics but its quite difficult on a kayak. Had a nice lesiurely cruise back in as I took in all the sights. I can't recommend doing this highly enough. Great way to spend my last day in Dubrovnik. Being here has only made me want to see more of the coast here. I'd love to go island hopping a little farther north or check out some of the famous national parks. Certainly need to come back to Croatia at some point.

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Photos

dub1
old city

dub
old city after paddling for a bit

kayak2
break time

cliff1
some italians jumping in....jealous