Ferries

 I've been relying on sea transport a bit - and foolish me, I referred to the passenger boat from Bol (Brac) to Makarska as a 'ferry'. It seems our English language isn't as exact as it could be, so please don't make the same error as I did. Ferry = able to take passengers and cars. The other boat I have been using is a katamaran (which it is) but is different from a ferry (trajekt) because it does not take cars. So.

It is a great service though, I took it again today from Makarska to Dubrovnik. I switched on to roaming on my phone so that I could orient myself when I disembarked from the katamaran and see how far away the hotel was from the port - I have martyr tendencies and like to walk rather than take a taxi where possible. Google maps very nicely said 'walk 60 ms and take the stairs, your destination is in 350 m'. Which is a clear instruction to walk, not to find a taxi and ride 350 m. What I didn't realise was that it was stair after stair after steep stair for over 1/3 of a kilometre. The picture doesn't do it justice. I had to hitch my skirt up into my knickers so I could stride, but my hand back on my back like a back pack, lift that suitcase and just guts it out. Half way up, a man stopped and asked me where I was heading and then shook his head commenting that there was a way to go. There was another guy doing the same thing - only he had 4 women with him and he was shuttling the bags up one at a time, so that his family didn't need to lift the bags. So that was today's exercise. Then I collapsed by the pool. I may have fallen asleep after drinking a bottle of water to replace the sweat I had lost.

 I haven't been very diligent with my blogging. I've been distracted by a few friends in the same part of the world as me. We went up to Gornje Tucepi and had a night a home up there with domace food - prsut,  cheese, tomatoes, cake, wine and rakia. It was the balmiest of evenings, maybe 29 degrees, absolute silence sitting at a table under a huge tree. Well that's not entirely correct, there was some lively chatter. I made them all walk around the village - just because I love it up there, and they humoured me by making appropriate noises. What was seriously impressive was that about three weeks ago, there was an incredible fire up there and in the aftermath,  you can see where it was, sometimes surrounding a house, but with absolutely no damage to houses or loss of lives. One van was burnt out, but the rest, incredibly lucky. I saw a post on face book today of a few green shoots on charred olive trees, helped by the rain we had a night or so ago. 

The forecast said there could be rain, and I was woken up by flashes of lightning at about 2am which continued lighting up the sky for about an hour, then a grumble of thunder, a huge clap, a bit of rain and all clear the next morning. It was seriously dramatic. (tried to upload a video but it's too big).

So, here are a few pictures of us up the hill.

And a last few fond farewell photos of Makarska. Including a photo of a near calamity as an idiot in a yacht didn't spot the katamaran bearing down on him.

Tomorrow, we take the ferry to Italy, and early morning start, hope there is coffee on the boat.  The ferry lands at Bari and i need to get to Ostuni which is 1 and 1/4 hrs by train - except that the trains are on strike tomorrow. I'll report back.