Pag – the “Life on Mars” trail

Note: The technical difficulty rating of T1 applies if you do not use the via ferrata; otherwise it would be T3. If you are going to climb the Stogaj rock face, then T4. The map covers the whole trail, but it can be shortened in several ways and so adapted to your own abilities.

Like many places on our wish list, this trail waited years for its moment. The Bura, the cold and the heat were some of the usual excuses, and how out of the way the place is did its share towards the constant postponing. And while with many locations these are mere excuses, here – because of the trail’s particular position and geography – they need to be taken very seriously when picking a date for the trip. There is no shade anywhere, and the exposure to the Bura is as complete as it gets!

“Life on Mars Trail” (“Život na Marsu”) is a unique trail that will leave nobody unmoved.

The Mars trail, the Trail of Mars, or by its official name “Life on Mars Trail” (“Život na Marsu”), is one of the most spectacular trails in Croatia! If you have travelled to hundreds of our islands, climbed some of our best-known mountains and think you have seen absolutely everything and that the rest of Croatia is just variations on a theme, you are wrong. Pag is a distinctive island, unlike the others, and the Mars trail is – exactly as its name suggests – a picture of an alien landscape here on Earth. And however understandable the associations with Mars are, they change as you pass through the different parts of the trail. This is no longer Mars but Morocco, Jordan, Arizona… or quite simply our beautiful and one-of-a-kind – Pag.

The landscapes you pass through have a common thread, but they are so different and so interesting that they amaze and astonish you along the entire length of the trail!

The trail itself can be fairly easy. Its length can be adjusted to suit your preferences, your fitness and the time you have available. It can be 16 km long (more if need be), but it can also be cut down to just 4 km. Fans of via ferrata will be delighted by a very striking one set above the sea, some 70 m long. Those not interested in it can take the bypass route. In short, the trail is fully “configurable”!

What we would not recommend is leaving the waymarked trail. No matter how many parallel paths you see on the maps, our advice is to follow the markings on the ground. Why? Because the landscape is very harsh and those other paths often have nothing to do with the trail – you end up on karst ridges as sharp as knives or on rough stony ground, where your speed drops drastically and “melts away” the advantage you thought you would gain by taking a short cut.

This time we opted for a middle variant, so we did not set off from Metajna, the last village at this end of the island, but from the neighbouring bay, from Ručica beach, marked as Entrance 2.

The trail starts with a steeper climb and then carries on with no great changes in height, over terrain that is rocky but not rough and is pleasant to walk on. Our first stop is the neighbouring Beritnica beach. This is one of the most photographed beaches of them all. Its glory are the three large rounded rocks sitting in the shallows.

All the way down to Beritnica we come across incredible rock sculptures with little streams finding their way between them. They must surely dry up once the dry season arrives, but the first half of April had clearly been wet enough. In places you can hear nothing but the gentle babbling of water. Magical!

Above Beritnica rises the dramatic vertical rock face of Stogaj! It is visible from far off, and as you get closer and circle around it, it keeps changing shape. It is a favourite destination for climbers from all over the world. The landscape around it is spectacular and unreal! Few places in the world can outdo the sheer strangeness of this setting, whether on Earth or on Mars. For anyone not keen on a longer walk, Beritnica beach with Stogaj above it is reason enough in itself to travel to Pag from anywhere at all.

For those hungry for more adventure, the next stop is Slana bay. On the way to Slana, surreal cliffs accompany us on the left and the sea on the right.

In one of those cliffs there is the huge mouth of some kind of cave. It looks like a tunnel, that is, it seems to have two openings. We had no information about it beforehand. The climb up to it looks a little steep, so this time we were not prepared to leave our planned route. We will explore it next time.

Slana bay and its beach lie far below us. From the end of the beach a via ferrata about 70 m long runs east, and from there the trail continues on towards Malin beach, said to be one of the finest on the Adriatic, which is also home to the well-known spring. At first the via ferrata does not look too hard, but the difficulty rises sharply after the first bend. Those in excellent shape might manage it without a harness, though gloves are a must. And when we say “excellent shape”, we really do mean it, because most of the via ferrata is overhanging.

For anyone who is not trained, we do not recommend using the via ferrata at all! For everyone who is not in top shape but is reasonably fit and carrying no excess weight or heavy rucksacks, we recommend using proper equipment.

The optimal kit is:

• Good gloves – the via ferrata is overhanging, so the cable cuts into your hands and is slippery from the salt deposits
• A via ferrata harness
• A rest lanyard – it is a good idea to have both a short and a longer rest lanyard, each with its own carabiner. The height of the cable above the pegs varies, so sometimes you will need the shorter one and sometimes the longer. Bear in mind that it will take a lot of strength to pull yourself back onto the cable from a hanging rest position, unclip the carabiners and clip onto the next section!

An absorber (the shock absorber on a via ferrata lanyard) is unnecessary here, and in fact undesirable. If you end up hanging on it, you will have a hard time getting back onto the cable with it, and you will not be able to unclip to jump into the sea. In that case a sharp folding knife somewhere within reach on the front of your harness, to cut the absorber webbing with, would come in very handy.

As for the option of dropping into the sea, the pegs are some 1 – 1.5 m above the surface, and the depth of the water is also 1 – 1.5 m (it varies). It may be shallower at stronger low tides, and if you are going to jump you need to take care not to land on one of the couple of rocks in the water!

What are the alternatives to the via ferrata?

If the sea is warm enough for you, there is the option of stripping down to your swimming costume and wading those 60 m through the water.
Some mention going round over the top of the hill and descending a scree slope to rejoin the trail along the sea. We have not checked whether that is possible. It is an improvisation, so take it with a pinch of caution.

If none of these options appeals to you, the most elegant solution is to carry on towards Malin along the path that runs down the middle of the island, the very one you would take on the way back.

Since the whole trail forms a kind of figure of eight, above Slana bay there is a junction (the centre of the figure of eight). From there the path east leads to Malin beach, while to the left runs the route that returns towards Metajna down the other side of the island. That stretch passes through a magical landscape utterly different from everything seen so far!

That junction above Slana bay stands on the site of a concentration camp that was here during the Second World War. The remains of the buildings are still visible, and the cross on one of the rises is a silent reminder of far more terrible times and a warning not to take the idyll we live in now for granted, but to keep working at it. Even today, the examples of the wars going on around us show that the idyll we have been lulled into is very fragile and can turn in an instant into a dystopian world of darkness and despair.

“Life on Mars” is a trail that will leave nobody unmoved. It is adaptable, and it gives people who are not great hikers and have no particular fitness the chance to try something incredible and out of the ordinary. At the same time it offers plenty of challenge for adventurers, experienced hikers and climbers, who can spend a whole day here on all sorts of activities. Add to that the chance to swim at secluded beaches, and you have a trail that is unique in every respect!