Hvar island

Pinch and a punch!

It was an early start for the crew as we left Vis port before 6am. The destination? Blue Cave on the nearby Biševo Island. The cave can get manic, supposedly, so we were aiming to be early in the queue. We disembarked onto the island and then, in true seaside fashion, had to wait for the boat wranglers to arrive! But the wait was worth it. We climbed into the open-topped boats, motored around the headland and reached the cave entrance. Bobbing down to get into the cave, we floated under the arch and entered a magical world. Our cave entrance was created in the 1880s (using that gentle method … dynamite!) but the natural entrance is underwater. The eastern sunlight bounces off the sandy floor and illuminates the cave in an ethereal blue glow. As we have mentioned earlier, the Dalmatian Coast’s water is crystal clear, and we looked down on swarms of jellyfish and plankton. There is also an underwater arch cutting across part of the space that supports one of the cave walls. We had the cave to ourselves for about 5 minutes before another boat arrived. This is rare, in that during the peak season the cave has four boats in it at the same time.

We made our way to Hvar, stopping, of course, for a coastal swim, before getting a water taxi into the port. The authorities do not allow cruise boats to dock until after 5pm, as the docking area is used for passenger ferries before that. Our tender was an elegant wooden boat out of a 50s movie. Hvar is billed as Croatia’s Riviera and is often listed alongside Ibiza, St Tropez and Monte Carlo as a luxury destination. In the same billing, it is also stated that it is ‘the Mediterranean as it once was’. The vibe in town is luxury but at a less commercial pace than the afore-mentioned places. And being 1 May (Labour Day), it was a public holiday though many places were still open.

A climb up to Fortica (aka Spanish Fort, though Spain never had influence here) gave us amazing views over the town and a quick drone from such a height provided even more great images.  A walk back down through the steep and narrow streets returned us to St Stephen’s square for our next adventure.

We were driven into the centre of the island to the Stari Grab Plain, a UNESCO cultural site preserving an ancient Greek land parcel system. We had the most entertaining wine tasting dinner, with the guide cracking jokes, free pouring wine and sharing wonderful stories. The delicious meal, the beautiful outlook and the great company made for a terrific night. A harbour-side nightcap rounded off the night, as we enjoyed the twinkling lights of Hvar. A ‘sardine berthing’ of six boats greeted us on our return to the boat … and we were fourth in the squish. It was a fairly rocky night, so the creak of boats and splashing water made for an interrupted night’s sleep.