Got up this morning in Korčula feeling decidedly ‘jaded’.. a combination I think of all the kilometres, the heat and red wine last night… Korčula and the Peljesac have some pretty good wines… apparently Korčula does the best whites while just across the water the best reds come from the Peljesac… at least that is what the chappy in the restaurant in Ston told me… with a beer in his hand, lol! I very nearly stayed a day (to be fair I could have stayed forever…) extra to simply absorb the atmosphere of the town (i.e put my feet up at a bar for the day…) but after a couple of good coffees with D&N the motivation started creeping back and bags were packed for the arduous 3km ride to the ferry terminal just around the headland at Dominiče… more caffeine was imbibed while waiting for the 11am boat across to Orebič on the Peljesac… my caffeinated walk was noted by D who apparently is an expert in such matters…
It’s only a 20 minute trip across the channel on a small ferry that runs every hour… it still had an air conditioned bar though with cream vinyl sofas.. :-) As we rolled off the boat the smiley Jadrolinjia guy in his white uniform on the quayside looked at me, grinned, and said “ah, one guy two girls, haha, very good, very very good….!“. I was unable to disagree… though what he didn’t know was that we were about to go our separate ways for the rest of the day… different plans and all that plus different riding speeds in the mountains, though we would be meeting again in the morning…
It was a pretty stiff, and hot, climb of about 10km out of Orebič (another pretty place…) heading east but on a good surface with fab views back towards Korčula. Once over the summit and after some rolling sort of terrain, about 30km into the ride the road descended on the southern side of a very lush forested mountain. I could see a tiny little harbour way below me to the right… it looked like a pretty nice place to stop for more coffee and a bite to eat despite knowing descending all the way to the sea was only going to add more climbing to an already very hilly day… The cafe on the quiet quayside on the far side of the village had some decent shade and groovy tunes so I stopped there. The guy running the place was a dude… long white linen shirt, long gray beard and a ponytail. I walked in with the usual “dobar dan! Bijela kava molim…” to which he responded with something like “groovy, tall latté machiatto, OK!” in a Croatian accent… technically a machiatto cannot be a latte at the same time (I think anyway…)… a machiatto is an espresso shot marked with a small head of foam… but hey, I wasn’t about to argue.. it had caffeine and I liked the “tall” bit… and indeed it was tall when it arrived. Perfect. After that I didn’t really notice the 600m or so climb back up…
I arrived in Ston at about 3pm I think… figuring that was my riding for the day I decided looking for a room could wait until I had cooled off with a beer… with beer nearly gone and a distinctly wobbly feeling in my legs I asked the barman if there were any rooms for rent in the town… he told me I needed to ride further on to Mali Ston… oh dear, I wove a wonky line as I pedalled across the flagstones of the village square on my way back to the road… Luckily Mali Ston was only a couple of Km and I did indeed find a room… after a trying a few places. Mali Ston is known for it’s oyster beds and there is a pricey hotel in the place… which means that private rooms are also pretty steep and the owners are reluctant to negotiate. The first place advertising a room wanted 300Kn a night.. so I said “well, I want to stay 2 nights so how much is that“… it usually results in a significant discount… “600 Kuna” came the deadpan reply. Bugger. I eventually found a tidy place for 200 Kuna. Not wanting to eat oysters that evening, after a swim I rode back to Ston which seems to consist entirely of cafe-bars and restaurants… and some old city walls which folk come to see. The food was more interesting.
