We arrived at Skradin at 4:30 in the afternoon after an
eventful sail. We managed to get everything up, but as is nearly always the case they had to come down shortly thereafter
as the wind went north westerly which was directly on our nose.
Skradin is a long way up river almost to the Krka Falls
where Al and I went on the scooters.
It is beautiful, narrow and winding with
lots of mussel farms along the way. We pulled up at one such farm, ordered 3kgs
of mussels and that evening Al cooked them split into two different sauces.
We were informed that we could anchor in the bay opposite
the marina at Skradin during the day but would have to move into the marina at night…
Well, we wanted to cook our fresh mussels onboard and so we decided to test
that theory.. We stayed right there for two nights without the expected approach by Mr
WaveyArms...
For Erwin’s sake we played tourist the following day, dingy’d
in and took a tour boat up river to the falls where we could swim, drink cold
beer and then go even further upriver to a monestry and a place called the
necklaces where the naturally formed travertine walls look like necklaces as
the water cascades over them. We walked back to town and never saw the tour
boat either coming to pick us up or going?
Found a really nice restaurant called Skala, off the beaten
track and elevated above town. Big balcony, great views, great food and too
much wine. It took four days to realise I had left my travel card there….again!
I can’t tell you how many times I have mislaid my Travel Cards. (You can stop smiling now Sal)
Another night at anchor in this biblical bay with bulrushes and
swans to grace our view.
At 10:45 on the 2nd July, we weighed anchor
and headed downstream en-route to the famous Kornati National Park. These
Croatians sure know how to squeeze every last drop out of pretty much nothing.
The key feature of this place is that it is a moonscape. Rockey rounded hills
which have been scored by the wind for millennium, devoid of vegetation but
somehow quite enchanting.
On our way downstream we stopped once more at our mussel
guy. Five kilograms of mussels this time please and 3 dozen shucked oysters. It was Erwins turn to cook, he split them into three different sauces with fresh
bread and cold chardonnay.. That, my friends is what I call decadent. 5Kgs of mussels ... $14.
You are supposed to buy your tickets for the Kornati’s while
you are still outside the park which we attempted but could not anchor in Ravni
Zakan. No room on the dock and quite a big wind in the bay, so we headed on
until we found the amazing Lavsa bay where some friendly charter boat directed
us to the last remaining mooring buoy.
Then they arrived to inspect our tickets
or sell us one. It cost almost twice as much than if we had managed to buy them
outside the park! We then purchased another three day pass online so all up it
was $180 for one night, then $215 for another three nights and as luck would
have it, we only managed to use one night of that due the need to retrieve my
Travel Card.
We got a message from some Ausies we met in Trogir that they
were headed for Strakin. I had by this time figured out where I’d left my card
and had contacted Skala to confirm that and told them somebody would come and
collect it… “OK, so you guys should really try Skala restaurant and while you’re
there, could you please collect my card and we’ll find some way to meet up. They
did and we did. How’s that for a bit of luck.
One night in Lavsa and we headed for Sali a lovely little
town on Dugi Otok, a long island with many interesting inlets, coves and
anchorages but it was then we realised we had now left the Kornati National
Park with all these day passes we’d paid for….
Reprovisioned in Sali and headed south again and into the
Kornati’s so that it wasn’t a complete waste of money.
We only had one more day
to burn before rendezvousing with the Ausies to collect my Travel Card.
One
night in a cove at Uvala Vrulje, dinner at the restaurant onto who’s mooring we
had tied and then a long climb to the top of a baron hill for an exquisite sunset/moonrise.
As an asside, there is no garbage on the shorelines in Croatia and this is possibly why. Each town has a garbage bin area near the water, away from the town and accessible by dingy or when you pay for the mooring, the guys will take your garbage. A garbage boat turns up regularly and takes it all away.
The Greeks and Turks could take a lesson here.
On Friday the 17th at 9:05 we unhooked and
started the long trek to the northern end of Dugi Otok and into a
bay called Veli Rat. This was the decided venue for the card retrieval and a
pot luck dinner on the Summer Amy. We tethered our paddle board to the neighbouring
mooring buoy in order to ‘reserve’ it for them and settled in for a game of
Rummycub. Penalty for losing was to swim naked to retrieve the paddle board on
their arrival. I lost. Oh dear.
They turned up at 5:00 didn’t notice I was naked because of
some strategic paddle board positioning until I had to swim back…. Woopin and a
hollerin was all I could hear when I arrived back at our boat. “I'll explain
later” I shouted.
They came over with Tuna Spag, we had done Spag Bol and it
all ended around midnight. Summer Amy did us proud. The Aussie boys were under
pressure from their partners to sell their boat and buy a catamaran.
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