Keeping cool...

 Our final full day in Dubrovnik saw us actually staying in and touring the great city itself.  But you know by now that I had something up my sleeve because rarely do we spend a whole day touring without throwing in something for the kids (big or little).  This time I had booked a kayaking tour that would take us around the "cursed" island, allow us to swim and snorkel in a hidden swimming hole and give us a whole new perspective on those walls that surround the city.  It would also give us a much-needed break from the unrelenting sun and the droves of tourists that enter the city in the late morning making it almost impossible to even walk.  (Tip: if you are in the city during high season, which we were not, get outside of the walls between the hours of 9 and 4.  This is when the cruise ships are docked and release all of their passengers.  Do a day trip, kayak on the water, go anywhere but do yourself a favor and get out.  There is no place for those thousands to go but the small city center and you can hardly move).

We had grabbed a quick lunch after our early morning tour (next post) and were sunblocked, swimsuited and raring to go.  Since they were two-person kayak's, we had to pair up, agreeing to switch at the halfway point when we stopped to swim.  It was decided that I would take Stinkerbell to start since I was fresh and strong still and since she wouldn't even have her own paddle, I was going to have to paddle for two. 

We were put in the sea with the others and set off on our 3-hour tour.  And I pretty quickly realized that this was not going to be a leisurely kayak.  A double kayak is heavy.  Stinkerbell is extra weight. The sea was not calm because of all of the boaters and jet skiers.  And I was going to have to paddle without stopping if I were even going to have a chance of keeping up.  Not to say B had it much more comfortable since MadHatter would stop paddling for long stretches just because.  But even though it was hard work, the views were incredible, and the times we stopped to listen to the history of the island, the caves and the coves let me recover enough to keep going.  And going.  And going. 

 Heading out through the bay.

 Ready to go!

 One of the stopping points around the island.  I really enjoyed the rests!

 B and MadHatter just hanging out.

 Inside the cave.  I was too far back to hear the story, but it was pretty...

 On the left is a hotel that was just bought by a Russian millionaire.  He is going to put up the first 7-star hotel in Europe on it.  Which is funny because there is no such thing as more than 5 stars here...The picture on the left is a house they used for episodes of Game of Thrones.  As I am not a watcher, I could only tell you it is in the season 4 finale.

 We finally made our swimming hole and took a half hour break to snorkel, swim and watch the crazy local boys dive off the rocks (see video below).

The water in the cove is much warmer than in the open sea and extremely salty. Hence it's nickname of the Little Dead Sea.  It was a much-needed break for my arms (and strangely, my legs)...

 Back in our boats again!  Why am I still in a boat with Stinkerbell you ask?  Why did we not switch places and give B a chance to experience the fun me a rest?  He offered.  More than once.  But I figured I had made it this far, I was going to do the whole thing.  I could see where we came from and thought it couldn't be that far.  Can anyone see where this is going???  Yep, it was a LOT farther than it looked.  And since we hit the open channel, and our guide told us that we needed to sprint for about 500 m to get through or we would go back or get run over, we needed to work twice as fast.  But I was already paddling twice as fast as the others just to keep up.  How can you sprint when you are already sprinting???  Let's just say I slept well that night and was reminded of our kayak every time I moved for the next few days.  

But in other news, this is how Stinkerbell enjoyed the trip back to land...

We made it back and even though we were the last ones in, we had such a great time.  Our guide helped us pull our boats out of the water, store our paddles and then broke the news that we had each kayaked over 5 miles!!!  It was indeed time for a drink, we earned it.