About “salbun” (sand) and “salbunjeri” (sand extractors)

Sand is one of the most valuable and sought-after natural building materials in the world, and its nature reserves are disappearing. In Dalmatia, we call it "salbun."

The crushing formed the sea "salbun" by waves of smashed hard rocks that further and further, with infinite persistence of waves were brought to the microparticles.

When sea currents bring this sand to the beaches, at one point, the sand becomes very grit, so the currents no longer move it. Nevertheless, for time sand was extracted and traded in Dalmatia for construction purposes by specially equipped "salbunjeri" boats. As they were too demanding workplaces, the people who did this work were real hard workers.

Our family's history and numerous "salbunjer" memories are related to Frane Cukrov, to the boats "Nenad", "Mali Ante" and the original, cargo "Desto".

"Salbunjeri" boats are often called "feeder" because from doing this tough work, those who managed to persevere in it could live well.

As the sand stopped extracting in the 1980s from merchant shipping companies, we became excursionists.

For us, the sand will always be a symbol of the family, perhaps because of Frane himself, and perhaps because of all that patience of waves, rocks and all that time that had to pass for the sand to form under our feet.