The Island Odyssey 2020
is a conceptual design by Marko Kovač, Master of
Physical Geography who works and lives as a guide in adventure tourism. The goal
of the project is to kayak to all lighthouses in Croatia, made in the 19th
century. This project started in winter 2019 when Marko has been kayaking to
all lighthouses built in Dalmatia, except Palagruža lighthouse. He visited 32
of all 57 lighthouses made in the 19th century made in the territory of today's
Croatia. The expedition lasted for 57 days in which he spent 41 days of
kayaking. His circle kayaking route in Dalmatia was 1070 kilometers long. Marko
started and finish his winter expedition in Split, where he lives for the last 4 years.
This winter, Marko is planing to sea kayak to the rest
of the lighthouses which are situated in Istra and Kvarner (North Adriatic
Sea). The lighthouse Palagruža is the most remote lighthouse of all 57
lighthouses, which will be the last lighthouse on the list to kayak to. That
will be finish of the kayaking part of The
island Odyssey 2020 expedition.
This sea kayaking expedition is made solo and self-supported. The progress of the paddling is most frequently published on social media. The main objective of his expedition is a promotion of lighthouses which are unique heritage on the coastline of Croatia. The second main objective is the promotion of sea kayaking which is the undeveloped type of recreation in Croatia, land of huge sea kayaking potential. Sea kayaking in Croatia is an activity that is accessible for all ages which is one of the reasons for this winter expedition. Even in the wintertime, the Adriatic sea is an accessible and beautiful place for kayaking. Compare to summer, the weather in the winter on the Adriatic sea is more unstable and has more days with rain, compared to the rest of the year. That is the challenging part of the expedition.
This sea kayaking expedition is made solo and self-supported. The progress of the paddling is most frequently published on social media. The main objective of his expedition is a promotion of lighthouses which are unique heritage on the coastline of Croatia. The second main objective is the promotion of sea kayaking which is the undeveloped type of recreation in Croatia, land of huge sea kayaking potential. Sea kayaking in Croatia is an activity that is accessible for all ages which is one of the reasons for this winter expedition. Even in the wintertime, the Adriatic sea is an accessible and beautiful place for kayaking. Compare to summer, the weather in the winter on the Adriatic sea is more unstable and has more days with rain, compared to the rest of the year. That is the challenging part of the expedition.
INTRODUCTION
Author and creator of the Island
Odyssey 2020 was born in Zagreb, the capital town of Croatia, on the 29th of
November in 1986. Marko has a Master's Degree in Physical Geography. He was a
student of the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb.
During his student time, he organized many international student events
(congresses, seminars, student exchanges, and excursions...). For 3 years he
was a student representative on the Council of Faculty of Science in Zagreb. Marko
is an honorary member of the Geography students Club, an association which is
working continuously for more than 20 years.
Experience as an adventure guide, Marko started to develop from 2007. As a student, he was exploring mountains and islands in Croatia. In the summer of 2010, he was solo hiking from Zagreb to Split via the Croatian mountains. In 30 days of his first solo expedition, he hiked 750 km in 30 days. In the summer of 2012, Marko is kayaking to all 47 inhabited islands in Croatia. This time he was kayaking with his friend Šime Sušić for 47 days during which they paddled more than 1000 km in the Adriatic Sea. From the spring of 2013, Marko has started to work professionally as guide in adventure tourism. As a guide, he is most experienced in water sports (sea kayak, river kayaking, and rafting), hiking and biking. In the last 5 years, Marko is most active in sea kayaking. On average in th last 5 years, he spends more than 100 days of kayaking per year. In summer 2011 his experience in sea kayaking has been started. From that time till now he spent more than 750 days on the sea and paddled more than 10 000 km.
