First Croatian islands...this season!
30 June 2009 | Polace, Mljet, Croatia
Brad
Left our little "home" in Cavtat and made the obligatory pass of Dubrovnik old town, and what a spectacular view. We then motored, wind on the nose or too light, to Mljet, one of the most southern islands on the Dalmatian coast and a national park. We anchored up in a deep little bay at Okuklje for the night on the southern end of the island. One get the feeling that the local tourist trade is down this year. Whenever you go into a bay with little jetties in front of a restaurant (very Turkish) or even a private house where you eat in their dining room, the local restaurateur seems overly keen, even desperate to have you on his jetty. Perhaps this is part of the game but honestly it feels different to last year, tourism really is down and there is a noticeable absence of the British (since the GBP depreciated) and a overwhelming percentage of Germans!
We feel bad for not giving more to the local economy but don't worry they get it from you in other ways...or at least the government does. The Croatians seem to be a mix somewhere between the Turks and the Greeks. They have a Turkish mentality to hospitality and entrepreneurial enterprise, but they have the Greek ability to charge for everything!! They have even started charging for anchoring!! OUTRAGIOUS!!! It really feels like they have turned up the cost for cruising sailors unjustifiably. Fair game you might say, you live on a boat so surely a little extra cash is available. But nobody likes to be taken advantage of and it seems to be backfiring on the country with cruising sailors staying away and charter companies reportedly moving large portions of their fleet to Greece and pushing that destination instead. Net result - a double whammy for the little local guy and his jetty. Hopefully the government and local authorities quickly realise the error in their ways.
The country is certainly pretty though and we are in Mljet surrounded by wooded islands, beautiful anchorages and clear waters. Half of Mljet is a national park with a landlocked salt water lake in the interior on which sits an island with an old Benedictine monastery perched atop. Nice spot. We took a little bus to the lake and then a boat out to the island. To be honest not a whole lot to see but a decent use of an afternoon and a nice walk back! We thought we might encounter our first "charge" for anchoring, but thankfully when the authorities came around they just wanted proof of the national park fees (around £10 each) which we had paid in order to go see the lake and monastery so we figured that was pretty good value and a reasonable way to structure the costs. Moreover they were happy people with a smile and a simple apology for interrupting our beer consumption! Moreover we have a cheeky free wifi connection so we are doubly happy!!
Tomorrow it is on to Lastovo then onto Vis (which we really loved when we were here 4 years ago), well that's the plan, but as a wise man once said..."the plan is always subject to change!"