It was our last evening in Stari Grad town, Hvar island. My friend and I were due to leave on the 11pm ferry for Split from where we'd catch a bus to Dubrovnik to catch our flight back. We had gathered in Antika bar to say a reluctant goodbye to our travel friends and local Faropis festival hosts for whom I'd performed.

It came to 10.30pm and suddenly someone suggested we stay and take the 5am ferry, that way we'd spend a few more hours with them enjoying another night of stargazing and drinking on the island.

We agreed and I started reminiscing with one of my camp-mates about all the things we could have done. "It would have been amazing to rent a car and travel the island in a day," I said. He looked at me and we clicked at the same time. To everyone's confusion we jumped up and ran off.

Five minutes later we were stood with the owner of Stari Grad rent-a-car who we'd called from the mobile umber printed on the door of his closed shop. He seemed fine with us ringing him at 11.30pm and even more ok with handing over the keyes to one of his neon and rather ancient VW beetles. "It's my birthday tomorrow! I will be 50!" He smiled. So we assumed that he was in a giving spirit!

The car was a proper banger and it felt like we were in the 60s as we hopped in with our towels, planning on finding a great spot for night swimming after driving first to Jelsa, a nearby town to pick up one of our friends coming back from a concert, and then on to Hvar town to see the castle and have a drink at Carpe Dium - the island's most famous bar.

It felt amazing to be speeding through the night with the wind in our hair. It was a full moon and at one point we began howling to the sky!

In Jelsa we had a drink at Dgigiboo, a nice bar which played decent music - a nice change from the usual cheese played in most places catering to foreign tastes on the island. To a soundtrack of Transglobal Underground and DJ Shadow, we drank some Bevandas - a typical Croatian drink which is a mix of red wine and coke.

Finally the ferry brought Sanja, our concert-going friend, into the harbour at around 2am. She couldn't believe our little neon number when she saw it but soon we were on our way to Hvar town, this time with Sanja singing songs from the concert she'd been to for us.

Hvar castle soon grew out of the darkness, illuminated by warm spotlights. We took a brief pit stop/toilet break and then attampted to turn the car on again, but it merely spluttered and died!

We tried pushing it down the slope of the castle hill, but to no avail. We tried again, and again, and with each attempt the humour which had intially had us in stitched faded. After about 20 mimnutes of attempted starts, we were too exhausted to keep pushing and left the car to wander around the castle. The view from the castle over the city was amazing. Trance music drifted up from the clubbing yatches below, contrasting with there serenity of the sea and dark stillness of the Hell islands, small islands just off the Hvar harbour.

The moon cast a silver sheen over the calm water and lights from the yatch masts flitted in the night like fireflies. We sat on a ledge looking out in silence for a long time. This view was worth any amount of car trouble to get here.

Eventually, we decided to get back to the problem of our car and called our rent-a-car salesman. Spirits were running low until, out of nowhere a beatles song drifted into my mouth:

"Always look on the bright si-ide of life...di doo, di doo di doo di doo..."

Soon we were all singing it at the top of our voices, dancing around the stranded car next to Hvar castle, surrounded by bushes, rocks, the pulse of club bass beats, and a few distant cars containing couples presumably making furious love. It was a bizarre and yet totally unique feeling!

Eventually our help arrived blaring stone roses out of his car and a cigarrette hanging from his mouth. Spanner in hand, he proceeded to bash around under the back seat of the car which, miraculously, got it working again. I rode with him as the others went ahead. we had about 30 mins before our ferry left!

We rode back and said silent farewells to the island, its heather, rocks, houses, and history illuminated by the full moon. We made our ferry, but only just, and reluctantly. Our "savior" thought we were crazy - "Why you go back? You are crazy! Stay here where it is beautiful!"

Needless to say our nightswimming didn't happen, but the view from the castle and the risk of it all was such an adrenaline rush! An experience I wouldn't trade for anything...and a perfectly weird way to end a trip that had been all about the romance of the island's landscape, art and vivacious spirit.