During the last 7 years, working as
a guide in adventure tourism, Marko has a certificate for skipper on white
water class 2, by the IRF - International
Rafting Federation, and certificate for 3 Star Sea Award by the BCU - British Canoeing Union. As a Master of
Physical Geography, Marko's specialization is cartography, geomorphology,
climatology, and hydrology. His physical geography knowledge and adventurer
skills are giving safety in unpleasant weather and sea conditions. Marko's most
usually day distance for paddling in the sea kayak is 25-30 km. It is approximately
5 hours of paddling even it is not a problem to kayak more than 40 km per day. Longest
paddling he did in one day is 49,89 km, from which is 36 km of the open sea
crossing.
Experience as an adventure guide, Marko started to develop from 2007. As a student, he was exploring mountains and islands in Croatia. In the summer of 2010, he was solo hiking from Zagreb to Split via the Croatian mountains. In 30 days of his first solo expedition, he hiked 750 km in 30 days. In the summer of 2012, Marko is kayaking to all 47 inhabited islands in Croatia. This time he was kayaking with his friend Šime Sušić for 47 days during which they paddled more than 1000 km in the Adriatic Sea. From the spring of 2013, Marko has started to work professionally as guide in adventure tourism. As a guide, he is most experienced in water sports (sea kayak, river kayaking, and rafting), hiking and biking. In the last 5 years, Marko is most active in sea kayaking. On average in th last 5 years, he spends more than 100 days of kayaking per year. In summer 2011 his experience in sea kayaking has been started. From that time till now he spent more than 750 days on the sea and paddled more than 10 000 km.
THE
IDEA AND THE REASON FOR THE EXPEDITION
Sea kayaking is a sports activity that is unrecognized in Croatia, the land with huge sea kayaking potential. The Adriatic Sea is a very safe sea in which minimum temperature doesn't go below 10 ºC, except most north part of the Sea where the temperature goes slightly below 9 ºC. Croatia has almost 6 000 km of coastline on the Adriatic Sea. Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Scandinavian and some EU countries have highly developed sea kayaking as an organization and type of recreation. As a guide to kayakers from the above-mentioned countries, I can confirm they were more than surprised by the beauty and safety of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Temperature and calmness of the Sea with thousands of kilometers of coastline make sea kayaking a perfect recreation sport in Croatia. Sea kayak doesn't need to be used only on the Sea. There is a lot of rivers and lakes in Croatia where they can be useful in exploring continental and mountain area of Croatia. The biggest advantage of sea kayaking is the kayak. There are different types of sea kayaks by size, material, and purpose. Expedition kayaks are amazing because of the size of the storage that is kayak capable to carry. Storage of the expedition kayak is similar to the storage of the small cars. There is enough space to pack everything that you need for a week, month or even lifetime journey.
In the autumn of 2015, came the idea
of the winter sea kayak expedition to all lighthouses made in the 19th century
in the area of today's Croatia. The idea started as nostalgy on the memory of
the summer of 2012. As an adventure guide, who is working in the tourist season in
Croatia, it is impossible to make an expedition in the summertime because the tourist
season in Croatia is from April / May to November. That is the main reason for the
wintertime in the year. Another reason is the least stable and cold weather in
Croatia which makes this expedition challenging. Lighthouses are very important
objects for the sailors through the history of sailing. These navigation
objects were giving safety and mental power for the ones who were spending their
life on the sea. During the 19th century by the authority of the Austro
Hungarian Empire on the Adriatic Sea were built 57 lighthouses on the territory
of today's Croatia. The lighthouse consists of the tower with the light and
house where was the lighthouse keeper living with his family. Nowadays there is
no lighthouse keeper living on the lighthouse with his family. The beauty of
these amazing lighthouses with the history of each lighthouse made a wish of
visiting those places with the kayak. Sea kayaking has extra bigger beauty and
meaning when you have a destination to paddle to while exploring the coast on
the way to your goal.
Plovput d.o.o. is a Croatian
national company that is managing navigation lights in Croatia, which includes
most of the lighthouses built in the 19th century in today's Croatia. Plovput
in managing 46 lighthouses in Croatia, while only 17 lighthouses have a
lighthouse keeper. Researching the history of the lighthouses, Marko get the
information for 57 lighthouses built in the period from 1818 till 1900.
