“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” – Loren Eiseley
The algorithm works in mysterious ways. While planning the bike + boat trip we just did, up popped a random suggestion for something else I might be interested in while in Croatia… a kayak tour. I, (more than Mike), really love the idea of a kayak expedition. We don’t paddle enough these days, but kayaking is something I’ve had a connection to since I learned to paddle in the1980’s. Over the years, the annual Rumble paddling trip on the Mississippi River was enough to scratch the itch -but the organizers all retired in 2021 and I’ve been feeling a bit itchy since then!
Mike is a great paddler, but it isn’t his favorite activity to be fair and it causes some shoulder issues for him. Even so, he was willing to give the tour a chance for my sake. I’m extremely grateful that he did. As far as our individual memories of this adventure go – I’ll quote Queen Elizabeth II… “Some recollections may vary.”
Our meet-up location for the kayaking tour was conveniently just a couple of doors down from our hotel (which I didn’t know when I booked the hotel). We’d repacked everything we needed for the next few days into waterproof bags and left our suitcases stored at the HQ for Red Adventures Croatia. Our guide, Dejan, quickly got us sorted and into the van (along with the two other tour participants) for the drive to the starting point. Unfortunately, due to weather, our itinerary was going to have to be rearranged. Some rain and blustery winds were predicted for the first couple of days. The winds were going to come from a direction that would negatively affect conditions (rough seas) in the area we were supposed to start paddling.
Plan B was to drive a couple of hours down the coast to a small town called Rogotin, near the Neretva River. One bonus of this change of plans was that there was an available guest house that we were able to stay in for the first night -rather than camp. That was nice because the first night/next morning were predicted to be the rainiest of the next few days.
We stayed in an area that seemed to mostly be houses. If there were stores nearby -we didn’t see them.
After a short break to get our luggage put in our rooms, it was time to unload the kayaks and take our first paddle.
Mike and I had chosen to paddle a tandem -since we’re used to paddling together on trips like this. Unfortunately, we’d assumed that the outfitter’s tandem would be similar to ours -which is 21 feet long. It wasn’t. It was actually not much longer than the singles that everyone else was using. It felt a bit like a clown car at the circus to us -ha ha.
Our route was going to take us back into an estuary type area adjacent to the river. It was similar to the backwater “sloughs” on the Mississippi. It was quite interesting because there were areas so wide open it felt like being on a lake -but also there were areas just full of reeds with narrow canals crisscrossing them. Locals have gone into the reedy areas and created rectangular plots of land (filled in) and planted fruit trees. Each “garden” was surrounded by canals.
It is rare that we get many pictures of us on these types of trips. I’m happy to say that our guide and two travel companions did share pictures with us, which are very nice to have.
It was a good shake-down paddle. We traveled about six miles total. It gave Dejan a good idea of everyone’s skills. Luckily all four of us seem to know which end of the paddle to use! (The answer is both!) We cleaned out the kayaks and stored them on the grassy edge of this sidewalk area.
It was a short walk from our landing to the house we’d be staying in. Dejan suggested we put our wet things on some chairs on the porch overnight because there was some protection from the predicted rain. Everything else came inside with us. We had a chance to get to know each other while Dejan cooked a simple meal for us. After that, we all settled down in our rooms for the night.
Day 2 – Second Verse Same As The First
Since the weather was still being a bother, we launched from the same place the second day. We went in a different direction though. The route today was to paddle up a creek, through some back channels and eventually connect with the river and return to where we started by going downstream -making a circle of sorts.
We paddled up a small creek for quite a while. The creek seemed to function as the back yard “fence” for houses of all types along the way.
t I thought this shed type building was cute.
Dejan wanted us to have a shore break -so he found a place where we could squeeze our kayaks in… One of these is not like the other.
When we arrived at the area where Dejan expected to connect through to the river, he realized that the channel he wanted was too choked with reeds for us to get through. We backtracked for a while to find a different channel that might work. By the time we’d retraced our steps for a while, it was time for another shore break. We’d passed this little park on the way out -and if you’d asked me, I would have told you there was no way for the group to pull off for a break there. Good thing they didn’t ask me.
