Dubrovnik, Imperial Fort (Srd) Trail

Imperial Fort (Srd) Trail (10/20)

More water travel today as I took my last ferry ride in the Dalmatians from Korcula to Dubrovnik. It was a 2-hour, very relaxing ride.

My room wasn't yet available when I arrived, so I left my luggage with the front desk and set out to walk from my hotel to the Imperial Fort Trail and up the hill to Srd.

The desk clerk told me that there was a walking path along the water for a good bit of the ways and it was very pleasant: cool from shade and a breeze, nice views of the water and ship traffic, a shell house (!), and restaurants and hotels. Once away from the water, though, it was a mostly shadeless and uphill walk to the start of the trail.

The trail beginning was a bit tricky to find. Google tried, but the approach by foot involved some tiny, ancient streets and crossing a very busy roadway to get to the starting point. My clue that I was close was seeing a lot of cars parked on the shoulder of this busy road.

The beginning of the trail was pleasantly shaded as it switch-backed up the hillside. The trail surface, however, was standard Croatian trail with plenty of stones. About 1/3 of the way up, the trail came out of the trees and the remainder of the ascent was directly exposed to the sun and was very hot. At the corner of each switch-back there was a bronze plaque commemorating something about Jesus. After a time I got the feeling that each one was a station of the cross, since this is a very Catholic country. But I don't know the stations so it could be my imagination.

At the top I walked around a bit to get a sense of the view, but all these other days have spoiled me. There was considerable haze in the air so the island view was obscured. However, Srd is directly above the old city so I could see right down into it. Very cool.

I didn't want to walk back so I took the cable car down and then a cab back to my hotel.

There was still a bit of day left so I got checked in, changed into my swim togs, and went down to the beach just a couple hundred meters behind the hotel and had a very nice swim. There must be a river that comes in nearby because the water did not seem as salty, although I floated very well, and it was filled with distinctly hot and cold areas.

Tomorrow I get to poke around Dubrovnik a bit and, if lucky, get another Adriatic swim before I go to Madrid the next day.

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