Plitvice Lakes National Park - Stunning is the word

This is my favourite picture of that evening. This was about 8 PM, just as we had reached the top of upper lakes. The sun was preparing to set at this time. 

People take day tours from Zagreb and Split  to this wonder called Plitvice Lakes national Park. The tours start early in the morning and end late in the evening. Our idea of going to Zagreb was to hire a car from there so we could go to Plitvice. We wanted to be in no hurry and enjoy this unique national park which was home to 16 lakes, lovely forests and umpteen waterfalls. So the idea was to spend the night there and do the park on 2 days. We were then to proceed to Split. We spent a night in Zagreb and spent most of the time around the main square. It rained a bit so cooled down things otherwise it was becoming quite warm. The next morning it was time to pick up our SUV's and drive to this famed park.

Plitvice Lakes National park

It takes me a few minutes each time to acclimatize to driving on the right side of the road. In India we drive on left side of the road like UK. My wife Devicka sits next to me and keeps warning me whenever a roundabout is approaching or when the right side of car is too near the kerb. We broke the journey for lunch at a lovely restaurant on the way so it took us around 3 hours to get to the beautiful place we were spending the night at. Distance was just around 140 km's from Zagreb to our apartment in Plitvicka Jezera.

The drive itself was stress free. Half of it was on national highway which was very good and then the road turned inside and you start getting an idea of what would the national park be like. It was all lush green and very scenic with lakes, fields, mountains and pretty houses. At times I just wanted to stop the car on the side and admire the views. It was a simple double lane road so one had to drive carefully but it was cloudy and at times it started to rain, so one had to be double careful. Seeing so much greenery one can deduce that it must be raining quite a bit here.

Around 3 Km's ahead of the park's 2nd gate a narrow road took us in a long lane and one could make out that most of the houses there were being used as hotels/apartments for tourists. The house we stayed in was called the 'Lake House' and it was very pretty with magnificent views of the forests and mountains. The house had huge lawns which were very well kept. While our bedrooms were upstairs, the place had a nice kitchen and dining area on ground floor. It was wonderful staying in such a nice location and in such a nice house.

The Lake House

The national park was founded in 1949 and is situated in the mountainous area of central Croatia.The Plitvice Lakes originate in the south of the park area at the confluence of Bijela Rijeka (English White River) and Crna Rijeka (English Black River). The national park is located in the southern part of mountain range Mala Kapela. Its almost at the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

We reached our apartment, freshened up and went to the entrance of gate number 2 which is suitable for exploring the Upper Lakes.  There are a total of 16 lakes in the park and they are all inter connected and located in a cascading way, so this results in some delightful waterfalls at many places. 12 of the lakes are in upper lakes region also called Gornja Jezera. You can also do the lower lakes from here but the plan for the evening was to start with upper lakes.We wanted to do the lower lakes the next morning.The park has a system of 2 days ticket and it works out cheaper than buying tickets separately for both days. Though the entire walk is very picturesque, it is the waterfalls which remain in your mind the longest. Here are some images.

We found Veliki Prstavac to be the most beautiful falls of the park. 

We entered the park around 5 PM. This was a very good thing that we did, I am told. Busloads of tourists come for a day trip from all over Croatia. At that time the park is jam packed and one cannot enjoy the tranquility of the place. Besides that all the vintage points for photographs remain crowded. Most of the times there are queues for boats and the 'train' and that can be frustrating. The narrow pathways are jammed and sometimes the progress of walking to the next lake is slow and painful, By the time we had reached, the day tourists had gone back and we pretty much had this lovely place to ourselves. So it is best to go in the mornings before the day tourists arrive or go at around 5 PM, when they leave. The days are long in summer so one can easily spend a few hours even after 5 PM.
As the sun changed directions and started going down, the colors of lakes started changing as well.
All this is very fascinating and nature lovers can spend a lot of time here.

Off the beaten path

Its best to carry some water with you as it can get warm as you climb. Though proper paths are there, we enjoyed cutting through different routes and taking short cuts. As mentioned earlier, the day tourists had already left so we could experience every thing at leisure. We could sit anywhere, take any number of photographs from any point and enjoy the tranquility of the place. My wife Devicka really enjoyed this tranquility as you can in the picture blow, she caught up with her reading in this superb atmosphere.

I think the best thing I can do is put out a few images of this Unesco world heritage site. All those who see it will definitely want to go there. There is not much I can do to describe the surroundings as the pictures will tell the story more correctly.

There is a great variety of plants and trees.  

Normally a lake like this would satisfy us but in the park there are 16 huge lakes. 

Each landscape is different from another

These paths are full of people from 11 AM to 5 PM.

The water gushes from one tier to another as the park is like a terrace on top of another with lakes at each level. It is the cascading effect which makes water gush from one level to the other.

Relaxing atthe top most lake as we waited for the train to take us down. 

We had walked all the way up crossing one lake after another. The other way of doing the lakes is to take the 'train' to the top and then walk down. It is not a train actually but a bus with compartments which runs ofn the roads every 30 minutes. Once we reached up, we were told that the next train would be 30 minutes later so it was a good time to just relax sitting next to the top most lake. We planned to do the lower lakes the next morning.

The caretaker at the apartment had recommended a restaurant 9 km's away for dinner. None of us were in the mood to drive all that way so we went to a super-market nearby and bought some provisions to make dinner at the apartment itself. It was a sensible decision.

The Lower Lakes (Donja Jezera)

This region known as the lower lakes has 4 lakes and one could reach it from Gate 1 or 2 but the Gate 1 is recommended as you come across the highest waterfall of the national park called the Veliki Slap soon after you start walking.  At 78 meters it is a formidable sight I believe. This I say as even after having bought a 2 day ticket, we never could reach the lower lakes so were unable to experience this famous waterfall. This happened as it rained the whole night and didn't relent even in the morning. It must be raining quite a bit here as everything is so green and lakes are so full. Much of water for Croatia must be provided by this area. Though we felt bad at having missed out on the lower lakes and the panoramic views of this side of national park, we had seen the upper lakes which are rated higher and had more to offer. Very nearly we had taken a boat last evening which would have taken us to lower lakes, but thankfully I indicated to the usher that we wanted to do the upper lakes and he had de-boarded us and given us directions correctly. It would have been a disaster had we missed out on upper 12 lakes.

Historically The first armed conflict of the Croatian War of Independence took place in Plitvice Lakes National Park in 1991. It is referred to as Plitvice Bloody Easter, as ethnic cleansing of the Croatians in the region took place. In 1995 the Croatians regained control of the area. Park infrastructure was destroyed or damaged by the Serbians. Many houses in the vicinity were used as bunkers. Now that the conflict is behind them, the park has regained its lost glory and whatever damage had been caused to it has been repaired. 

If you do go to Croatia, I think this park must be an important part of itinerary.

You need comfortable shoes to walk here. 

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