Kalifront Peninsula

Why it is worth your time

Kalifront is the wooded heart of western Rab: a peninsula stretching from St Euphemia's bay toward the open sea, covered by the densest holm-oak forest on the Adriatic, protected as the Dundo forest park. While the island's east is stripped to stone by the bora, Kalifront is the green counterweight, proof of how much landscape fits on one small island: kilometres of shaded paths under crowns through which light breaks as through cathedral windows, and at the edge of every path some cove with a shingle, Kandarola, Gozinka, Jelenovica and dozens of others, many reachable only on foot, by bicycle or by boat.

That is precisely how Kalifront is conquered: a bicycle from Rab town or Kampor, swimsuit in the rucksack, and a day of composing one's own map of coves; each next one feels like your personal discovery. The tracks are gravel and well trodden, but the marking is scant, so a map in the phone serves well. Bring water, there are no springs, and taverns only at the peninsula's edges. In the heart of Dundo, where the forest is densest, the summer heat drops by five degrees; few places on the island reward the effort so.