Biking Brac Island

Today we cycled out at 9am to cross over the island to the other side at Bol where there are very famous beaches in Croatia. Of course this meant a very hard climb up and over the hills and back down the other side to the beach. The climbing started immediately outside of Pucisca where we spent the night and continued up, up, up for 7 km and 400 meter gain. The plus side of the climbing was an amazing s-curved run downhill for about 7-8 km. We then had time for a swim in the Adriatic Ocean at the Bol Beach. This was absolutely fantastic -- clear blue waters, calm and cool. Just what was ordered after a very tough climb for Louisa! An amazing setting and the most glorious beaches we have seen. But rocky, not sandy of course. The beach at Bol is called Zlatni Rat and is a protected geomorphological phenomenon. It is an island spit of 634m in length whose tip changes with the tides. Time for gelatto on the beach and then ride the bikes back to the boat which was now docked in Bol awaiting us for lunch at 1:30. Our afternoon consists of a 5 hour sailing trip to Korcula Island where we will spend the night at Racisce. Tomorrow we will be biking through the National Park at Orebic - a short ride as we may be sailing again tomorrow for some distance. The captain of this ship is quite a character. He usually pops in every day or so at meal time and talks to us all about the ship and how things are going for us. He is so personable and funny -- although he doesn't speak much English so we are left to try to decipher what he is saying. Funnily enough it is getting easier and easier to understand his stories!! After a wonderful meal of fresh tuna steaks we enjoyed an evening of camaraderie

with a sing-a-long. Two of the guests could play guitar and we had a song book of German and English songs. We were also delighted to a performance by our waiter, Romeo, who sang a capella in Croatian. Another glorious day in this most beautiful part of the world!