Plitvice Lakes, Croatia
By DropBear
Next to my desk at work sits a book. This book is titled “501 Must Visit Places”. It is not my book but was left there by someone who (I hope) meant well and was trying to encourage people to look outside the office window every so often. This book creates quite a bit of conversation between me and those that come to visit my cubical. Now, those of you who know me are aware that I’ve done a bit of travel, not as much as some but defiantly more than others (and this is primarily directed to all those people who live in London but have never been to Paris or Belgium, TWO HOURS on a train people!!). However, when I look through this book I am sad that out of those 501 Must Visit Places, I’ve seen oh, about 3 of them. Can you believe that!?! So when we decided on a trip to Croatia, the first thing I did was check this book and see what it suggested in Croatia. It had a couple of suggestions, and one of them seemed to fit us quite well, Plitvice Lakes. This place is not particularly close to anything and would require a bit of thought and most likely a hire car, but when I looked at those pictures of the amazing waterfalls I knew we had to go. My friend at work went to Croatia a couple of years ago and all she could remember about the whole country was Plitvice Lakes, so on that, and the book’s, recommendation, Plitvice Lakes was in the itinerary.
We had to hire a car to get there and after a few hiccups getting the car we were off out of Split on our way to Plitvice (the hiccups being that the guy who delivered the car didn’t speak good English and was trying to take a deposit amount over the credit card limit and when I tried to explain he was taking too much and he should be taking what the paperwork said, he was saying it was too much, the car isn’t worth it, and then he proceeded to try the higher amount again, good fun!). We arrived to Plitvice Lakes in the late afternoon after getting a bit lost and having trouble finding our accommodation, but it was worth it when we arrived. We were staying in a guest house with a lovely lady who didn’t speak English but smiled and gestured a lot to get her point across, the only problem was the place was FREEZING, but we rugged up and enjoyed a nice quiet night. The next morning, off to explore Plitvice Lakes.
Now a word about Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 1979 and is made up of sixteen lakes which are connected together in a series of waterfalls, the largest, Veliki Slap (or Great Waterfall), is 70 meters tall. The park is set in woodland and is populated by deer, bears, wolves, boars and rare birds (of which we saw none; good and bad I guess). The park covers a total of 300 square kilometres; the lakes join together over a distance of 8 kilometres.
Veliki Slap
We arrive to Plitvice Lakes National Park at around 10am and start a walk which will be a nice meandering around many of the lakes with a nice road train ride home. Upon entering the park the first thing we see is Veliki Slap thundering down to the rocks below. Just amazing! The trail goes down the hill and right to the bottom of Veliki slap, with the footpath meandering across lakes and down the side of other waterfalls.
The water is an amazing clear green blue colour with fish, big and small, swimming around beneath the surface as ducks follow the tourists looking for food above the water. You can see every individual scale on the fish and every leaf on the vegetation under the surface, it’s just astonishing.
As we get to the bottom of Veliki Slap the thunder is enormous and we can hardly hear, the water is pounding down - such a difference to the quiet still lakes. As we continue along our route we pass so many of these clear lakes and waterfalls it’s awe inspiring.
As we are walking around, we notice the groups of people; unfortunately the tourist buses have arrived! The path is chock-a-block with people. I think we become more amazed at the people then the natural beauty for a short while! The main problem with all the tourists is they get in the way when I’m trying to take photos, how rude!
We eventually make it to a large lake which I think is the biggest in the national park. There we catch a boat across and continue along the other side.
The big lake
The further we get the fewer tourists we find and the more tranquil the area becomes. We are still walking around in amazement at the clear water and beautiful waterfalls. Eventually we arrive at our last point and we catch the road train back to the main car park.
Now a word about these road trains. When I heard there was a road train to take passengers around I imagined a small tourist train, mainly designed to fit kids in it. No, these things most were definitely not this! This train was actually a small truck at the front pulling along trailers with seats, fully enclosed. Very impressive. It was rather surreal to sit in the front of one of the trailers and watch the other trailer go around the bends in front of you and it look like you were not really following along very closely! The seats were also wooden and very slippery so a good game of corners was underway for most of the journey.
Eventually we made it back to our guest house at the end of a nice day out, ready to relax, but not worn out. We sit down on the balcony to watch the sun go down when our landlady comes over to give us some homemade Slivovichna, or Plum Brandy. Boris explains that this homemade brandy is common in Russia and is often very high in alcohol proof, which one smell confirms. A sip of the brandy and we are now thoroughly relaxed and ready for our next Croatian adventure.
