The Salt Coast: Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia

The ferry leaves before the town is properly awake. This is the first sketch of the trip: an island still half in shadow, salt drying on the rail from last night's spray. There's no schedule pulling you toward the next stop. The boat gets there when it gets there, and so do you.

At Ston, the road stops for a full day. The salt pans here have been worked the same way since Roman times, the oldest still-active saltworks in Europe, white squares of water laid out like something already drawn. You sit with them long enough to get the light right.

Mostar comes with a night attached, not an afternoon. The bridge gets its proper hour, late, when the stone holds the last of the light before the Neretva takes it. A stonemason still cuts blocks by hand for the ongoing restoration work, and he'll let you sit close enough to catch the dust on your page.

The trip ends in Kotor, climbing the fortress walls above the bay slowly enough to stop twice on the way up, once for the boats below, once for the town itself.

Your hands will smell like salt for most of this trip. That's not a metaphor. Ston's saltworks get into everything, sketchbook included..

Dates: TBA. Join our newsletter below, and we'll let you know the moment they're confirmed.