Today there is approaching bad weather with high winds forecast so we have had our plans changed to accommodate the weather. This morning we woke up in Korcula Town harbour to an early breakfast at 7:30 am. We were ready to ride at 8:30 and biked along the coastline back to Racisce (where we had previously docked). This was a pleasant ride of limited elevation along a beautiful coastline -- only 12 km in length. The Kapetan Jure was there to pick us up and we then sailed further up the coast to Prigradica to pick up the mountain bikers who always go further. We then sailed on to Hvar Island (for about 2 ½ hours).
We had an early lunch while sailing. Once docked at Hvar town, the capital of the Island, we were given an hour to roam around the Old Town before biking on to Stari Grad where we docked for the night. The reason to go on to Stari Grad is that the harbour is a 7 km inlet which is very well protected from high winds and sailboats use it as safe harbour in a storm. Needless to say with the impending bad weather the harbour is chocka-block with sail boats of every description tonight. We are crammed in like sardines and if we were to be leaving in the morning it is difficult to envision how that would happen. Once again we had to walk through two other boats to get on and off the Kapetan Jure tonight.
The ride to Stari Grad was only 20 kms cut into two parts: first - 10km UP with a 450m elevation gain and then 10km DOWN! The grade varied during the climb but mostly it was fairly steep and a long, long climb. It was also a very humid day because of the weather system moving in which made cycling more difficult. Louisa tried one of the e-bikes today for about 6km of the uphill ride; she thought it might be like riding a Vespa!! lol Truth is it does give one a boost up the hill but you still have to pedal and depending which gears you choose and power option you can still get a workout. She won’t be using it again as she didn’t really like the size of it and it is not comfortable for downhill. She switched to her own bike for the 10km downhill run!!!
This run was amazing with wide open views over the ocean and toward the town. Some parts of the road were pretty sketchy with a lot of broken concrete and pot holes so one had to be pretty careful. It certainly took less time to get down than it did to get up.
Hvar Island is known as the Lavender Island as they have huge crops of lavender which are harvested in July for the essential oils. Along the ride today were a few stands selling lavender oil products and the smell of lavender is prevalent when walking through the towns. Apparently in June before harvest the hillsides are a sea of fragrant blue and it is quite something to behold.
Another great dinner tonight -- a delicious cold rice and tuna salad, green salad, chicken cutlets, potatoes, mixed vegetable sautee plus some type of chocolate mousse for dessert. Following dinner we were treated to a walking tour of the Old Town of Stari Grad. It is very beautiful with splendid old buildings and we are eager to see more in the daylight tomorrow. This is quite an artist community so that is also something we are keen to explore.
We’re still having fun ……….. This is really an amazing place!!!! It is hard to believe that we have only been in Croatia for one week. It seems like we’ve been here much longer -- and we only have two full days left of this wonderful biking/sailing tour. We’ll be sorry to see it end.
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