Plitvice Lakes

15 June 2017

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice is pronounced more or less as 'Plit-vee-chay' 

A coach called for us at 8.30 in the morning, so we were up early in order to shower, dress and breakfast before that. 

Today is a public holiday, Corpus Christi, so it seemed much of the population of Zagreb was on the motorway and our progress across the flat plains south of Zagreb was slow. After just over an hour, we left the motorway for narrower roads through the hills and the roads were much less crowded. Thankfully, it seemed that not everybody in Zagreb was visiting Plitvice Lakes!

Plitvice Lakes National Park, founded in 1949, is one of the oldest national parks in Southeast Europe and in 1979, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage register. The national park is formed of lakes and cascades. There are currently 16 lakes which result from the confluence of several rivers, both on the surface and subterranean. The lakes are all interconnected and are separated by natural dams of travertine, a porous carbonate rock formed by the sedimentation of calcium carbonate from the water. It builds barriers and sills, creating waterfalls both large and small. Over time, the water changes its course, so everything is in a state of change. We last visited Plitvice Lakes in 1975, and it was somewhat different then - there were hardly any visitors, for a start!

The Lakes can vary in colour, but tend to be varying shades of green, blue and turquoise. 

We began by descending into a canyon - rather slowly, as the paths and trails were very crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people. There are a myriad of streams cascading down the canyon.

Some of the trails are on boardwalks, and you may be able to see from this photo the hundreds of people surging along the boardwalk at the far side of the canyon.

The water in the lakes and streams is very clear; I have several photos where you can hardly tell where the water begins. You can see the fish (mainly Chub, Rudd and Trout) clustering near the boardwalks in the hope that tourists will feed them. You aren't supposed to, but people obviously must do so, or you wouldn't see so many of them looking hopeful!

Once down in the canyon, we were able to admire Veliki Slap, the tallest waterfall in Croatia at 78 m.

It was almost impossible to take a photo without an awful lot of people in it. The whole park seems overrun by people with selfie sticks and taking photos can be difficult at the good viewpoints - you have to queue!

You can see that the waterfalls and cascades vary in size.

This is a view from one of the boardwalks.

Some of the lakes are calm and peaceful.

It was possible to find quiet spots from time to time, and appreciate the gorgeous colour of the water. The colour does change with the light, so it can be much brighter when the sun comes out, and darker when there is cloud cover.

Sometimes the water makes channels down through the abundant vegetation

At other times you can more clearly see the travertine sills

Sometimes the waterfalls are so close to the path that conversation becomes difficult - the water is very loud.

There were places where the water was even closer to the walkway than this, but they were often places where it would have been dangerous to stop to take a photograph. There was often quite a press of people going in both directions, and you are so close to the water there is always the worry that some impatient person will inadvertently shove you in!

After a couple of hours we reached a picnic spot, where we stopped for lunch, after which we caught the boat along the lake.

The boat takes 100 people, but we had to queue for a very long time as there were more than 300 people in the queue in front of us. After that, you climb and descend some stairs to catch another smaller boat across the lake. Then it's a lot more climbing to get back towards the road.

These upper lakes have fewer cascades and are altogether quieter and less scenic, and you can hire a rowing boat to get closer to nature than you can on the bigger boat. But our coach was waiting for us at 3.30, as it was a 2 hour trip back to Zagreb, a rest from the heat and then dinner in the hotel. 

I have always wanted to come back here, ever since the first time we visited. Now I'd like to come again and spend longer and explore more of the park. But I'd try to avoid a public holiday and hope it wouldn't be quite so crowded.

We have to get up at 5.30 tomorrow, it's a 6.30 start! We are off to Split next.

Every time I post this and then preview it, the text has changed in some paragraphs in either font or size or both; I've tried 3 times so far, so if it happens this time, I'm just leaving it - I have a case to pack!