“There’s one,” says Dave, when he sees a small, furry animal running quickly down the road. We are headed to Mljet National Park in the western corner of the island. It is a place that is best seen by hiking up to Montauk, where an altitude of 200 meters allows you to have a fascinating view of the land; A place of inlets and islands, and two large lakes. These lakes are actually filled with salt water, with a width of no more than a few meters that connects them to the waters of the Adriatic. If it could be bottled, I would pay good money for its scent on this island. The smell of salt water, Aleppo pine and the vast array of wild flowers, including 30 species of orchids that bloom here throughout spring, all come together to create a refreshing scent that is like no other.
“MLjet has been a secluded spot for centuries. It feels like we have the entire island to ourselves.”
It’s a nice, sunny day, but it feels like we have this entire national park to ourselves. In fact, it feels like we have the entire MLJet Island to ourselves. It has been a place of retreat for centuries – a quality noted by a group of Benedictine monks who founded a monastery here in the 12th century. We take a 5-minute boat ride to its island location to visit its small chapel and wander through its surrounding plant-filled gardens. It’s easy to see why the monks chose this location – cut off from the world, with nothing but trees and waves of light spreading across the gem-like and mineral-rich waters around them.
Infection
At the end of the day, we board a ferry to the Pelješac Peninsula, one of the very few that travelers visit. The entire journey, upon reflection, felt completely leisurely and relaxing. No crowds, a slower pace, and a population that seems to take a laissez-faire approach to life; A place where, as one of our guides told us, you can leave your house unlocked or ride a bike on the side of the road without any worries.
Arriving back at Dubrovnik airport the next day, the change is jarring. The peace we had settled into has been replaced by queues, tannoy announcements and the restless energy of people coming and going. As the plane flies past the network of streets and rooftops that surrounds Dubrovnik, it is the horizon filled with long, green islands beyond which my eyes are drawn. I wonder if my pilot friend from our first evening is in the cockpit. I imagine how difficult it must be for him to take himself away from such a place on a daily basis – but at the same time, how lucky he is that every time he flies away, he always has a chance to come back.