Plitvice Lakes

Sunday 19 August 2018

Up at 6:30, packed and left the lovely rest day apartment at 7:30. Walked a few minutes to a nearby park which was our pick up point for the bus trip to Plitvice National Park today. The bus arrived on time and we met our guide Milan. It was a small bus, fitting only 14 people which suited us fine. The trip includes a transfer to Split which is our destination for the evening. 

We stopped after about half an hour to collect some food for the day if we wanted or to eat breakfast. Our next stop was the small village of Rostoke. The village is built on waterfalls and the water is harnessed to turn huge grindstones and mill flour. It was really interesting to see and we had a tour inside the only operating mill. 

We then drove to the National Park to start our tour of the beautiful Plitvice lakes. Milan was well organised and we skipped all the queues and went straight in at the upper entrance. The upper lakes are called the superior lakes and you catch a boat across to the main portion of them. We then walked on boardwalks, admiring the crystal clear water, different fish and waterfalls. The water was such a beautiful colour, it was hard not to take millions of pictures! 

When we’d finished admiring the upper lakes, Milan took us back to the small dock where we caught another boat across a lovely lake to the lower lakes area. The trip was about 20 minutes and then we had a short lunch break. We spent the next couple of hours walking around the lower lakes which were not as clear but the colour was much more spectacular. We had been waiting all day for the chance to look for Pike and we were just asking Milan how common they were when he spotted a small juvenile one for us! A very interesting fish, we also spotted another one on our own later. As the water is so mineral rich, Milan had a cool trick with one of the leaves growing nearby that he showed us.  When he dipped it in the water it turned a beautiful iridescent blue. 

We finished our walk with a look at the big waterfalls and then a walk up to a lookout point to have one final look at the park. Milan then took us to a local restaurant where we had a late lunch/ early dinner of chicken skewers wrapped in bacon for me and a veggie platter for mum. We then boarded a different bus which was going back to Split.