By Julia Molden

There are actually dozens of islands and islets in the Kornati archipelago, which lies a couple of hours of gentle cruising from Zadar.  Most of them are uninhabited and quite tiny, including one bearing the name ‘little plate’.  Our destination today was Telašćica harbour, a seven kilometre long protected inlet at the southern tip of Dugi Otok and right on the edge of the Kornati National Park. The minibus arrived bright and early to transport us to our boat and we were on our way before 9.00am. The sea was all shades of emerald and azure as the sun shone down out of a cloudless sky.  We cruised the length of the island of Ugljan before turning into the sound at the north-western tip of Pašman and onwards towards Dugi Otok, which accurately given its shape although rather prosaically simply means Long Island. Given the rigours of yesterday evening, everyone was in remarkably sprightly form as we settled into our own private boat for the day.

Today’s guide, Tamara, kept us informed of progress and generally made sure we had all we needed in terms of refreshment and information.  Arriving at the Bay of Peace, we had two hours in which to amuse ourselves before lunch on board.  Some of us took the opportunity to visit the Lake of Peace, a near-by salt lake popular for swimming while others preferred to take a refreshing dip in the sea or dally in one of the waterside cafés.  Safely back on board, we enjoyed a lunch of freshly cooked mackerel and pork, which had been prepared for us during our absence.  On our return journey, we stopped for a while at the small resort town of Kukljica on Ugljan before arriving back bronzed from the sun and quite tired after a day in the sea air – well we preferred to think it was for that reason rather than because of the excesses of the previous evening.