Supetar

We both woke up at 3.00am feeling really hot & clammy. We undid the sides of the tent & Jackie went back to sleep. I didn’t. Instead I watched the last few remaining episodes of The American Office & got up at 5.15am to research travel restrictions southbound.

After breakfast, about 8.00am we sprang into action, packing up all our gear with the added bonus of thick cloud cover. It was a sweat-less, slick operation & by 9.30am we had showered, had everything in bags on the ground & having a final cup of coffee, before loading all our stuff strategically back into the car. We were just congratulating ourselves on a job well done & then it all went wrong!

The heavens suddenly opened & the rain came lashing down. We ran around like headless chickens gathering up our stuff & lobbing into the car & boot. Inside the car it looked like a bomb had gone off.

15 minutes later the rain had subsided & we did our best to repack the car & get away, because we had a ferries to catch. It was 10.20am as we pulled out of the campsite & an English camper van was pulling in. This was the 1st British vehicle we had seen in Croatia, but sadly we didn’t have time to stop & speak to them.

We raced back to Supetar to catch the 10.45am ferry only to join a massive queue of traffic tailing back from the entrance to the port. Jackie got out & walked the 350 metres (a sign told us it was that far) to the ticket office.

Twenty minutes later Jackie returned with our ferry tickets for Supetar to Split & a 2.30pm ferry ticket for Split to Stari Grad on the Island of Hvar. The ticket girl had told Jackie that they had been caught out by the number of cars turning up at the ferry port & they were having to mobilise an additional ferry.

Eventually they started to load a ferry & we crawled down to the port. We were lined up in a holding area & told we must be ready in our cars at midday. Clearly some people didn’t know that an additional ferry was being laid on, because they were getting very agitated.

We had time to kill, so we took a stroll around the attractive harbour at Supetar & bought a meat pasty. It wasn’t that nice. We returned to our car just before midday & saw that the original ferry was now packed to the gunnels & still more vehicles were being crammed in. Then like a mirage, a 2nd empty ferry appeared & we were directed to board it, just as the 1st was leaving.

Our ferry departed at 12.30pm, barely a third full. We were feeling smug & confident that we would have plenty of time to catch our 2.30 ferry. Oh how we were wrong!

50 minutes later we docked at Split & zoomed off the ferry into another line of traffic, where we waited & waited. There were at least 10 lines of traffic all merging/pushing their way ahead into our line of traffic that was the only way out of the port. It was chaotic & utterly ridiculous we were crawling along at 0.001 miles an hour. Worse still, we had no choice but to leave the port, then re-enter it on the one-way system.

At 2.20pm, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we had missed our ferry & saw that the next one wasn’t until 5.00pm. I started researching where we could visit in Split, when the traffic started moving a bit. At 2.25pm we were just leaving the port & so I forced our way onto an open road. I raced through the streets of Split, screeched back into the port, identified our ferry & raced the wrong way up a one-way road to the back of the ferry. The bemused ferryman checked our tickets & ushered us aboard.

Before we had got out of our car the ferry doors were closing & we were setting sail. We were elated & shouting out ferry related puns. Sorry.

The 1 hour 50 minute ferry journey passed through the narrow channel between the Islands of Brac & Solta, then Hvar came into view. The ferry took us down the deep inlet to the port of Stari Grad, our base for the next week. It was a civilised & speedy exit from the ferry.

Less than a mile later we arrived at Adrienn Apartments, where Adrienn came out to meet us & showed us where to park. I mention it because she pointed to an Audi in the car park & advised us to park a long way from it. She said the Audi belonged to a woman from Paris who couldn’t drive & scared the living daylights out of her. I can’t wait to watch her parking manoeuvres!

Adrienn was very nice & offered us advice on restaurants, beaches etc. Our balcony has a stunning view out across the inlet & the apartment is well equipped. We unpacked & headed out to the town centre.

A 2 minute walk took us down to the ‘nice’ beach, which is not necessarily our ideal beach, more promenade to lie on than beach. It was then a pleasant 10 minute stroll along the seafront path to the town harbour. The harbour was chockablock with yachts, all teeming with annoying ‘yachtie’ types having post sailing drinks on deck.

We found a square with several bars, chose one & had a couple of well earned beers. It was very relaxing & made even better with some good music (Billy Idol & Blondie) from the bar opposite.

We then went for dinner at a fish restaurant, Kod Barba Luke recommended by Adrienn. It was quite posh. I ordered beef steak with chicory & Parmesan cheese & Jackie had lamb chops. They came with nothing else but French fries. Mine was delicious, but Jackie’s was boring & the fat hadn’t been rendered properly. She should have had fish. It wasn’t cheap & certainly not exceptional!

After dinner, we popped to the supermarket for a box of wine & breakfast. We arrived back at the apartment shortly after 9.00pm & went straight to bed shattered.

Observation - Good quality wine & beer is very cheap in Croatia, but annoyingly food, particularly meat is expensive in the restaurants. Only one thing for it!

Song of the Day : One Way or Another by Blondie.Read more