Open-water swimming in Croatia – beginners and accomplished athletes welcome
We took a trip with the British-based SwimTrek to a series of islands in the Adriatic Sea – featuring 2 daily swims and the occasional gelato
Breathing to the left, I glimpse the rocky Croatian coastline, heavily forested with squat pine trees. To the right, the teal waters of the Adriatic Sea. Below me, squishy sea cucumbers and spiny urchins dot the seabed. While the water looks tropical, its temperature is only about 20 degrees Celsius, comfortable as long as I keep moving.
It is the first week of June and I am on a group trip with SwimTrek, a British-based company that leads swimming holidays around the world. We’ve all made our way to the island of Prvić, mostly having flown into the ancient mainland town of Split then taking a combination of taxi and ferry.
SwimTrek’s pre-trip itinerary was mysteriously vague. I knew we’d be staying on a small, car-free island on the Dalmatian Coast for six nights and there would be two swims a day, in the morning and afternoon, but what happened in between, I hadn’t a clue.
On our first afternoon together, we – 13 women and two men, most in their 50s or 60s – gather around a table at the outdoor restaurant at Hotel Maestral, our home for the coming week. Our guides are accomplished swimmers: Orla Bredin, from Ireland; and Amy Caldwell, from Scotland.
Our trip is classed by SwimTrek as “leisurely”, with swims totalling 3km per day, so it has attracted beginners, with beginners’ nerves. Several of our group worry about being too slow for the others; a couple have so far swum only in pools; one is afraid of deep water.
Bredin tells us not to worry about being slow. “If you’ve signed up and you can swim 1km in 40 minutes [the one stipulation],” she says, “then you have as much right to be here as anybody else, and to improve your swimming.”
After some further reassurance, it is time to take the plunge, for an acclimatisation swim. I slowly enter the clear water from a beach near the hotel, picking over rocks and squinting through already foggy goggles to avoid sea urchins. This is not the Caribbean. I, a fair-weather swimmer, find the water chilly, although participants from northern climes exclaim at its warmth.