Island of Mljet

The boat trip to St Mary's Islet
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One of the day trips our tour company organised was to the Island of Mljet, where Odysseus was stranded for 7 years. The western half of Mljet is a National Park due to its two connected salt-water lakes and the forests (the hills we saw on mainland were really barren and parched). In the large lake there is an St Mary's Islet where 12th century Benedictine Monks built a Monastery.

It sounded worth checking out so on another gorgeous Croatian day we set out to explore the island. The hydrofoil from Dubrovnik to Pomena took around 1 1/4 hours and was much quicker than boat would have been. After our tour guide fluffed round getting us tickets to the park we began the short walk to Malo jerezo (the small salt water lake). We discovered one of the problems with tours like this; we walk a lot faster than most tourists do... We strolled around Malo jerezo and up to Veliko jerzero (the big lake) where we caught a boat across to St Mary's Islet. We abandoned our tour group here as only a handful of us made it on that boat, the rest were on the next boat and we weren’t interested in hanging around waiting in the intense heat. The Island and surrounds were beautiful but the Benedictine Monastery itself was a bit of a disappointment. The only part of the Monastery we could access was the Church of St Mary, which was filled with Russians who clearly ignored the signs about dress standards and taking photos. There was a restaurant in part of the Monastery, we're not sure what was in the remaining part, but it was a shame we couldn't see more of it.

Marc enjoying the warm water
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After checking out the islet we headed back to the island and went for a walk around Malo jerzero in search of a good swimming spot. We'd been hanging out for a swim all day and the warm water was wonderful. After our swim we strolled back to Pomena for a much needed buffet lunch. We stuffed ourselves then swam and relaxed while we waited for the hydrofoil to collect us.