Blue Cave and Blue Lagoon Tour

Up at 5.45am, these kinds of mornings really suck.  The kids don’t want to get up, we don’t want to get up but that’s life.  Today Kaia channels a raging demon, she’s very tired and letting everyone know it.  

After our debacle getting to the accommodation yesterday we took no chances and ordered an uber.  Looking at some of the boats that we saw going to blue cave today, I'm extremely happy we paid the extra to have a smaller tour which came with a more comfortable boat and canopy.  Having no shade in this heat is not pleasant.

When you get to the blue caves ticket office, you buy the tickets and then have to wait for your number range to come up.  We were 636 to 642, which meant on this particular day by 10.30 in the morning 632 people had been taken through the cave before us.  As it's a 45 min wait, we get taken to a nearby beach with sand (one of probably only 2 around split) and a bar.  

We transfer to these long boats and quickly work out that you need to duck to get into the cave as the opening is probably only 1 - 1.2 meters.  Inside the cave is spectacular.  Like the wonder of seeing something different for the first time.  How the light comes through this tiny hole in the rock, together with an underwater opening creates this vibrant light blue that is so clear and very inviting.  Under the water in the cave is a natural bridge connecting part of the walls of the cave.  It's strange to look at part of the cave and realise it's not solid rock touching the ground and the only thing stablising this huge weight is a stretch of rock about 2 metres wide.

We travel to the next island where the only way to get to shore is to swim.  And like all islands in Croatia, will always have a beachside bar.  Jumping off the back of the boat, it's so reassuring to know our kids are confident swimmers and don’t need to be close to shallow water.  The instructions from the crew were “there are jellyfish here - we just want to warn you of that”.  Ok cool no worries, not sure why you need to warn us, but whatever.  After a while of swimming Gareth from the water asks - “do these jellyfish sting?” - “ah yeah but not too bad”.  Needless to say Gareth got stung across his stomach and I was back on the boat in a flash.  Apparently this wasn’t enough for Gareth or the kids to get out of the water and they used the masks to check for Jellyfish while swimming.  The ladder on the boat was partly broken and with a jellyfish sting, Gareth managed to slice a deep cut across his foot.  First aid on the boat consisted of a water bottle to wash away the blood.

Our next stop is the blue lagoon, and this island until recently had only 1 inhabitant who had a range of pets (including donkeys that would steal your backpacks if they could smell food) and a small bar for making his living. The dude is still alive, but at 96 I think getting help was probably a good idea.  It's quite shallow around parts of the lagoon which is why you can be in deep blue coloured water one minute and turquoise the next.  We walked to the other side of the island in search of the donkeys, but couldn’t find them.

We have a bit of a long trek to Hvar for lunch.  And this is the ritz of the Croatian islands.  You are here to be seen for sure.  With everyone all glammed up on shore, we chuck on our t-shirts and shorts over our wet togs (€500 fine for wearing only togs in public) and walk to the main square for lunch complete with the wet boob and undie look through our clothes.  After lunch we fail to make it to the top of the fortress with the heat, so make our way back to the port area and watch the craziness of super yachts coming in to park and offload their guests for lunch / shopping.

By the time we are leaving, the wind has really picked up and the next islands we were due to go to would be an incredibly uncomfortable ride so we agreed as a boat to make our way to a different island - Brac for a last swim before heading home for the day.  Extremely long day on the water, but so worth it. With Kaia’s birthday the next day and another big day of boating and islands, I'm a bit worried what kind of monster will crawl from Kaia’s bed tomorrow.