Another day in the paradise that is Korcula and what better way to explore it to broaden our island experience than by scooter. Rosie and The Operator were off following the coastal road out of Korcula Town toward the town of Racisce.
The sky overhead was still as blue as the sea on our right as we motored out of town. There was hardly any traffic on the road and Rosie was wearing shoes today and not anticipating any unforeseen problems.
Like the whole of Croatia, every few hundred meters is a photo opportunity. The Operator knows the drill on what to do when Rosie pats him on the shoulder…back seat driver code for pull over I want to take a pic. 
Normally The Operator would also perfectly position the bike so Rosie wouldn’t even have to get off the back to take her pic! Such great team work and patience on The Operators part.
We had only gone a couple of Kms and Rosie knew this was going to be a good day. A Cemetery! Old looking, crumbling, with its own chapel built within a very high wall….to keep the undead from getting out?!
Rosie loves it! Not the wasps though…so many wasps…Rosie thinks they are attracted to her ‘sweat of fear’ which increases as they start to buzz around her. Time to move on, we had to do a quick get away on the bike because of the hovering beasts and Rosie is sure they are still chasing her.
Round the corner we came and wowza, the village of Racisce was laid out before us in a sweeping bay. No one living here had a bad view or couldn’t see the sea.
It was beautiful…small fishing boats were tied onto the customary small concrete jetties, the nets from the mornings catch lying in a heap harbor side.
The green hills rose directly behind the line of houses and the bourgainvillia was fading along with the summer.
The road into town was also getting busy…with cyclists. Large groups were riding this road to stop and have a coffee in Racisce before heading back to Korcula town. Lucky. The coffee shop was the only place open in this town….and they made good coffee too.
We carried on out of town a couple of kms and there was a turn off to Vaja one of the popular beaches on this side of the coast. We were told to park the scooter on the road way and walk down to the beach which was a hundred meters. Do not drive there, said The Scooter Guy, the track is gravel and if you have accident…no insurance, and you will need to pay me for a new bike.
The Operator grumbling, parked the bike on the roadside at the sign to the beach and off we trekked. It wasn’t long before The Operator stopped grumbling and Rosie started….the track certainly was not navigable by bike….the track was nearly vertical and paved with large, loose, slippery gravel. Inching down granny steps at a time clutching onto The Operator, still grumbling, we rounded a corner and Rosies grumbling stopped.
A pebbly bay opened up like a secret oasis, surrounded by high cliffs and the greenest bluest clearest water was silently lapping at the pebbles. The silence was amazing. A wee tiki bar that would be pumping in summer was packed up for the winter and looking forlorn at the back of the beach and two left over sun loungers were set up on the pebbles. Two people down the bottom had the beach all to themselves…..she was reading he was skimming rocks on the seas flat surface. Paradise. Rosie took her voyeuristic pics of the couple on the beautiful beach (sorry, my pics totally don’t do it justice) and we trudged back up the rocky steep track leaving them alone in their isolated bliss…Rosie grumbling also all the way up.
This island is full of olive groves and vineyards. Every home owner here has olive trees growing in the front yard instead of an open grassy area, or they have trees growing on the roadside. It is harvest day on the island, everyone is out picking the olives.
Nets and tarpaulins are laid on the ground, alot of the trees are pruned to not be very high, so branches can be shaken and the fruit falls off onto the ground cover. Some people also had large combs and were combing the olives out of the branches. The people that did have large trees were climbing up into the branches and using a combination of extraction methods. Everyone waved as we slowed and rubber necked, this is a very friendly island indeed.
We turned off the coast road and headed up into the hills travelling towards Pupnat….shit said The Operator after travelling uphill for a couple of kilometers…I cant believe how much petrol we have used, we are nearly out. I am going to turn around and head back to Korcula to fill up…that bloody Scooter Guy ripped us off, that couldn’t have been a full tank. Rosie looks over The Operators shoulder and sure enough the gauge was in the red…we had nearly run out.
After doing a U turn on the thin steep road and going downhill for a couple of hundred meters The Operator once again says Shit….guess all the petrol ran to the back of the tank….we have over half left. So, after doing a U turn again on the thin steep road we resumed our journey onward, uphill, to Pupnat.
Pupnat was originally settled by the Ancient Greeks and is one of the oldest settlements on Korcula. All the way there the countryside is terraced with stony walls and olive trees are growing in the rocky soil. A beautiful fertile plain comes into view as you enter the village, the hills rise up from the plain and the village is perched on the hillside.
