KORČULA AND THE FALL/WINTER OF 2014/2015

Vela Spila cave

It's off season and what can you do on the Black Korkyra island when the summer heat resides only in the photos or memories, crowds are gone, mainly to their northern, more permanent addresses , many restaurants and bars are closed, sun is not so bold or omnypresent anymore...Cold bora when blowing clears minds but also makes jackets come out of closets, jugo on the other hand is a warm wind but often goes hand in hand with rain that sometimes resembles monsoons. Still, many days are sunny and warm enough. So, the big question is again, what is there or here to do at this time of year?

 

The answer is simply YES. Ok, maybe no bar is open in the very old center of Korčula town, maybe connections with the rest of the world are not the most frequent ones, maybe days are short, maybe you don't find busy social life and so on...BUT, once you're here and start digging, a string of situations happen to emerge from somewhere as if drawn by some hard-to-detect force just being around all the time waiting to absorb and be absorbed.

The truth is everywhere around but mostly in the nature surrounding us and that seems like a great starting point to connect to the island or at least one way to do it. And not a hard one either...If you like to do these things on your own and don't need/know any locals willing to help you out, or they are engaged,  you can always get a map and get going out there searching for meditation in motion and mechanisms how our world came to be like we see it today. As it occurs so often, both mythology and past realities edited into the history through history still co-exist and overlap, sometimes helping each other out by pointing in the right direction.

Vela Spila cave

  Archeological findings in Vela Spila cave in Vela Luka testify about life on the island from the Ice age to present times. And the archeologists haven't reached the bottom yet which suggests that the origins of human existence in this area could go even further back than 20000 years. What we know today is that people that lived there changed, in the course of time, their way of life along with the climate changes that accompanied them. Some 18000 years ago sea level was 100 meters lower than today and Korčula was a mountain with the former Neretva river running along its northern parts. At the time the inhabitants of the cave were hunters but as the sea level rose around 10000 years B.C. they turned more to fishing and sea food.

Vela Spila cave

 To visit the cave, which is locked and closed out of the season contact Tourist office in Vela Luka or even better, the Center of culture exhibiting the archeological findings from the cave. Anyway it is 20 minute walk from the town to the cave and the path is marked so get the key and visit this place containing in its ambience pieces of what we are (made) today. And once you're up there a view to the bay of Vela Luka won't let you down....

Korčula's paths combine old macadams, dirt roads and single trails, ideal for hiking or mountain biking or both. These trails wind through the fields and grooves of olives, oaks, carobs, strawberry trees, cypresses, etc, although...scent of herbs now is not as enchanting as in springtime when most of them are blooming in all their colurful and odorous glory.

strawberry tree

 Occasionally you come across old stone houses, roofless and abandoned as if still longing for some better tomorrow, or skilfully renovated ones arresting your attention in the very moment you spot them. Every now and then view opens to imposing Sveti Ilija mountain across the narrow chanel to the peninsula of Pelješac.

vines in Lumbarda

In direction of Lumbarda olive trees give way to vines rooted in sandy soil for over two thousand years telling you inaudible tales of Greeks in the new world of yore that had seen their predecessors, Odysseus or Jason and his Argonauts navigating these waters more then a millenium before the Greek colonization of these parts.

Sveti Ilija mountain

Maybe little magical forest known as Kočje offers clues to some ancient mysteries, events or life on the island. But not without engaging your own fantasy. Situated near Žrnovo it's a nice walk to get there and lose yourself in the labyrinth of strangely shaped dolomite rocks overgrown with ivy, surrounded by holm oak, fern...flora is interwoven in a most delicate way with cave-like spaces between the rocks dressed in moss seemingly hiding some primordial secrets.

entering Kočje

 Although this protected area is relatively small it comes natural to spend few hours exploring its green corridors, aromatic herbs or looking for the „Fairies' spring“ that has water all year round but not easy to be found.

myrte

These trails pass through the orbits of two villages: Lumbarda and Žrnovo. Both are spread out and traditionally turned to fishing, wine and olive making, agriculture. Until concrete took over, stone was main building material, and local architecture used to create and follow some unwritten patterns that for centuries shaped houses, alleys, backyards, terraces, churches born in different periods and from different visions. Past and present, civilization and nature, people, animals, plants, all share this beautiful area within walking distance...
  

in Žrnovo village

 

around Lumbarda

jungle takes over

work of skillful hands

olive trees

around Žrnovo