Cetina

Yesterday, as promised, we went rafting. This was organised by Iris who has the good luck of working three jobs through the summer. She works in a yard which sells construction products, teaches Zumba classes and sells rafting trips to tourists in the evening. She says that this just makes enough money for her to live, not enough to travel. Her rafting boss generously let ten of us do the rafting for the cost of the 'benzine for the bus'.

I need to set the picture: we met four of the other women at the semafor in the main street. One of the women opened her bag with a flourish to show a pile of still warm kiflerice (mini croasan with sunka i sir (ham and cheese) and a tray of strudel - some cherry, some jabuka (apple).

I asked her what time she got up to make these and she had been up since five. The biggest prize was a bottle of domaci orahovica (walnut infused brandy). And little shot glasses.

The bus wound its way along the coast and turned inland to arrive at the river behind the village of Omis.

(This coastal road is magnificent)

Immediately we got out of the bus, the shot glasses were passed around ...

Cetina is a river that is controlled by a dam high in the Biokovo Mountains.  The water is cool and a beautiful green colour. The level of the water isn't too high at the moment but high enough to create some excitement. Our guide kept up a banter in English and Croatian - we had four Swedes  who he just called 'Svedis' and the rest were from our group- the balance of our group were in another boat with some excitable Italians. Instructions were clear - 'don't do anything that i don't tell you'.  Pretty straight forward really.

The forest along the side of the river is green and luxurious - waterfalls (slapovi) tip themselves down the hills and into the river. On one 'slap' (single of waterfall) we nearly tipped into the river too. At one point the guide (Mate was his name - emphasis on the 'e'- told us that the next corner was a dangerous waterfall and that when he yelled 'bomb-b' we were to sit on the bottom of the boat with our paddles in the air - we shot around the corner and he yelled bomb-b and we all collapsed into the boat as we bashed from boulder to boulder around the waterfall - it was wonderful.

There was a lot of splashing  between the boats (some were a bit nervous  -  if you stay in wet clothes you can get a kidney infection - (that's a long conversation with some attempt at not eye-rolling-)). We passed 'hippies' who live on the island in the middle of the river - Mate was a little disparaging 'not real hippies, just weed people'.

 (Iris and the 16 year old with the longest legs in the world)

 

An hour and a half down, a quick swim and then more shots of orahovica or pivo - and a smoke of course. After three shots I admit to wanting to fall asleep (exercise, sun, alcohol) but the lively conversation didn't stop until the bus deposited us back in Makarska. Most of the women crawled off to bed for a siesta - i headed to the beach...

So, when you come to visit here, this rafting is recommended - book your ticket with Iris - she's on a commission basis.