Pupnat itself is like a sleepy hollow, the bells in the church had just struck mid day and there was no one to be seen in the tiny town. Outside the church was the village ‘olive squasher’ and plenty of spare wheels for back yard squashers were lying around the town.
The same road in, is the road out of this town, tractors and cars towing trailers full of olives were heading back into town for lunch. It was getting hot too. If they hadn’t finished harvesting by now….Rosie would leave it till tomorrow morning. On the way down Rosie did some tricky photography of us on the bike for prosperity.
The view from that high road as we traveled back down to sea level was amazing, there isn’t much vegetation above waist height (except for the olive trees) so the views are always good.
Back through the outskirts of Korcula we drove and out the other side of town we popped, our final destination of the day was the town of Lumbarda 7km away from Korcula.
This is a small fisherman’s village of about 1200 people. The village is built around a bay and on the hills behind it, as far as the eyes can see is row upon row of vineyards. This area of Croatia is the only part to actually have sandy based soil, which is perfect for the production of the grape from which the famous white wines, Posip (Rosies Favorite) and Grk (The Operators Favorite – 16%, you know why he likes it) are made. They also do a red wine called Plavac which is extremely tasty….according to The Operator.
The colorful dying leaves of autumn made the vineyards blend in with the rooftops of the village. Small churches were dotted in the fields with crucifixes on every fence. It is a very beautiful town.
We planned to have lunch in Lombarda today, according to Tripadvisor this small picturesque town has 21 restaurants……of which 20 were already closed for the winter it seemed.
The last man standing for the winter was doing a roaring trade as all the tourists were piling into lunch and we had a lovely relaxed meal looking out over the bay…..with a huge, grumpy faced, scoury cat sitting under our table that The Operator insisted on palming scraps too.
On the road back to Korcula we found the best high point looking back down onto the town after doing a few circuits. It was breathtakingly magic as Rosie scrambled through the pine trees for the ultimate shot ever.
The Operator dropped Rosie at a cocktail bar, and, while she got the drinks in he delivered the bike back to The Scooter Guy.
After an aperitif we wandered around looking for a place to have dinner, we came across the wine bar we had been looking to visit but it had always been shut…today it was open and there was one barrel left in the alleyway for us!
We had a great time there! We met the young barman/owner who only opens at this time of the year if he can be bothered….its winter, we are normally closed, I had nothing on tonight so I though I might as well open…his little place was rocking, bet he was glad he opened. He gave us a good lesson in Croatian wines and his choices for us were excellent! So were his snacks!
Sitting below us were the Manchester equivalents of Rosie and The Operator! Childless, middle aged, lovers of travelling the world and half cut….clones of us, just better dressed. Not the couple in the photo, wish we got a photo of them. We had such a good time there….the amazing thing, the next day….very little hang over and total memory recall….we wonder if it is due to the fresh sea air or the organic wine. Big thumbs up from Rosie and The Operator.
This island was just perfect, in so many ways. Its so quiet, peaceful and zen like. The sky is blue, the water is so clear and still, the lifestyle so laid back and easy going yet there is still a world of first class bars, restaurants and cafes on our doorstep as well. Rosie and The Operator could stay here forever, over a few wines we decided all we needed was a great harbor side house along the bay looking back at the city, it had to have a wee swimming beach in front of it and a jetty. We would need a wee boat of which I am sure The Operator would add to his floaty watery collection. Enough land with our house, which wouldn’t be much, to be able to have grow a few vines for bottling our own wine for our own consumption, have some olive trees and a wee orchid. Rosie would get a job doing tours around the town for English speaking visiting tourists…..and The Operator would probably still have to work month on month off….or quit and become a boat mechanic. Yes, this wee island certainly stirs the soul and makes you dream.
Sadly, tomorrow we are leaving Korcula and catching a bus….yes, Rosie did say bus, to Dubrovnik. Due to Rosie making another dire transportation error in getting off the island. The ferries are only running three times a week now instead of three times daily to Dubrovnik because of their winter timetable. This means The Operator, who has never taken an intercity bus anywhere in his life to date (other than drinking and sporting events, which don’t count) is complaining like anything.
Lets hope our three hour journey to Dubrovnik tomorrow at 0645…..goes smoothly. We arrived in the dark….we are also leaving in the dark….back down one hundred stairs by cellphone light. Lol says Rosie nervously.
