Family Trip to the Omiš Old Fort
Since the weather in Croatia that day didn't allow for paragliding or parasaling, I decided to do a small hike to a nearby summit. Since it looked quite short, I set out to do the hike with my mom.
The route starts going through the Omiš city centre with all the old architecture. We started early, so we didn't get to see all the souvenir and fake weed shops. Instead, we came across all the restaurant workers washing the tables and chairs outdoors with hoses, getting us a bit splashed too.
After passing through the town, we started going up past some villas, mostly on stairs, but sometimes across dirt patches. Soon we reached a nice viewpoint near the fire exit tunnel of the highway tunnel in the mountain, where we made a stop to rest and hydrate.
Soon we continued our way up, going over a gravel and sand path up the mountain. The stones and gravel made the route quite slippery, especially for the slippers we were wearing. It wasn't much of a problem going up, but we already started mentally preparing for the rough way down.
As we kept ascending, some hikes passed us going up and down, and the mood seemed great for everyone. Soon after we reached the last section of the trip, a mostly flat walk on the wide and forested ridge of the mountain. I had a stupid idea to take a detour alone to Vrh Pleća (489 m), but the lack of a trail and the dry pointy vegetation made me drop this idea before I did anything.
Soon we got the Tvrđava "Stari grad" (303 m) in view, and we asked some tourists to make some photos of us. It was then when I noticed some hikers wearing helmets and klettersets for rock climbing. I decided to stay quiet at that point, but I started getting some risky ideas (I had only slippers on me on the trip, no climbing equipment at all).
We went into the fortress, paying quite a bit for the entrance. Got some nice views, rested on the benches, climbed the tower and took photos and selfies in every direction.
After everything was done, we started heading down the same way. As we were descending, we met quite a few different groups of tourists going up: families with children, older or inactive people, trail runners. It was nice to see such variety. We even met a group of hikers that came to the town by boat specifically to go on this hike (but taking the rock climbing way up).
Further down, our suspicion regarding the slippery rocks came true. As both my mom and me slipped quite a few times. Thankfully, apart from getting a bit dusty, nobody was hurt.
Eventually we reached the bottom of the trail and headed home. We had another walk across the town, now filled with tourist traps and people waking up and heading for breakfast around noon, and went by the seaside to have one last look at the mountain from the bottom up.
If you're ever in the area, you have to check out this route. It is easy and accessible to people of all ages, and the views from the top are great.