The
dalmatian (channel) type of the coastline is the reason why are lighthouses
built on exact locations. The spatial arrangement of the lighthouses makes two
options for creating the kayaking route to all lighthouses. The first option is
a line route from the North to the South (or opposite direction). The second
route is a circle route from Split to Dubrovnik by the inner channels of the
islands and the mainland. From
Dubrovnik via remoted islands to the North to Savudrija lighthouse in Istria,
from where again kayaking by the mainland and first row of the islands back to
the Split.
The
circle route is more simple and cheaper to do. On the first impression, it
looks twice a longer route than the first option but the itinerary of this
route is a bit shorter than the first option. In the circle route, the town of
Split is beginning and the finish of the expedition. As Marko started his
expedition at the end of January 2019 he couldn't finish his planned route till
the beginning of April, when he has an obligation to the company he is working
for in the tourist season. The original circle route, 2000 km long idea, was
not possible to kayak in 2 months so the lighthouse expedition was divided on
two or more correct, three smaller expeditions.
The
division of the original expedition on three smaller expeditions has been
caused new names for each expedition. Sea kayaking in the winter of 2019 is
named The island Odyssey 2019 - Dalmatia.
This expedition is successfully made sea kayaking to 32 lighthouses in
Dalmatia, Croatia. In 57 days of the expedition, Marko was paddling for 41 days
and have paddled 1070 km on the Adriatic Sea. During those 2 months of expedition,
16 days wasn't smart to kayak because the weather and sea conditions were not
safe. The rest of 25 lighthouses on the list for the other two smaller
expeditions. The island Odyssey 2020 -
Istria and Kvarner is planned to realize in the January and February of
winter 2020. Marko is planning to kayak to all 24 lighthouses in the north
Adriatic. For the end of his lighthouse expedition with a kayak is the most
remote archipelago in Croatia. The island
Odyssey 2020 - Palagruža is the cherry on the top of the cake. It will be
realized at the end of winter 2020.
In the middle of January 2020, Marko
will start kayaking from the peninsula Premantura, on the south of Istria. The
route will take him by the east coast of Istria till the cross to island Cres.
From island Cres, the route is taking across again to the mainland. After the
town of Rijeka, the route continues following the coast of the mainland till the
town of Senj. From Senj, the route goes to islands Krk, Prvić, Rab, Cres,
Lošinj, Ilovik to Silba. From the Silba island route goes to the north via the west
coast of Lošinj, Cres, Unije to Porer. From Porer, Marko will kayak by the west
coast of Istria to the oldest lighthouse in Croatia, Savudrija lighthouse which
is working from 1818. This expedition should last around 3 to 4 weeks, in which
will be paddled almost 600 km.
At
the end of February 2020 comes the last part of Marko's lighthouse expedition with
a kayak. The plan is to paddle more than 300 km with sea kayak from Split to
Palagruža island and back to Split. This expedition will have 6-7 days of crossing
the open sea with a sea kayak. The planned route takes around 330 km from which
is 273 km of the open sea crossing. Because of the unstable weather and the remote
islands in the open sea of Adriatic, this expedition will take around 3 weeks.
Marko Kovač - Putnik Lik is the creator and expeditionist of this project who
plans to write a book after the kayaking part of the project. There will be
many of lectures hold in different locations in Croatia but also abroad. Except
for the book, Marko is planning to make a documentary movie about the
lighthouse expedition. Last winter and this winter expedition wouldn't be able if it wasn't for RED Adventures - company for which Marko started to work in the summer of 2015. During last 5 years specialized and improved his sea kayaking skills guiding the multiday expedition tours in Croatia. If you book a tour there is a big chance to be guided by Marko.
Stay tuned with Marko's expedition The Island Odyssey 2020 on this blog but more often you can see posts and pictures on social media:
Instagram - Marko Kovač Putnik Lik
Facebook - Marko Kovač - Putnik Lik
Instagram - Marko Kovač Putnik Lik
Facebook - Marko Kovač - Putnik Lik
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