‘Time slows down in Lastovo’: I may just have found Croatia’s most unspoilt archipelago

The dependable of a babe crying echoes eerily successful the nighttime sky, seemingly coming from the uninhabited Zaklopatica islet that faces the terrace of our vacation rental successful Lastovo. “Do you deliberation that’s a bird?” I inquire my husband. “At this clip of night? Doubt it,” helium says.

Fast guardant a mates of days and we’re successful a parkland ranger’s motorboat bumping astir the far-flung Lastovo archipelago successful the Adriatic. All its 46 islands (including the main Lastovo island), islets and reefs were declared a quality parkland successful 2006. By luck, I’m with the ornithologist whose find of the nesting sites of immoderate of the Mediterranean’s astir endangered birds – yelkouan and Scopoli’s shearwaters – was instrumental successful Lastovo getting the authoritative extortion it deserves.

Between Robert Crnković, a retired service serviceman turned full-time ornithologist who surveys the birds present respective times a year, and Alexandra Horvat, Lastovo quality park’s caput ranger, I’m getting a clang people successful the region’s birdlife and biodiversity. Robert points to our right. “Oh look – shearwaters! You tin spot them sniffing the water. They’re searching for food.” He mentions that yelkouan and Scopoli’s shearwaters are breeding connected the islet wrong show of my vacation apartment. “Maybe astatine nighttime you tin perceive them calling similar a babe crying … ”

Mary Novakovich spotting shearwaters with Robert Crnković. Photograph: Adam Batterbee

That’s 1 enigma solved. Here connected 1 of Croatia’s astir distant inhabited islands – adjacent stop, Italy – I americium uncovering Lastovo’s secrets. Time slows down connected that terrace arsenic I ticker spell by successful Zaklopatica Bay – fishers cleaning their catches, older ladies chortling aft a boozy lunch, young boys driving and mooring their boats. Ladders and steps on the quayside crook the bay into 1 elephantine swimming pool, wherever I leap into impossibly wide waters. On the skyline is bigger, busier Korčula.

On the bluish coast, wooded cliffs and the shearwater-inhabited islet springiness Zaklopatica bay plentifulness of earthy shelter. Three waterside restaurants bash a roaring commercialized feeding the yachting crowd.

Among measures introduced to support the marine ecosystem, peculiarly the posidonia seagrass, is simply a strategy of “ecological mooring”, utilizing buoys alternatively of anchors. Boats request an entranceway summons to participate the archipelago too, portion rangers look retired for amerciable sportfishing and diving, and support 125 miles (200km) of footpaths and hiking trails connected a hilly land that’s 70% covered successful forests.

I’m rapidly getting a consciousness of Lastovo’s fragility, and the conflict to support it from going the mode of different parts of Croatia’s overdeveloped seashore and islands. Despite its earthy parkland status, determination are fears things could change. Diana Magdić successful the tourer bureau worries the extortion whitethorn not beryllium enough, and estimates that Lastovo has astir 10 years earlier unscrupulous developers exhaust different areas and effort to bash the aforesaid here.

The municipality of Lastovo. Photograph: Adam Batterbee

For now, the land remains gloriously unspoilt. Lastovo municipality lies a fewer 100 metres inland from the seashore – this region was utile centuries ago, erstwhile marauding pirates brought unit and fearfulness to locals’ lives. The village’s 15th- and 16th-century chromatic houses with colourful shutters beryllium alongside vineyards, olive groves, orchards and marketplace gardens whose nutrient ends up connected section edifice plates erstwhile it’s not being bartered among neighbours.

A squiggling roadworthy leads america downhill from the colony to beauteous Lučica Bay, wherever fishers’ cottages compression astir a bay excessively constrictive for thing bigger than a dinghy. At compact Konoba Lučica, we beryllium astatine 1 of the restaurant’s 2 extracurricular tables with a romanticist oversea view. We dine connected grilled squid served by owner-chef Ante Kovačev, who fell successful emotion with this spot aft being stranded present connected a sailing travel and near his location successful Šibenik to acceptable up this enchanting pint-sized place.

Meanwhile, connected the southbound coast, a elephantine comma-shaped peninsula of scrub-covered cliffs curves astir the calm waters of Skrivena Luka, virtually meaning hidden harbour. Here we find Porto Rosso, a edifice and nautical centre whose galore terraces hover implicit a pine-shaded beach. Although it’s mid-June, the summertime play hasn’t kicked disconnected yet, truthful we person an absurd magnitude of bare abstraction successful which to lounge aft a satisfying luncheon of seafood risotto. Gazing astatine the oversea and swimming successful transparent waters, we let the day to gaffe by successful full relaxation.

Lastovo does this to people. When we decamp from Zaklopatica and transverse the small span to Prežba, the archipelago’s lone different inhabited island, I instantly autumn successful emotion with the immense flower-filled terrace successful our roomy flat overlooking Malo Lago Bay successful tiny Pasadur village. The ambiance is little yachtie than Zaklopatica, and the peaceful bay looks much similar a channel, flanked by wooded hills. “You’ll person to resistance maine from here,” I pass my husband.

The peaceful bay astatine Pasadur connected the land of Prežba. Photograph: Adam Batterbee

Pine-shaded coves are tucked into Prežba’s indented coast, besides pockmarked by aged naval tunnels and bunkers from the days earlier 1988, erstwhile Lastovo was a subject basal and closed to tourists. Although the beaches beckon, we are again seduced by the easiness of jumping into the cleanable waters from the sunny quayside.

It takes 5 hours to get to Lastovo from Split via 2 ferries, and 3 hours connected a catamaran from Dubrovnik (leaving you reliant connected the island’s sole autobus that is really a minivan). It won’t suit everybody (thank goodness), particularly drunk partygoers from Hvar who get connected the incorrect vessel and wonderment wherever each the cocktail bars and nightclubs are (answer: determination aren’t any, and yes, this does happen).