I’d assumed that Europe would be a very heavily populated part of the world, but I’ve been surprised just how green lots of Eastern European countries are. Slovenia, having a very small population, was largely green, and Croatia is showing the same characteristics. Some 34% of Croatia is forest, which is pretty darn good, and today we were in the oldest and largest national park in the country – the Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Almost 30,000 hectares, it was declared a National Park in 1949 after the second world war, and became very popular. The road was made in the 60s, and many of the hotels were built not long after. Pretty sure our room is one of them.
There are 16 major lakes in the park, on about 6 different levels, and water flows between them in a variety of ways – large waterfalls, little cascades, creeks, seepage. Very clear and pristine, and reminded us of Fraser Island as we watched the fish swim around in the crystal clear water.
Being a park, the authorities have been able to ban most things that can cause pollution, such as boating and swimming. There are electric trolley buses and electric boats to ferry you between the designated spots.
We started at the crack of dawn (just what is that, anyway), and took the first electric bus up to the top lake. Even had to put a jumper on for the first time in 12 months! From there we exploited the 50 yards rule, and walked about 13km around the shore of the lake – about 2/3 of the perimeter, so we were pretty darn footsore by the lunchtime, as the paths are not made of course.
‘What is the 50 yard rule?’, I hear you ask. It comes from our trip to Yellowstone a couple of years back, where our tour guide told us not to worry about the crowds ahead of us. ‘80% of people don’t go anymore than 50 yards from the carpark’, she said. Now I don’t know how she determined 80% and 50 yards, but as we’ve watched various packs of tourists since, the principle has been shown to be true time after time. Instead of just getting off the park trolley bus and walking to the viewing point, then back to the bus, we decided that we would walk the whole trail to see it properly, and get away from people.
Certainly for about 100 metres around each of the half dozen bus and boat stops, and the major waterfall, there were lots of people, but as we got to the last person from the tour group gaggle at each point, we would laugh and say to each other – ‘50 yards’.
Beautiful scenery, lots of fish and birds, forest a’plenty. It was lovely.
However, it’s also had it’s share of incidents. During the 1980s, tourism was booming in Yugoslavia, and Plitvice Lakes National Park was one of Yugoslavia’s most popular tourist attractions. The beginning of the 1990s, however, saw civil war break out. In March 1991 it became the scene of the Plitvice Lakes incident (also called the “Plitvice Bloody Easter”), the first armed confrontation of the Croatian War of Independence that resulted in fatalities. The park was held by local Serb rebels backed by Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) as part of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Serbian Krajina” during the conflict, and suffered some damage in the process, with hotels and other facilities being used as barracks. During the period under the control of Serb forces loyal to Belgrade, Croats were ethnically cleansed from the region systematically. The region was retaken by the Croatian Army in August 1995 during Operation Storm, the majority of Serb population was expelled, and all got back to normal. There is a small plaque in the garden near one of the bus stops to the fallen, but it’s not referred to anywhere.
Got back for a late lunch and a rest, then did some close by trails around the hotel later in the afternoon, before tea in the (only) restaurant again.
Electric Bus
Big Waterfall
Plitvice
Plitvice
Plitvice
Cascade
Morning Tea
Electric Boat
Clear Water
Plitvice
Plitvice
Plitvice
Fraser Island like
Plitvice
Plitvice
From Our Balcony
Jezero Hotel