Escaping Wildfires at Omiš

The hike started similar to how the last one ended, by going through Omiš and turning onto a rocky path towards Naklice. This time, my mom joined for the hike, similar to how she attended the Old Fort hike. The evening weather was hot, but bearable, with 34 degrees in shade and 37 to 40 in the sun. I checked the trail on LigMapper and assured my mom that she could do it, since this route was around the same difficulty as the Old Fort.

We walked for a while until we saw the first bench and took a break. Meanwhile, I was showing my mom the views and pointing to our hike from last year. Taking such breaks from time to time, we kept going up, breathing in the dry afternoon air and walking on dry rocks and grass.

Around half-way up, we walked past a wayside shrine, specifically an alcove chapel. It was in a small hole in the cliff wall. Earlier in the day, we were asking around about guided tours to the Croatian Blue Cave and were told it's just a small hole in the cliffside. Now we had a live example of such a hole and it indeed wasn't impressive.

When we came up to Naklice and walked past the mural from my Čeline (455 m) hike, we took a small detour to the benches nearby. It was a nice view of Sveti Jure (1319 m) and the rest of the ridge across the Cetina river and the local highway.

We kept going through the village and soon reached the trail going off from the village and towards the Lisičina stream. Along the way we found an abandoned fig tree and took a few ripe fruits for the road up.

The climb to the Church of Our Lady of the Snows was quite rough for my mom, as it has the steepest incline of this route. We took frequent breaks and drank a lot of water, but eventually we made it up.

The view at the top was quite rewarding, and the other hikers I saw last time were nowhere to be seen. We first took some photos at the crossroads, then walked the remaining few meters towards the church. The Croatian flag was waving in the wind as usual, and the area was still tidy.

Behind the church, one can find a few planted spruce trees and benches in the shade which we gladly used. More photos followed, and after a relaxing break we decided to go down through the other half of the official trail, towards the Duće village.

The official trail was surprisingly nice. The rocks on the path were manageable and not too smooth, the benches put evenly throughout the route helped us rest, and the views of the Brač island were great.

At some point we walked over a cool arch with flowers around it, but it wasn't wasn't marked on the map, so I have no clue what it was. Despite the nice route, the trail here doesn't offer any shade, so the evening sun blasts you at full force.

Although the official way goes all the way to Dugi Rat, we decided to take a shortcut and walk down an abandoned overgrows trail bike path. The signs for it were still there, but the shrubs and thorny bushes were a clear indicator nobody took this route recently.

We walked and sometimes slid down the surprisingly steep bike path and ended up on an asphalt road. That's what we wanted, a mountain road taking us straight back to our town. While we were walking it, discussing some everyday topics and glazing at the panorama of Brač, we noticed some smoke here and there. We've been seeing it for quite a few days already, and the firefighters seemed to be handling it well, so we didn't pay it any mind. Once we got down to the main roads near the beach, we got some drinks at the supermarket and went home.

To sum up this route, it's quite great and accessible to beginners. The time you see on the top of the page is slightly over the officially marked time, so if you're not too experienced, that's what you can expect. I would highly suggest not taking the bike path down though. First, you don't know if it is not in use when you're there. Second, it has uncomfortable steep sections inaccessible to beginners. My mom managed to stick a spruce twig through her shoe and into her foot drawing blood while (controllably) sliding down there, which could be avoided by taking a normal route.

When we got home, washed up and prepared to go to sleep, we started smelling smoke. Since we were staying in the middle of the old town, surrounded by restaurants with fancy kitchens, ovens, and barbecue grills, we assumed it was nothing important and went to sleep. Several hours later, we were woken up by the surrounding ruckus.

People were running, yelling, the smell of smoke got worse. I checked Google Maps and saw wildfire warnings all around us. The local government made an evacuation effort on Facebook, setting up refuge points away from the fires near the coast. Still, the fire was spreading rapidly and there was nothing the locals could do to stop it.

Since the old town itself didn't seem in danger, we tried going back to sleep. When we woke up in the morning, the fires down at the coast subsided, and the rest were still burning up the forest near the Old Fort, on cliffs overhanging Omiš. The smell of smoke was still present and the sky was dark, smoke covering the sun and all, but at least the people were safe. Our windowsills and clothes hanging outside (very smart, I know) were covered in ashes, but intact.

The firefighters called for support from bigger brigades, including several planes with water tanks, helicopters, numerous trucks, etc. They were battling the leftover fires until noon or even later. The town previously brimming with life was reduced to a village where only locals stayed, while tourists took busses and private cars to Split and further en masse. We followed the story further while going about our daily vacation lives, and eventually the rescuers won and the fire was extinguished.