Thursday, May 30th, 2024

Distance ridden 0 km

Distance walked 17.4 km

This is only about our visit to Plitvička Lakes

I woke up feeling wonderfully refreshed, such a contrast to twenty-four hours before. We were in for an early start, the first part of our proposed hike involved a short bus trip that started service at 07:45 and we wanted the second or third one that departed. Our hosts provided a full and varied breakfast including another thermos for my tea. Was I, I asked myself, in heaven ?

Then it was boots on and a walk down the hill to the gate in the fresh, early morning sunshine. It had all the indications that it would be a sunny day and these proved to be correct.

We came to the top entrance, Entrance Two. We bought our tickets, a retrospectively very good value 24 Euros each (the season starts on June 1st and prices rise) and we made the second bus at 08:15. It is perhaps worth noting that EVERYTHING in the park has to be paid for electronically, you cannot use cash.

A helpful diagram showed the layout of all the lakes. They form a long cascade, dropping down from the top left of the picture.

The bus delivered us early birds to a starting point for our marked hike. There are several options and we had chosen “H”. Most of the hike is fairly level on boardwalks of Chestnut planking that crossed wet areas and often fast-flowing waters and otherwise on well maintained gravel or stone paths.

We did take the option to ascend to a lookout point that was quite a climb (and well worth it !), but overall it was easy going through some truly spectacular scenery.

From the lookout point we did make an “unofficial” and quite precipitous descent, but it was not forbidden and we lived to tell the tale !

In Plitvička, there are several lakes on varying levels, so the waters flow continuously from lake to lake via a series of rushing channels, marshy areas and some beautiful waterfalls. The warm sun and the blue sky made the waters a quite spectacular shade of blue when viewed from above. It was truly beautiful. Up close, the water was unbelievably clear, in some places you could see at least two or three metres below the surface. Occasionally, this revealed sunken tree trunks and that, coupled with easily visible fish, made it appear more like a domestic aquarium than a lake.

As I said to Lucie, we all too soon arrived at the stage where something of awesome loveliness was just another lake/waterfall/vista.

At one point, in the peace of the park, disaster almost struck and, for once, not to me. Part of our route involved a short boat crossing and, as our boat pulled to the landing stage and Lucie gathered up her rucksack, something shot out of the top of it, bounced on the boards – and splashed into the water behind us. A quick glance revealed her iPhone, resting on the bottom in about a metre of water. It was lucky the water was so clear ! Obviously, I wondered if the weather App, in the ‘phone, had changed to complete orange, but I DO know when to keep my mouth shut – and that was one of those times …

There was really no option. I climbed over the railing, got down into the almost waist-deep waters of the lake and scooped the ‘phone up off of the bottom. Then I climbed back out – and we still made the boat. Once on board, to the amusement of our fellow travellers, I tipped the water out of my boots (quite a cascade) and wrung out my socks. The cruel irony that my boots had just finished drying from our wet trip down from Prague did not escape either of us !

Amazingly, the iPhone seemed none the worse for its immersion and still worked perfectly. Lucie used it to capture me emptying my boots. Nice one, Apple ™ !!!

At the landing stage, we dallied for a drink and I was able to dry my socks in the warm sun. Of course, the second that I put my boots back on, my socks were soaked again, but all that water in the lining had to go somewhere !

Off we went again and once we got nearer to the bottom of the park and, by that, Entrance One, we began to meet huge crowds (hordes actually feels a better description) of day-trippers, as distinct from the more serious hikers. The mix of nationalities was amazing, it was like something from the “United Colours Of Benetton”, with selfie sticks ! This made progress on the often jammed and suddenly narrow seeming boardwalks, a bit difficult. The collective “selfie” combinations for what appeared to be several generations of the same Indian family, for example, take a long time to complete,

Finally, we came to what was billed as the “Great” waterfall where the Plitvička river makes its grand entrance to the park. In truth, even after all we had seen, it was pretty spectacular and impressive. Given the massive volume of tumbling water, I was surprised to hear a Park Guide tell somebody that, in Winter, that impressive cascade can actually freeze solid.

The final climb out of the valley gave us a last look at the lakes.

We we came to the stop for the bus back. There was a kiosk selling some very good cheese sandwiches and some really refreshing, draft beer. After our exertions that hit the spot, I can tell you ! We missed two buses in order to enjoy it properly.

Then it was the bus ride to Entrance 2 and the trek back up the hill to our lodgings. We put my socks and boots to dry on the lawn and, by sunset, the socks were dry and the boots reduced to merely damp.

After 15 kilometres of walking, we were not up to much else, so we popped across the road to the Pizzeria Vučnica again. It did not disappoint.

Using the weather Apps, which still threatened some dreadful times to come, we planned the next stage of our trip. We decided, based on the colours of the rainfall chart, to head down to the coast. Lucie booked two nights on Pag island, which was actually surprisingly close – at least globally and we would see where it went from there.