Day 4: Orebić

The good news is that when we woke up this morning the weather was a million times better than last night. The sun was shining, there was a clear blue sky and you wouldn't know that there had ever been a storm at all. We sat out on the balcony to have breakfast; a beautiful meat burek which Tim had got fresh from the nearby supermarket.

We wanted to make the most of the good weather, so straight after breakfast we set off for a walk around town.

Everywhere looked gorgeous with a blue sky

Our plan for today was to catch a boat across to the town of Orebić, which is on the peninsular of the mainland just across from Korčula.

We could see the town in the distance as we walked around the outskirts of Korčula.

From what I'd seen on the Internet, I understood there was a passenger ferry which goes once an hour from Korčula's harbour to the centre of Orebić, a journey which only takes about 15 minutes. The next boat was due to depart at 11am, so we had a bit more time to spare walking around Korčula.

When we walked round the corner of the harbour about 10.40 though, we saw that a small boat had pulled up with an "Orebić" sign on its side. When I say small, I guess it would have seated about 12 people comfortably, plus the two guys who appeared to be driving it. I was a bit surprised because the picture that I'd seen online suggested something which looked more like a small passenger ferry, but the sign definitely said "Orebić", so we climbed aboard.

I became further confused, however, when the boat set off towards Orebić almost immediately, seemingly with a complete disregard for the timetable which said it was supposed to depart at 11. How strange. The price did, at least, agree to what I had seen on the Internet (15 kunas - not much more than £1.50 each) which seemed like a bargain.

We had some stunning views of Korčula as the boat pulled away from the harbour.

We hadn't really been able to see the approach to the town from the catamaran on Sunday, so it was great to be able to see the fortifications from the sea.

As the boat pulled further away it was also clear just how forested the island of Korčula is.

It didn't seem long before we were arriving at Orebić on the other side of the coast.

The town is built right up beside the mountains that we had seen from Korčula.

There are views to other mountains further down the coast too...

...as well as back towards Korčula of course.

We followed a pretty coastal path which led along the sea front for a while...

...then went to explore the town a bit. It's only quite small, so that didn't take long!

Another coastal path led in the opposite direction.

From here we could see what appeared to be a church or monastery on a small island in the middle of the sea.

The path led towards Orebić's beach, which is supposed to be very sandy by Croatian standards.

If you look closely though you can see it's not really sand, but gravel. Still, definitely less rocky than most Croatian beaches!

It was a really beautiful location.

When the path came to an end, we turned around and walked back into the town. We found the local church, which looked very pretty.

The effects of our burek had worn off by this point so we decided to search for some lunch. A lot of the restaurants along the sea front were serving fish, unfortunately, but we found one where they let us order the children's menu, which was chicken schnitzel and chips

It's probably the most scenic chicken schnitzel and chips that we've ever had

Once we'd finished eating and admiring the views, it was time to track down the boat back across to the island.

Imagine my surprise when we got to the harbour and found a rather large boat - a ferry that looked like it could seat in excess of 100 people - just about to depart for Korčula. This looked suspiciously like the boat whose picture I had seen on the Internet - the official boat connection between Korčula and Orebić - and it appeared to be running to the published timetable too. It seems like the boat we caught in the morning was some sort of unofficial taxi boat running in competition to the proper ferry. We had great views though, and they only charged the same price as the official ferry.

As the afternoon progressed, the skies became cloudier until this evening another big storm started up. The weather forecast doesn't look great for the next seven days, but we've definitely had a fantastic time today