Waterfalls, and Camp Songs, and Bears - Oh My!

LOCATION:

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

 

Croatia was kind of a big question mark to both Erin and I when travel planning - with relatively few major cities and even fewer train lines, it wasn't quite as easy to plan our route though the country. With recommendations from trusted sources though, we decided our first stop would be Plitvice Lakes National Park, towards the middle of the country. After a mostly sleepless overnight train trip and a four hour bus ride, we were hoping the long trek would be worth it. As soon as we got there we were pretty excited! It was beautiful and just what the "you have been traveling for 8 weeks" doctor ordered.

Plitvice Lakes is made up of about 16 lakes, which are all connected by waterfalls. Because the lakes are formed from snow melt, their size depends on the winter - and we must have gone at peak season because many were nearly flooded! A bit of history - the park was listed as a UNESCO World National Heritage site in the late 1970s, but was unfortunately the scene of the first armed confrontation in 1991 that started the Croatian War of Independence. From 1991 to 1995 many of the hotels and buildings in the park were destroyed or used for army purposes, and the park was listed as a site of danger for many years due to all of the land mines. After the war, Plitvice Lakes was one of the first areas declared free of land mines and removed from the danger list, so it is perfectly safe to visit today for us and the one million other visitors each year - even though we stayed on marked trails just to be super safe!

A park map, so many lakes and waterfalls!

 

The lakes were connected by a maze of cool wooden man-made bridges. It was fun to be so up close with all the lakes and falls! They were narrow though, so single file was necessary most of the time. Parts were flooded too, so we had to do a little mud sloshing in some parts.

The first bridge we took...

Some of the bridges were flooded, thanks to a snowy winter!

And some of the bridges went right up into the falls!

The lakes, waterfalls and caves were everywhere you looked - we really were oohing and aahing around almost every corner. Here are some of the most spectacular ones!

 

 

 

We easily could have entertained ourselves wandering the many lake trails, but decided we wanted a bit more of a challenging hike. Looking at the map we found a route that seemed to be about 6 miles of forest trail. Little did we know, almost no one ever goes back in that area (we only saw two people the whole time!) and though the trails were marked with painted trees, they were not very well maintained so we were slipping on leaves and climbing over fallen trees. Confession: I have a slightly irrational fear or bears (among other things) and - after seeing a few Plitvice Lakes postcards with bears on them - knew a bear could very well be lurking in the forest. It also didn't help that the map I was reading had a picture of a bear on it so every time I pulled it out of my pocket I got a little more scared. Somewhere in life I learned that bears generally stay away from loud noises, so I made Erin shout summer camp songs and 80's pop hits with me for the full time we were in the forest. Luckily we made it though, and ended up with an 18 mile day! We rewarded ourselves with massages in the hotel spa.

See, bears! At the Lakes! Super scary.

 

We followed the bullseye marks. Me, so tough before the fear of bears set in!

 

Plitvice Lakes was the perfect spot at the perfect time on the trip. There is no real town - which means no cathedrals, no town squares, and hardly even any cars or buildings for miles and miles. Two days of nature, healthy-ish food, hikes and a massage. The downside though is that it is a trek to get here (5 hours by bus from Zagreb) and tomorrow we have another long bus ride ahead of us (7) to get to Split, towards the southern end of Croatia. I'm looking forward to more relaxing, though this time on islands and beaches!

 

 

 

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