Island Mljet, Day 3: Lagoon at the End of the World
Mljet is mountainous island, very wild and inaccessible on some spots. It’s coastline is steep, rugged and full of dense vegetation, so approaching the sea, even if you’re only 10 meters away, can be quite an adventure – most of the time an unsuccessful one, if you’re not equipped like a mountain climber. Therefore, it can seem as a very hostile place.
But, there are a few real oases out there. One of them is lagoon Blaca (also called Limuni). It is situated on the remote part of the island, at it’s eastern end, turned against south, open sea and the Italy. To get there, you have to pass through Saplunara bay, beautiful and tame area, with turquoise sea.
On our way, we made a stop by the old and mostly abandoned village of Prozura. I doubt anyone lives there, maybe just visiting during summer. The village sits on the hill and overlooks the Prozurska luka cove and the channel between Mljet and Peljesac peninsula. After the stop, we continued to our destination – Blaca beach lagoon.
Prozurska luka and Mljet channel:
Here you can also see a part of the lake with fresh water. There are few of them on the island, and they are very important as a source of drinking water and as a stop for migrating birds.
Along the way we made another stop on a sightseeing point:
After 20 minutes of drive, we pass through Saplunara bay…
…and finally arrive to Blaca. Rounded, sandy beach with the rocky barrier across the bay leaves us breathless. The boats cannot come inside the lagoon because it’s too shallow, so they anchor behind the barrier. Also, to get to the beach you have to walk through the wood, so it makes the beach pretty isolated which is not bad thing at all. :)
Thanks to that, the beach is pretty empty and you don’t have to meet anyone if you don’t want to; 400 meters of sandy beach was enough space for everyone out of 50 people we saw there.
Except if you were ‘lucky’ enough to have nudist Spanish tourists as your beach neighbors, who were screaming all the time and running around like crazy. Now that was very chaotic, but luckily they went away very soon. :DD
Despite that, we were not distracted at all; lying in the shade and swimming in the crystal sea were just enough to feel as in paradise.
Boats in front of the lagoon’s rocky barrier:
One of the activities on the sandy beach can include building sand castles…
…or distracting a small crab which was very determined to run away :)
After the idle afternoon, we went to the rocky barrier across the beach. The scenery begun to change from tame, sandy beach to rocky, dry and salty land, unpleasant for many forms of life.
Because of salt, drought and waves, rugged coastline is often barren. Only most resistant plants manage to grow there.
However, in the sea between the rocks, the life is blooming. Here are two outside-underwater photos I made with my macro lens. :))
The sun was starting to set, and the light was becoming very good for landscape photos. I decided to climb up the rocks and find a good spot for shooting. It was very hard to climb, especially with all the equipment on my back and tripod in my hands. I was just hoping not to fall or to drop the camera on a sharp rock edges. But, as it usually goes, the best view and the best spots are always somewhere up there, higher and further from where you stand.
Up through the rocky maze I’ve found a good spot to make some nice landscapes and sunset shots. The view of the lagoon and it’s rocky barrier was really beautiful. We kept shooting until dark when it was time to go home.
A nice detail on the beach…
On our way back home, we stopped by Prozurska luka, a small, picturesque village by the sea. The night was calm and warm. I could not carry my equipment anymore, so I left it in the car. We had a drink and went to sleep.
Leave A Comment