Around Vis (uninspiring title, huh?)

I think I mentioned yesterday that I had booked a scooter to tour the island - the options were 6 hours or 12 hours so decided that it made sense to head out in the heat of the day (!) 

The bike was a 50 cc (after 10 minutes I wished I had upgraded to the bigger bike) and sounded like a food processor, taking a while to decide to move  from a standstill with the accelerator full on - something wrong with the choke maybe, but ANYWAY, it was incredible fun! 

First I headed to Komiza (with a hard 'sh' on the 'z') which is a busy vibrant sea village, lots of people eating and drinking at the cafes under the trees, lots of different accents - I could hear Croatian, French, Italian, German, American - international tourists. I parked scoot in the shade with lots of other motor bikes and went wandering. Then had to go back to check the numberplate so that I knew which bike it was later...(they all seem to be black and red).

I found a deep beach filled with families doing beach stuff - you know, kids on lilos, kids throwing balls in the water, kids grizzling in the heat. I was fortunate enough to sit next to a really obnoxious family which kept me entertained for ages, just listening. 

I won't tell you which international accent they had but they weren't Croatian or Italian - but they did talk a lotalot about money and how lucky they were to be rich...even the children talked about how they could sell rocks from the beach for millions.. and if you tell your child that  you know they don't like being told what to do, it could be a bit self fulfilling.

I ate my tortilla wrap with sunka (with a 'sh' on the 's') enjoyed my big juicy peach, (summer fruit everywhere to buy!) swam, swam again, swam again, and wandered back to find scoot.  I found a stall making smoothies and had a panic attack as they handed me the plastic cup and plastic straw  - plastics are still a thing. And you know what, a smoothie is more expensive than at home (but it was good).

Having come the direct route from the town of Vis to Komiza, I wound my way (with the 50cc engine racing) up the hill along the southern side of the island, stopping to drink coffee at Rukavac and then for another swim at Milna. These two places are incredibly different and only about 5 kms from each other. Rukavac is barren with swimming places amongst the rocks, almost a moonscape of jagged rocks, and Milna was sandy. Actually. Sandy. Both places have beautiful blue water, stunning - and so many yachts and people doing water stuff. It was beautiful.

This part of the world is rocky - don't want to start the obvious but just wanted to get that out in the open. The houses are built from rocks, the walls in dividing

the polje (fields)  and olive trees are made from rocks. I tried to get a photo of the huge grey piles of rocks on the hills but just couldn't do it credit. The paths between the little villages are edged with these rocks too.

So, it's late afternoon, the bike has been returned, checked to make sure it is in the same condition, filled with petrol. My winter body has seen some sun but it feels great  - and now I'll go down to look for Hugo cocktail before dinner.