JULY 26 - Now that Odette has a mask and snorkel, we want to find a place for her to practice. Snorkeling (and eventually SCUBA diving) has been a preoccupation of hers for years now. In the morning I go down to the tourist information center to figure out what our best local options are. Among the numerous options, I decide on a ferry that goes out to a few relatively undeveloped islands to the southwest. In late morning we head out to the ferry for Drvenik Mali (mali meaning ‘small’ in Croatian). Its another hot day but nice to be on the water, on a ferry that is really just doing normal transport, rather than a tour boat packed with holidayseekers. Having seen a number of boats dedicated to taking tourists out to snorkeling sites or beaches, I just didn’t feel like doing that.
There are many islands, big and small, all along the Croatian coast. The larger ones (like Hvar) have some old churches and historical interest. Many others probably had at most small fishing villages for most of their inhabited history. Like the mainland coast, these islands have little to no ‘beach’ shoreline, but rather sleep rocky slopes.
A tradition, dating back perhaps before written records, is the construction of dry stone walls, or suhodizi. They are everywhere, often far from any town or buildings of any sort. They form either terraces on the sides of hills, or sunken paths, and for the most part made by just stacking rocks in a certain way to maintain structural integrity, without mortar. Done properly, they can endure centuries without falling down.
The walls were for primarily for agricultural use (crops, gardens, forests, etc), but also served to shield land plots from storms and capture runoff.
The island was as quiet as I had hoped, with just a collection of houses, a restaurant, and a bakery. Everyone walked on up the hill. I figured this would be the way to the beach (I had been told there was a beach here somewhere), so we just followed along. It was predicably scorching and void of shade, covered in short olive trees, rock walls, and shrilling cicadas.