One by one we approached the stairs, putting the nose of the kayak through the railing opening. Dejan braced us as we stepped out onto the stairs there. Then he dragged the kayak over to the structure that looked like a diving platform.
Toward the end of the route, we passed along this rocky area. I thought it was pretty.
Dejan had let us know that he wanted to move camp after this outing, so we’d already packed up before we took the kayaks out. After we landed, we got the kayaks loaded on the van and gathered our stuff and hit the road. Our camp for the night was going to be on the Pelješac Peninsula – a few hours away. The drive was quite scenic, but due to somewhat grimy windows in the van – no pictures turned out.
The campground was in a quiet, protected bay. The kayaks got unloaded. Then out came the camping gear. Have I mentioned it has been years since we’ve camped?
It was a cute campground and it was interesting to see that they’d created terraces so that the tents and RVs had level campsites. Dejan set up his kitchen on a big picnic table by the water and we had a simple meal as the sun set.
Day 3- “Camping is nature’s way of promoting the hotel business.” -Dave Barry
The next morning, the fun began… Since were were leaving the van behind for the rest of the trip -we needed to pack everything into our kayak. It did not go well on the first try. The tandem just didn’t have the packing space the singles did. We ended up having to bungie our sleeping bags (protected in a dry bag) on the back hatch!
Looking back after we launched.
The plan was to stick our noses around the point that was protecting this bay and then decide if conditions would be OK for the group.
Thankfully, conditions were deemed good enough to go for it. We rounded the point and paddled along some very jagged looking cliffs for a while.
Our first shore break was in a small cove at a restaurant (closed…sadly) that used to be a residence at a time when the only way to get to it was by boat. There is road access now.
The beach was steep for landing a kayak. It was 100% rocks too.
Right before we were getting to this cove, Dejan had let us go ahead of the group because we were paddling a bit faster. We’d landed before they came into view. I found some sea glass mixed in with the rocks and picked some up to bring home.
More rocky cliffs.
Some were interested in peeking into the sea caves along the way.
Our route had us crossing over to the island of Korcula. We were paddling to the the spot where the distance between us and the island was the shortest for a quicker crossing.
As soon as we finished the crossing, we stopped at a beach for lunch. The beach looked pretty trashy. I don’t know if it just hadn’t been tidied up yet for the summer season or if people were just generally litterbugs there. It looked like there were some things there for beach goers -like umbrellas- but none of that was set up yet.
After lunch, we didn’t have much further to paddle down the shore before we landed at our camp location. It was another very rocky “beach” to land on.
We had to unload, wobble across the stones, and then walk a short distance up a nearby road.
This was where we set up our camp. The rest of the group were nearby. We took advantage of some conveniently placed clotheslines near us to try to get our things dried out.
Looking back toward the beach from our camping area.
The campground’s owners had a house just behind where I was standing to take the picture above. Next to it, they had a more protected, covered picnic area that we used for our dinner. We still weren’t entirely out of the woods for possible rain, so it was nice to be under cover for dinner just in case. Right after we’d arrived, a man with a fully packed bike pushed his bike up the hill. He also used the picnic area to make his dinner and he became an honorary member of our group for the evening . He was from England and was riding to Dubrovnik, which wasn’t much further down the road for him.
As usual, we made an early night of it. We were anticipating better weather for the next day -which was something to look forward to. Mike was also hoping to get a better night’s sleep than he’d been getting so far. The sleeping pad wasn’t rated for his weight, so like the Princess and the Pea -he felt every stone. He didn’t quite fit into the tent either. Both his head and his feet bumped out a little -which if it rains or the dew is heavy, touching the sides of a tent ends up condensing water inside the tent. Spoiler alert: Someone woke up quite cranky the next morning!
Next Up: The final two days of the kayaking adventure.