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Day
four and as I awoke to the engines starting up, I realised how nice it was to be on a tour where you didn’t have to
be up in time for the bus! Today the beautiful weather started in earnest and
it was time for serious sunbathing and swimming. Today’s prank was the
inevitable stealing of the dingy after some of the girls paddled ashore for a walk.
So predictable was the prank that they had worn their bikinis so weren’t worried about swimming back out to get
it. Travis almost paid for his trick though as the girls turned on him and tried
a good old-fashioned down-trou. It was about now that the backgammon tournament
began, now that I’d taught half the group how to play! The water was very
inviting though, the water being crystal clear and us having the bay all to ourselves.
No nudists here! If only Korey had been able to resist the temptation
to throw sea slugs at the girls, I would’ve been able to relax completely…
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| Megan working hard on the tan |
Tuesday
night’s mariner was at Rab Town, a fairly large tourist spot with shiny cobblestoned streets lined with jewellery stores and gelato stands. It’s described as a “perfectly preserved late-medieval Adriatic settlement”
and I explored a bit on my own, checking out the steep gardens providing a good look-out over the town and finding the old
town walls and “campernile” (no, I don’t know what that is either) and impressive bell tower. The busy day caught up with me tonight and I could only handle a couple of pints and calamari for tea before
heading to bed. The local disco and its 12 year old clientele just wasn’t
doing it for me!
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| Jen and Karen hide behind Laura |
Clearly
I was tired, as I slept through most of Pogled’s trip to Goli Otok (“Bare
Island”). Goli
by name and goli by nature, the stark arid island looked like it could have once housed a prison – and it did. We walked off to explore the island and really didn’t expect to see much, and
we didn’t; except of course for those male models who were doing a photo shoot!
We got rather more exercise than I was planning on as we seemed to take the long way around, although not quite as
long as Megan and Justine who eventually made it back to the boat just in time for the whole mackerels we had for lunch! (Which Megan was particularly pleased about.) Lunch
was followed by a strenuous afternoon of sunbathing and swimming at the rocky beach a mere water balloon’s throw from
the boat.
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| Laura, Jen and Megan |
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Goli Island is not a popular overnight spot, there being absolutely no inhabitants, restaurants
or, as far as I know, electricity! Luckily we’d been given the heads up
and had bought BBQ supplies the day before. The hunters and gatherers amongst
us sought firewood and built an impressive BBQ-cum-bonfire for the sausages (it wasn’t too early this time!). I must admit that my input into the group’s dinner was to cut the cucumber for the salad, but hey,
I had an exciting book to finish! I didn’t even make it out to cheerlead
for the girl-boy soccer match, but I hear it was an exciting game. The evening
was warm and pleasant and sitting by the fire we didn’t even need jumpers/fleeces/sweatshirts (depending on where you
come from). The sing-song didn’t really take off, but Michele’s “most
embarrassing mistake” was pretty good and hardly anyone remained seated when, during “Never-never”, my challenge
was to those who had “never peed in the Adriatic Sea while
swimming”! It was a fabulous fun evening by firelight which reminded me
that sometimes the simplest entertainment is the best.
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| Keeping busy on the top deck |
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| Simone |
By
Thursday I was relishing the days as the week seemed to be drawing to an end far too fast.
We were not too sad to leave Goli Island behind and head north to the island of Krk and there was some excitement when we saw a small
pod of dolphins swim happily by. Here the captain found a great bay where we
were accompanied by about six other boats – only some of them with nudists. At
the risk of sounding predictable, today we sunbathed, swam, ate, played backgammon, sunbathed, swam, read, slept, swam…
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| Karen, who challenged me for the "loudest blonde" prize |
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| Travis and his candy floss mo |
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