Tuesday 3^rd May

We decided to do another part of Brac, this time taking a boat from Makarska, a half an hour or so on the bus the other way from Split towards Dubrovnik.

A lady from England (there were many nationalities on the site) who had travelled on her own came with us today. We had been teaching her cribbage and Bob seemed to fathom out timetables well which gave her confidence to keep us company.

We expected the bus at 8.30 but it didn’t arrive till 9 – the rush hour traffic in Split!

The bus is in the style of a coach with cut out seat belts, seats that can recline slightly ( a bit unsociable) and with a luggage hold underneath. It is not designed for standing room and neither is the way they are driven. The road is winding with no pavements and the road to Makarska has steep drops on the right where the bus is on the edge. We had to stand as the bus was full and we were swung about- nothing much to hold on to- and I tried not to look down to the sea below!

In Prague the young gave up their seats to older people but not in this part of Croatia. Eventually after some time I got a seat next to a girl who said she had just got back from Rome after 14 hours on a boat and she lives in Makarska. She was very proud to tell me that she had won a trophy playing her violin. I thought she was university age but she said she was 16. Such independence so young!

Our fare was roughly just under £3 each and Split was a little cheaper. We thought this reasonable.

We looked around Makarska and not seeing the tourist information office we went to the museum which is at Tonoli Palace built by a physician Tonoli in the 18^th century. The museum itself is very small having few artefacts but the staff spoke a little English and they acquired some information on the area for us.

We visited the local market where I bought some strong smelling lavender oil in an atomiser which unfortunately didn’t make it home to England but we had very sweet smelling dirty laundry! People were selling their own honey which looked delicious and there were huge roots of something looking like horseradish which the vendor pared thinly.

After visiting the church of St. Marks, clearly not interesting to our companion, we bought some lunch to share between us. We missed seeing the Bishop’s treasure but I can see that the opulence of the numerous altars can be rather overbearing and often it feels awkward viewing, when people are privately offering and praying.

We caught the ferry at 12.30 costing 28 kunar (under £3) each per journey. This ferry took only 25 cars and is much smaller than those at Split. We ate our loaf, cheese and ham on the ferry. The noisy ferry arrived in Sumartin on the southeastern corner of Brac after an hour.

 

A quaint port, it seemed a sleepy place with only a couple of bars open. There was a bus to Bol but it went just before the ferry arrived. This is a famous beach depicted on a lot of the tourist guides.

We walked out to the east where old sailing ships were being renovated in a traditional way at a boat yard. There was a lightbulb on top of a small building that we believe is the lighthouse.

The weather became really hot for a short while and we walked right by the coast disturbing a chequered black and white lizard, a grey moth, numerous butterflies and a huge, huge bee. We thought the palm trees we saw may have the beginnings of dates from the yellow spindly bits hanging down.

 

We sat on rocks beside pine trees watching the sparkling sea. In the trees we noticed dense webs encircling some of the large pine cones. I learnt later that these are from the processional moth and the caterpillars are covered in hairs with a protein that irritates skin. It is unwise to stand underneath speculating their origin as hairs, apart from the caterpillar, can be enough to set off an allergic reaction. Trees have been decimated by these and it is a big problem.

The sea doesn’t smell much of salt having a fairly low content and no sea weed but the clear air allows you to detect the faintest perfumes and some plants have really heady scents.

The wind got up as we walked back to the harbour and as we sat with a beer we just caught a bottle as it blew over in a gust. Unfortunately we had to leave on the 3.30 boat as we would have liked to stay longer.

The sea was a bit choppy out in the middle and then as we approached Makarska the rocky mountain range of Biokovo loomed in front. The ramp was put down before we reached the quay but then the sea here is flat as a pancake. It was 10 minutes till the bus left at 4.30 and we were tired. It was a shame that we hadn’t had time to visit the monastery here with its world shell collection and art works. The bus station is a bit of a walk away from the sea but we made it. The bus journey was more civilised and took only 30 minutes.

We were glad of our “included” drinks and varied Croatian meals of local fish and meats- trout, sea bass, squid, shrimps, duck, pork, pasta dishes, risottos, roasts……Bob even finished it all off with brandies every night!!

The hotel does a trip to Brac as it is so close but they need a minimum of 15.There were only 4 of us who put our names down so we withdrew and decided that we had probably seen enough. We had a constant view from the hotel dining room windows of the limestone quarry and we had been to 2 different parts of the 25 by 9 miles (3^rd largest )Croatian island.