Our First Afternoon at Plitvice Lakes

The drive down to the Plitvice Lakes was beautiful. Tunnels, puffy clouds, blue skies...

The roads were good.  Croatia is a stunning country.

We were staying in the Plitivice Lakes Village, just past a little town called Korenica, which was the scene of a huge massacre in the war.  Bullet holes could still be seen on the houses, including some that were obviously patched. We dumped our bags and headed to the park and just did the first section of the park at entrance 1.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the oldest national park in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The national park was founded in 1949 and is situated in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The protected area extends over 296.85 square kilometres.

In 1979, Plitvice Lakes National Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage register among the first natural sites worldwide. Each year, more than 1,200,000 visitors are recorded. Entrance is subject to variable charges, up to 180 kuna or around $32USD per adult in peak season.

And it is stunning - here's our first view...

 Beautiful tree lined pathways...

And waterfalls that tumble over the pathways...

\

Boardwalks by the side of the lake...

And some down the middle.  I always felt I was going to fall in as my balance is hopeless.  I was so careful when people passed me...

Everytime you rounded a corner, you came to another lake, or another waterfall...

I had accidentally left my tripod in the apartment, so everything had to be handheld this first afternoon.

The lakes were so smooth the reflections were beautiful...

 I made Anne and Rachel walk by here several times...

This is what we all looked like!

There are bears in the park - but this is the only one we saw..

The waterfalls and board walks were stunning and we spent ages playing with our cameras to get beautiful waterfall shots. The park closed at 7.00pm but we didn’t leave until nearly 9. Which meant we didn’t have to pay for parking as the attendents had long gone and left the barrier up!