Next to my desk at work sits a book. This book is titled “501 Must Visit Places”. It is not my book but was left there by someone who (I hope) meant well and was trying to encourage people to look outside the office window every so often. This book creates quite a bit of conversation between me and those that come to visit my cubical. Now, those of you who know me are aware that I’ve done a bit of travel, not as much as some but defiantly more than others (and this is primarily directed to all those people who live in London but have never been to Paris or Belgium, TWO HOURS on a train people!!). However, when I look through this book I am sad that out of those 501 Must Visit Places, I’ve seen oh, about 3 of them. Can you believe that!?! So when we decided on a trip to Croatia, the first thing I did was check this book and see what it suggested in Croatia. It had a couple of suggestions, and one of them seemed to fit us quite well, Plitvice Lakes. This place is not particularly close to anything and would require a bit of thought and most likely a hire car, but when I looked at those pictures of the amazing waterfalls I knew we had to go. My friend at work went to Croatia a couple of years ago and all she could remember about the whole country was Plitvice Lakes, so on that, and the book’s, recommendation, Plitvice Lakes was in the itinerary.
We had to hire a car to get there and after a few hiccups getting the car we were off out of Split on our way to Plitvice (the hiccups being that the guy who delivered the car didn’t speak good English and was trying to take a deposit amount over the credit card limit and when I tried to explain he was taking too much and he should be taking what the paperwork said, he was saying it was too much, the car isn’t worth it, and then he proceeded to try the higher amount again, good fun!). We arrived to Plitvice Lakes in the late afternoon after getting a bit lost and having trouble finding our accommodation, but it was worth it when we arrived. We were staying in a guest house with a lovely lady who didn’t speak English but smiled and gestured a lot to get her point across, the only problem was the place was FREEZING, but we rugged up and enjoyed a nice quiet night. The next morning, off to explore Plitvice Lakes.
Now a word about Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 1979 and is made up of sixteen lakes which are connected together in a series of waterfalls, the largest, Veliki Slap (or Great Waterfall), is 70 meters tall. The park is set in woodland and is populated by deer, bears, wolves, boars and rare birds (of which we saw none; good and bad I guess). The park covers a total of 300 square kilometres; the lakes join together over a distance of 8 kilometres.
Veliki Slap
We arrive to Plitvice Lakes National Park at around 10am and start a walk which will be a nice meandering around many of the lakes with a nice road train ride home. Upon entering the park the first thing we see is Veliki Slap thundering down to the rocks below. Just amazing! The trail goes down the hill and right to the bottom of Veliki slap, with the footpath meandering across lakes and down the side of other waterfalls.
The water is an amazing clear green blue colour with fish, big and small, swimming around beneath the surface as ducks follow the tourists looking for food above the water. You can see every individual scale on the fish and every leaf on the vegetation under the surface, it’s just astonishing.
As we get to the bottom of Veliki Slap the thunder is enormous and we can hardly hear, the water is pounding down - such a difference to the quiet still lakes. As we continue along our route we pass so many of these clear lakes and waterfalls it’s awe inspiring.
As we are walking around, we notice the groups of people; unfortunately the tourist buses have arrived! The path is chock-a-block with people. I think we become more amazed at the people then the natural beauty for a short while! The main problem with all the tourists is they get in the way when I’m trying to take photos, how rude!
We eventually make it to a large lake which I think is the biggest in the national park. There we catch a boat across and continue along the other side.
The big lake
The further we get the fewer tourists we find and the more tranquil the area becomes. We are still walking around in amazement at the clear water and beautiful waterfalls. Eventually we arrive at our last point and we catch the road train back to the main car park.
Now a word about these road trains. When I heard there was a road train to take passengers around I imagined a small tourist train, mainly designed to fit kids in it. No, these things most were definitely not this! This train was actually a small truck at the front pulling along trailers with seats, fully enclosed. Very impressive. It was rather surreal to sit in the front of one of the trailers and watch the other trailer go around the bends in front of you and it look like you were not really following along very closely! The seats were also wooden and very slippery so a good game of corners was underway for most of the journey.
Eventually we made it back to our guest house at the end of a nice day out, ready to relax, but not worn out. We sit down on the balcony to watch the sun go down when our landlady comes over to give us some homemade Slivovichna, or Plum Brandy. Boris explains that this homemade brandy is common in Russia and is often very high in alcohol proof, which one smell confirms. A sip of the brandy and we are now thoroughly relaxed and ready for our next Croatian adventure.