Lokrum Island, Croatia
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Our first proper day in Croatia was going to be spent on an island hopping tour around the Elphanti Islands. However, the tour operators did not reply to our emails and the phone number they provided did not work. With just a few days to go before our trip, they had not informed us where they were going to collect us from, what time, or anything. The reviews online also told similar stories. Luckily, we were able to cancel the trip, and received a full refund.
Instead of this tour, we did our own little Croatian island hoping tour. We went to Lokrum island from Dubrovnik. Famously, Lokrum is known for being a place of shelter for King Richard the Lionheart, when he was stranded after a shipwreck. Although, more recently, it is known for being one of the locations for Game of Thrones.
We travelled there by
boat, which took about 15 minutes. The boats leave from Dubrovnik harbour every half
an hour, and tickets can be bought on the jetty. We paid 150 Kuna for a return
trip, you definitely want to get a return, as apparently there is a curse on
the island for those who fall asleep on its shores! For that reason, there’s no
actual inhabitants, as people are still scared of the curse. If you’re feeling
strong enough you can kayak the 5km. I do feel, like the views would be
spectacular, but that we would have been kayaking round in circles for at least
half an hour! However, the views from the boat, of Dubrovnik’s old town, were
absolutely amazing!
As soon as you get off
the boat, or kayak, onto Lokrum Island the views are absolutely stunning, of
the beautiful clear perfect blue-green waters.
When you get onto the
island you are greeted by a cute little pink house and a map. Although, we
didn’t take too much notice of it, whilst wandering around the island itself,
although I do recommend taking a photo of it (just incase). However, we just
wandered around ourselves - which, I find is usually the best way, as you
stumble across things which you may not have done if you were strictly
following the map.
As soon as we got on the
island, after being greeted by the cute little pink house and the map, we saw
one of its many animal inhabitants. Peacocks, aren’t native to the island, as
they were apparently brought over from the Canary Islands. The peacocks are
very colourful, majestic and to our surprise rather friendly. They will let
humans get up close to them and will approach you, which at first proved to be
rather scary!
As well as peacocks, the island is also home to rabbits. Who, like the peacocks, are very friendly. Although, they don’t like to be stroked. The bunnies were extremely cute, and had fluffy little tails! We came across a whole family of rabbits, just outside of the monastery - which we didn’t know existed until one person asked us where the entrance was, to which we had no idea!
However, we did end up
stumbling across the monastery ourselves, after not actually looking for it;
which is again the best way to find things! The monastery was very beautiful,
being surrounded by many flowers and greenery. We discovered that it was owned
and built by the Benedictine Monks, and the architecture is of Romanesque
Gothic origins.
As it turns out, some of
Game of Thrones was filmed within the monastery walls - which we did not
realise until afterwards. I like Game of Thrones, although unfortunately I
haven’t watched it since season 6 after it moved from Sky to Now TV. There was
a nice little restaurant next to the monastery, whereby we saw a peacock in the
stone window of the restaurant. Many people said that there was no food or
drinks on the island, so we bought some water prior to our trip there. However,
there are actually a few restaurants on the island and some little kiosk shops
selling drinks and ice-creams.
Although, we stumbled
across most of the island by careless wandering, we did use the map to find the
Dead Sea. Which is like a little lagoon in the middle of the island, surrounded
by trees. However, a word of warning the rocks are extremely slippery upon
getting in and out of the water. Also, don’t be fooled the water itself isn’t
actually like the famous Dead Sea, in which you naturally float. There were a
lot of people swimming in the water, and sunbathing on the rocks. Although, I
can’t really swim, I did actually make myself proud and I went for a little swim
around the lagoon with the fish. Although, not being very able to swim, I soon
ran out of stamina on the way back to the rocky shore, so I doggy paddled back,
haha!
In addition to the Dead
Sea, we wanted to find pigeon cave, which was not on the map. We followed the
wooden signs for it, but couldn’t find it at all! Google was not any help
either. We decided that since it wasn’t actually on the map, and that the signs
didn’t direct you there that perhaps a) they didn’t want you to find it and b)
that maybe you needed to swim or kayak there. However, although we didn’t end
up finding the cave, we did instead find some beautiful views. The views were
definitely worth the hike and the slippy limestone paths! Although, on route to
one particular view point as a rather menacing tree, with the words ‘God Help
Us’ scrawled in red spray paint, not really what you want to see when lost on a
cursed island.
All in all, Lokrum is a
beautiful island, the more you wander around it the more beautiful it’s views
are! I highly recommended going to Lokrum, as it is a real must see place, if
you ever find yourself in Croatia!
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