At 9 am we departed Trstenik enroute to Mljet. Ancient Greek poet Homer wrote about this island in Odyssey, and how he had sailed in this region. Apostle Paul mentions this island on his voyage through the Adriatic and visited the island on his way to Rome.
Mljet has 2 connected salty lakes, Malo Jezero (Small lake) and Veliko Jezero (Great lake). A few km from the lakes is the bay of Polace where we saw the remains of a Roman palace from the 2nd century. Stone palace walls dominate the village and speak about the history of this unique island. A short walk from the palace walls are remnants of the old Christian basilica from the 4th century.Walking paths covered with forest, follow the lake's shoreline. We did our fair share of walking and climbing up and down steps, but I fear that is still not sufficient to wear off the calories we have continued to consume.We considered hiring kayaks to explore the area but decided against that due to quite a strong wind. Bikes and scooters were also available but we decided to try and walk off the tucker and beverages.
In 1960 Mljet was proclaimed a National Park.Thick green forests of Aleppo pine encircle the lakes and shores of Mljet which is considered to be the greenest and most protected forest on the Adriatic coast. It is beautiful and serene to walk around the lakes. Only one section wasn’t so peaceful - you guessed it - another school excursion group!!! Nothing is different over here. I said ‘Hello’ to a group of kids - Gert saw one girl roll her eyes at me as I walked past her! (teenagers with attitude are found all over the world!).
In the heart of the Great lake there is a small forested island of St Mary with a Benedictine monastery, dating from the 12th century. The boat leaves every hour to go to this island. We took the opportunity to have a swim while waiting for our return boat. Sadly the batteries in my camera (which has been working overtime) decided to die during this stop so no photos for the blog. (I dare not admit to you how many photos I have taken up till now with still two and a half weeks to go.) Liz has been taking video footage more frequently than I - or Marie - have been taking photos - and that is saying something! We have decided we will all need to stay a long weekend at Liz’s - with no sleep - to watch the whole video! We’d be interested but who else would want to watch the lot??? Any takers out there in ‘blog land’?
I’m sitting on the deck typing this up and a bee has come to see what I am doing - I have never seen such humungous sized bees anywhere else! That reminds me of a funny story that occurred yesterday. We had the dining room windows open and in flew a pretty looking green beetle about the size of our Christmas beetles. Ron caught it in his hands and threw it out the window. At the same time he smelt a ‘urine’ smell. He asked if anyone else could smell it. ‘No’ was the unanimous answer. He picked up his bowl and his plate and had a sniff. The source of the smell could not be found. He did something else with his hand and commented that the smell had returned. It took him a while to realise the smell was coming from his hand - it had been released by the beetle on being captured. We have given the beetle a name which you could probably hazard a guess at!
At sunset we all gathered at a lovely little bar to enjoy the spectacular view. Most of us had cocktails. After all the food we have been consuming on board we decided a light dinner was the go. We settled on a pizzeria along the water front. Each couple shared a pizza. Yum!After much walking around Mljet we all retired reasonably early and slept well.
The wind had picked during the afternoon. It was blowing quite strong throughout the night. A few garments have disappeared from the clotheslines due to the wind.
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