Finding Lokrum Island

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“Dead sea” on Lokrum Island

 

“Dubrovnik is great, but it is Lokrum Island that I want to bring with me everywhere!” – our host  said excitedly as we were discussing life, travel and important things to do in this part of Croatia.  And because we need no more reason to be going places, we caught a boat and wobbled away from the walled city of Dubrovnik, by that time filling up with the walking cargo the big cruise boats had delivered for the day.

Reaching the Island of Lokrum requires a 15 min boat ride. There is a monastery, castle tower and a botanic garden, but none alone will be worth the cost of the ride. People come here for the peace and quiet and to escape the insanity of the tourist site on the mainland.

And there are no cars.

And it has a lot of peafowls roaming around.

 

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I wanted to spend the day sprawled somewhere, improving my trucker’s tan line.

Then as we arrived, it turns out that Mr.Blab wanted to climb to the tower. Fine, I thought in a fit of stupid generosity. An earthquake and the recent war have ensured that the way up consists of a struggle not to trip on the crumbling stones that have once been a path. It was warm. I was in flip flops. The kids were not excited either.

To the tunes of mumbles and grumples we arrived to discover that the view is not that special.

On the way down, one knee took a hit as Little B tripped. Tensions increased.

Then the path we were going to take was closed, so we took the long way around.

By the time we got back to the main part, we had hungry children chewing on our hands and a general gloom had taken over the excitement we carried with us on the boat.

We stuffed the kids with the cheapest sandwiches we could find from the limited options and dragged our feet around the island some more to discover that the only ‘beach’ is for nudists only; the rocky part of the island was windy, while the other side consists of big boulders, which soon would be in shade.  Any romantic ideas we had for the day had long drifted away.

Determined we ventured into the windy side and found a spot amongst the rocks.

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With giggling kids in the slippery rock pool and sun beaming on me, I felt whole again.

And this is where things got weird. Real weird. Almost just right

Temporarily blinded by the solar rays, I was competing with my daughter on stand planking, and not doing too bad ;)

 

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Out of nowhere a crazed nut showed up and started vadering us, thankfully Miss Fab swiftly took control of the situation.

 

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For awhile.

I tried to help, but Dude Weirdo attacked just as I was about to nag him to death.

 

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After a few blows and forces flying around (it was crazy!), Little B saved us all by vadering the enemy into oblivion. His body still lies somewhere on the island in the form of green slime. Ewwww

 

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Think of Lokrum Island as a rough blank plate on which you have to make your own experience. It took as awhile to figure that out, but once we did we loved our time spent there.

 

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Few practical details:
Take the boat from the port in the South part of the old town of Dubrovnik (42.640967,18.111314)
Family return ticket for the boat – 140 kunas ( from the guy that sits behind a fold-out table on the pier)
There are 2-3 places to eat, but it is best to bring a picnic
If you want to climb up the hill, bring your non-flipflop shoes
Have the right expectations and you will have a great time

 

 

May 27th, 2013, Croatia
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