Wall of Ostrica
Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Fri 12 Aug 2022 19:51
43:38.438N 015:56.46E We had a slow sail a few miles to a pretty little anchorage south of the Wall of Ostrica - A wall built at the end of the 15th century as part of the defence fortifications of Sibernik against the Turks. The medieval wall is 6-9 meters tall and after the threat of the Turk invaders had finished the wall was used to segregate the peninsular of land which served as a quarantine area for plague victims. Not long after we anv=chored another catamaran came and anchored so we didn’t have it all to ourselves for long! We went ashore to see the wall which is now set in some woods, we walked to the far end of the wall via a path and then I followed a sort of path along the length of the wall back to the anchorage. After the walk we needed to cool down and had a snorkel around the bay - initially all we saw were large numbers of sea cucumbers - these crawl around the sea bed and near the shore there were some standing up tall off the sea bed - apparently this is a spawning event 😬, they looked like giant underwater caterpillars! In the 1990s they were intensively fished for export to Far East markets, which reduced their numbers so drastically they were made a protected species - looks like they are thriving now! There were also quite a few small fish at the edge - lots of sea urchins and even some colourful sponges for a change! |