Badija Island Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size:  (small)
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Badija is the biggest of the small islands in the Korcula archipelagos. The big monastery with its side building dominate the view from the Korcula side, and its inhabitants changed during the history. I'll put some more info when I do a proper research, but I remember that it was the sport centre during the 80's, when lot of sport teams came here for their training on Badija's many sport terrains. There were 3 basketball courts, 1-2 tennis courts, handball court, volleyball court, swimming lanes, also a mini-golf and a shooting range. When I was a kid (in the 70's and 80's), many people come here for recreation, there was a great restaurant, showers, great sport activities, and everything began to decline in the 80's.
War didn't help much, and the situation never recovered, so now all sport fields are ruined, rusted and destroyed.
Janica and Ivica Kostelic, Croatian ski champions, used to do their summer training here on the island.
It is very sad to see the once blooming island deteriorated like that, but it is still nice to come with a boat, have a swim, and try to eat some of the sea urchins (a local specialty, sea around Badija is full of them). A couple of nice beaches lie on the northern side of the island.
Catholic church is currently renovating the monastery, and I've heard plans of turning the island into a sanctuary for pilgrims very soon.
There are a lot of deer in the island, I was lucky to see a few when I was here for placing the cache. Apparently the local restaurant feeds them with some vegetables in the afternoon (around 17-18h), and 4 of them came for the food, on the football field just behind the restaurant.
Regular taxi services exist from Korcula town to Badija. The high terrain points are mainly for the fact that this is an island (near another island), and that you need a boat to come here.
The cache is placed near the basketball court, now completely ruined, where I spent hours playing basketball in the old days.
There is no pen in the cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre gur fgnvef