Hrnjakov Vršak

We woke up in the skiing village of Jereza after a really decent night’s sleep. We went down at 9.00am for our pre-arranged €7 breakfast. The owner brought out fresh coffee, then he cooked a ham & cheese omelette for us. We also had cereal, a plate of ham, cheese & salami, bread & jams, yoghurt, a banana each & jug of orange juice. We ate as much as we could & took the yoghurt & banana with us. It was well worth it, but we couldn’t do it justice.

Before 10am, we arrived at the car park for Entrance 2 of Plitvice Lakes National Park. It didn’t get off to an auspicious start, when we paid our 200 kuna (£25) each & received just our tickets only. I enquired about a map or leaflet & were told we could purchase one from the souvenir shop. A sign read “Take Nothing but Pictures, Leave Nothing but Footprints and Use Nothing but Time!” Well it certainly wouldn’t be any helpful literature.

We entered the park both chuntering to each other that for the price it was outrageous, not like the US National Parks. Inside the park, I found an information desk & asked again for a map & the lady told me to take a photo of the map on a sign. Not quite the same! She did, however, advise to us take the H Route, a 4-6 hour trek of 9km. We then caught the electric bus to the start several miles away.

We & about 40 others disembarked the bus & followed the elevated path. Within minutes we were walking alone & marvelling at the magnificence of the park. The lakes were absolutely crystal clear & a myriad of colours from deep blue, turquoise through to bright green. All around us were waterfalls & babbling brooks making their way downwards through lush vegetation. It was spellbindingly beautiful.

Plitvice Lakes is described in official literature as ‘the oldest and largest national park in the Republic of Croatia. The park is situated in the mountainous region of Croatia, between the Mala Kapela mountain range in the west and northwest, and the Lička Plješivica mountain range to the southeast.

With its exceptional natural beauty, this area has always attracted nature lovers, and on 8 April 1949, it was proclaimed Croatia’s first national park. The process of tufa formation, which results in the building of the tufa, or travertine, barriers and resulted in the creation of the lakes, is the outstanding universal value, for which the Plitvice Lakes were internationally recognised on 26 October 1979 with their inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1997, the boundaries of the national park were expanded, and today it covers an area just under 300 km2’.

We followed the path taking hundreds of photos, 293 photos actually. As always I’m not sure I did it justice. After about 5km of trail winding around & over the lakes, we arrived at they boat station. We caught the free boat across a large vivid turquoise lake to the other end to continue our Route H.

Before continuing, we took the opportunity for some refreshment. We had an ice cream & ate the juicy pears we had bought with us. The second leg of our journey only got even better, which I didn’t believe was possible.

Our route took us through a gorge with dramatic waterfalls & caves & more turquoise water. Eventually the path took us up to the top of the gorge, which gave us fantastic views looking down below. We completed our 9 km Route H at Entrance 1, where we should have got an electric bus back to Entrance 2, but I wasn’t finished. Instead, I convinced Jackie that we still needed to walk the extra 4km around the lake. It was such a pleasant walk that she didn’t mind despite lugging a rucksack with 2 litres of water & various other things around.

Around 4pm we completed our trail. We both agreed that the park had been the most beautiful place that we had ever been to or seen and it’s not like we haven’t seen a few around the world.

In addition the park was pristine. Throughout the whole day we only saw one plastic bottle, one discarded cigarette butt & just a couple of coins thrown into the water. It was worth every single penny. I don’t know enough superlatives to describe it further so I won’t attempt it.

After returning to the car, we had a cruise around the skiing resort, which is quite hard to visualise in the summer. Back at our accommodation, we trawled through our photos & picked out a selection for the blog.

That evening we returned to Bistro Vucnica for a cheeseburger to share & an extra portion of French fries. Apparently Jackie couldn’t eat a whole one so nor could I!

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