Monday – 4th Week: The Island of Hvar

Up at 6am again this morning and off to the ferry terminal in Drvenik, about 10 minutes down the road from Zigovošće, to take the car on the 30 minute boat ride to the Island of Hvar. Hvar is a long narrow island, with the main town of Hvar being at the opposite end of the island to where our ferry docked at Sućaraj. The 80km trip to Hvar runs along the spine of the island between olive groves, vineyards, lavender fields and the very occasional small town. The landscape is very similar to the south west of Ireland – the ring of Kerry and the Beara Peninsular – with many stone walls, the baron nature of large parts of it, and the views across the bays to the small towns on the mainland.

Unlike the roads from two days previous, on this small island, the road is only just wide enough for two cars to pass safely, extremely winding and much of it is a straight drop off from the tar seal into the adjoining paddock. What this means in practice is that you can’t afford to get the wheels off the black stuff, or you’ll be heading for serious suspension damage and a very quick stop. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much traffic on the road and Anne being Nav Girl Extraordinaire, she kept me posted on what traffic was approaching and any upcoming hazards. We did encounter one Campervan going our way and driving down the middle of the road, simply because they had no option and other than meeting the odd unexpected car on a blind corner, the trip was reasonably uneventful. I’ll have to investigate whether there is a Croatian rally or targa that goes to the Island, because it seems like the ideal rally road.

The town of Hvar is a very expensive resort and spa town. Expensive in every sense of the word – from the hotels dotted around the coast, to the value of the super yachts tied up in the harbour to the 20kuna you have to pay for a cup of coffee in the town square – About $NZD6. Like any small town with a walled castle on the hill overlooking the town, a marina full of various sized boats bobbing on the tide, a magnificent town square with restaurant umbrellas all around the edges it really is a picture postcard. Again, the temperature was in the low to mid 30’s, so a gentle pace was definitely the order of the day.

After a coffee (that’s breakfast) in the town square, we went for a walk on the stone path out past the marina. There were lots of boats offering rides out to the nearby beaches. There is a very good reason for this. While the beaches on the mainland had golf ball sized pebbles, the beaches around Hvar are just rock – solid not particularly flat and certainly not comfortable rock. So what do the locals do – they lie on it on their beach towels sunbathing. Some people that preferred a more comfortable class of rock had laid there towels out on the footpath that runs along the waters edge. Actually Point Jerningham at the end of Oriental Bay would be the best analogy. Just imagine taking your towel down to Point Jerningham and spreading it out on the footpath and sunbathing, with all the people walking past. When you felt like a swim, you’d clamber out over the rocks and into the water. Then imagine that the water is warm and pleasant – no you can’t, can you.

We then walked round to the other side of the port and out on the stone wall to look at a five masted tall ship and a cruise liner that were docked there for the day (possibly explaining the 20kuna cup of coffee – it’s 7kuna anywhere else). At about 12:30 – is that the heat of the day – we walked to the top of the hill to stand in front of the castle and admire the stunning views of the town, the harbour and the surrounding seas and islands (see the photo). A small bottle of Coke kept us going in stifling heat. Returning back to the town, we left at about 2pm and headed to Jelsa, a small ferry port town about half way up the island that we had passed on the way up to Hvar.

Lunch at Jelsa was Gelato – one of the few times we’ve had it on the holiday – don’t worry we’ve digressed in many other dietary areas. The trip from Jelsa back to Sućaraj is the narrowest and most winding on the island, so full concentration to keep it on the road and avoid all the cars coming off one of the ferries that had arrived.

The owners had invited us upstairs for a wine in the evening, so we had a fascinating talk with them about creating Yugoslavia after WWI, communist rule after WWII, the collapse of Yugoslavia and the war and now the new Croatia – really interesting stuff. It’s amazing talking to someone who by their late 60’s has lived through communist rule, been held in a Yugoslav prison for two months and beaten up by the communists for trying to escape to Italy, escaped to Italy and spent two and a half years in a refugee camp, got sponsored to come to New Zealand, gone back to Yugoslavia then in his 50’s spent 5 years fighting in a war for the freedom of Croats and the creation of Croatia.

We got to the Pizza restaurant at 11:00pm for dinner, but that’s no problem because they’re open until midnight and were still doing a roaring trade.