Croatia on fire

Its hot out there, little did we know, how hot!

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Note: this post contains video

We had had a lovely meal last night and awoke to another blazing hot day. The clothes we had rinsed last night were already bone dry.

A few moths had been at the wine left courteous of our host. Not a bad way to go I suppose, drowned in home made wine. Three of them had had some party last night while we slept.

The owner had recommended a good snorkelling spot just a few hundred metres from the property. It seemed like a good way to spend the morning, and this time we wouldn’t be forgetting the camera. He also said there had been some problems over on the mainland and it might be better to get the ferry rather than the bus, but we had already booked our tickets. He kindly went to find out whether the issues had been resolved and the busses were running on time, they were…Good.

He also offered to drop us in town after our swim which would save us lugging our rucksacks. Thanks.

We couldn’t recommend this place more: Guesthouse Anamarija in Korcula, found on booking.com, clean, friendly, WI-FI and great value. It is a little out of Korcula Town, but then he picked us up and dropped us back so you can’t ask for more than that.

It is a little hazy and overcast today, but we understand that it could be hotter than ever.

It is especially hazy over there.

Although still quite early, people are already swimming in the sea and we aim to join them.

But before that we have an iced coffee to find so we retrace our steps back to the restaurant we frequented last night.

And this time we get to do a bit of underwater filming.

 

 

Here it is our snorkelling route for the day

But soon we must go. The bus leaves close to 15.00, but we have left a little time to have some lunch and take a brief look at the town.

Slight panic before boarding the bus. These guys are less IT savvy. Although we have a ticket, it resides in digital space, on Susana’s phone. They need a paper copy. We rush to a local bar to borrow a little Wi-Fi so we can email it to the bus company, which she then prints in triplicate, hands one to me, one to the driver and keeps one herself. The driver then asks me for me copy!!!!!

What a waste of paper, but at least it gets us on the bus.

The bus heads around the island to pick up a local car ferry which looks much like the Woolwich ferry in London, except for the location, the weather, the heat…

actually…

it is nothing like the Woolwich car ferry!

It is just a ten minutes crossing

And we are sad to leave the islands, but ever onwards, ever south.

So we leave Korcula behind us.

And head for Dubrovnik.

No sign of that super hot day. It actually looks quite cloudy over there, perhaps it is going to rain.

But that is not just cloud, that is also smoke. The mainland is on fire…

And we are heading straight for it.

Already the islands feel a long way behind us as we travel down the coast.

But we sense we are getting close to something dramatic.

Eventually we pull around a long curve, and in front of us a scene of devastation.

Charred, blackened trees and shrubs everywhere.

I am absolutely petrified. I’d never seen a landscape on fire so close before. We used to have this big problem in Spain twenty years ago. People used to blame the heat but, actually, most of the fires were caused by humans, otherwise, we have hardly any these days? Spanish have become more conscious. Tough controls on key areas and increasing protecting spaces have also contributed massively to the management of these devastated natural phenomenons. I wonder how many of these events are tourists to blame for. SM.

Although the fire seems under control, the whole area still seems to be smoking.

This is the cause of all that haze.

We pass numerous fire vehicles and hundred of people desperately trying to keep things under control.

Planes fly over, bags suspended beneath the, presumable to drench the landscape with water.

This is not an isolated pocket of fire. Kilometre after kilometre of forest has been ablaze.

And it appears there re still areas just ready to spring back into life.

Large flames on the horizon. Will we ever pass this inferno?

And just when you think you have passed the worse of it…..

I hope the winds don’t increase. Some charred areas seem perilously close to houses, but we don’t see any that have been burnt.

Eventually, we seemed to have put the fires behind us. Good luck to all those that are trying to control it, an almost impossible job.

It makes us see the beauty of the landscape in a different light

Somewhere ahead of us, must lie civilisation….Dubrovnik.

And you can’t get more civilised than that. A large cruise ship is pulled up. A live group at the back play cheesy 80’s music to those left on board.

We chose our accommodation because it was close to the bus station, a practical solution as we will be leaving again tomorrow afternoon.

But that still leaves the evening and tomorrow to explore Dubrovnik. We get a local bus into town.

What first strikes us is 80% of people on that bus are tourists, even this far out.

By the time we get to the centre, the enormity of the crowds begins to sink in, this place is heaving with every nationality.

Some beautiful walls though.

You can hardly breathe as you move through to the historic centre, passing across the drawbridge.

The light is beginning to fade and it is chaos, nowhere to turn.

We hope to escape down some side streets, but there is nowhere to hide, everywhere is inundated.

Ah some steep steps, this is bound to scupper the majority of overweight western tourists. This is relatively peaceful!

And we start to see perhaps a vague hint of what the city might have been like before being destroyed by tourists. Perhaps, somewhere up here a family might actually still live, but why they might want to live in this bedlam, who knows.

This peace isn’t going to last for long, we need to head back into the maelstrom to find some food.

Just like everyone else!

Back in the centre, there are pizza place after pizza place, whole streets of them competing. Then the steak joints. Where can we find some local food around here?

Our accommodation also runs a restaurant. We seek it out, it looks promising, reasonably priced, fairly elegant and we get a discount.

There is just one problem, they have no electricity. A power cut, but they hope it will be back on within half an hour. We have a glass of wine each.

The electricity doesn’t come on, the whole street is in darkness, except for the candles. The wine is on the house, we move on to find another restaurant.

We find somewhere, it isn’t that great, but it was reasonably priced. Some of the establishments around here are taking the piss, Michelin starred prices for Beefeater food…No thanks.

As we retreat back to our room, we find the walls are even more beautiful now.

It takes us a while to extract ourselves, and then shoehorn us onto a bus.

Is this what normal tourism is really like? You can keep it.

GDR