| Page Views: 1,162 Last Visit to Otok Brac: August, 2007 | Coming home to Brac by TheWanderingCamel - last update: Mar 28, 2009 |
| Moonrise over Bol, looking towards Hvar |
MrL's grandfather died long before he was born so they were never able to talk about the faraway island where the older man was born, grew up and left as a young man to seek his fortune on the goldfields of Western Australia. He never returned to his birthplace and it was to be 70 years after he died before his grandson was to make the journey, to sit in the garden where his grandfather had played as a boy, to visit the church where he was baptised, to swim in the clear waters of the beach near the family home, to meet the remaining few cousins who still live on the island. It really was a homecoming that saw time and distance melt away.
That was in 2006. We returned in 2007 and again in 2008, so this page about Brac, a beautiful island just of the Dalmatian coast near Split, will be an ongoing thing, with new discoveries and experiences to add from each visit. I guess when I update it after this next visit I could say "I visit here often".
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|  | Brac today ... and tomorrow Third largest of all Croatia's islands, lying parallel to and at no point more that 13 km from the mainland, much of Brac is rocky, even quite mountainous (Vidova Gora, the mountain overlooking Bol, is the highest point of all the Adriatic islands), a harsh, stony landscape covered in low bushy scrub. The sheltered bays and inlets of the north-western side of the island are dotted with picture-book villages and towns, whilst the cliffs of the southern coast are generally steeper and less protected and, therefore far less inhabited although one town there, Bol, the island's oldest settlement, is undoubtedly the island's main tourist destination.
Bol, Grandfather's birthplace, is where we stay. From there we range all over the island in our hire car. We explore mountain villages and pretty little harbours, visit ancient churches, a monastery here, a museum there, and walk along even more ancient walkways over the stony hills.
Long hours are spent over home-produced wine and home-cooked meals with elderly cousins and newer friends, not much common language but lots of laughs and goodwill.
Harbourside restaurants, country konobas, at least one daily icecream (so many flavours, so little time) - early morning swims, moonlit evenings out on the terrace - the days drift by and all too soon it's time to pack up and make our way to the ferry, on to the plane and home. We'll be back ...
leyle |
| | Brac 2008 It was mid-October when we made our most recent visit to Brac. Staying in Bol as always, this time in a tiny old stone house in the heart of the village, a stone's roll down the hill from the harbourside. One room up and one room down, with a vine-hung terrace that was bigger than either and a view of the village and of Hvar across the channel, it was just perfect.
Almost all the summer visitors had left the island. Harvest over, the leaves in the vineyards had turned to gold, the last black olives hung on the trees and lots of the restaurants that were full all summer had shut their doors and pulled down their winter shutters but the sun was still warm and the early morning light softly golden when we took our breakfast out onto the terrace of our little house. Day-time temperatures were ideal for long walks and short swims, only our daily icecreams were off the itinerary as the young icecream vendors seemed all to have packed up and gone back to school. |
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TheWanderingCamel's Otok Brac Travel Tips
 Comments for TheWanderingCamel about Otok Brac | | | | |
JLBG Sat Jan 31, 2009 20:51 UTC
Great page! Your special links with this island give a very personal touch to your page ! I have been only once on Brac and as it was on a sailing tip, we could not visit the island | MikeBird Wed Dec 31, 2008 18:54 UTC
Thanks for these really helpful tips. We have to go in August - the busy time - will we be able to escape the crowds on Brac if we have a car? Mike | VeronicaG Tue Dec 23, 2008 23:15 UTC
Enjoyed reading over your new tips and those written shortly after my first visit--Bracs fine old buildings and historic ruins must be a delight to see! | angiebabe Thu Dec 18, 2008 13:20 UTC
lovely page!a good Aussie friend of mine experienced similar-flew over to me here in UK and then on down to Slovenia to seek out roots-no language at all!we drove from Paris to pick her up (&on down to Croatia)&what a fantastic time she'd had! |
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