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...

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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!

Day 6 - Wanaka and Frogs

Day six of our Trip to Lake Wanaka dawned bright and sunny.  It had snowed overnight, so the morning was crisp and cool, but everything sparkly fresh and green.  This was at the beginning of September and I can guarantee with drought conditions, that the area will not be green like this at the moment!  We headed down to the man-made lake which is just by the lakeshore of Lake Wanaka, to take photos of reflections, blue sky, mountains, and more Lupins.  In this image, you can see wild Briar Roses, Purple and yellow Lupins, native trees and the snowcapped mountains beyond the lake..

Here's Liz photographing on the other side of the lake from me.  The Blues were amazing, but they were brought out further with the CPL filter on my lens.

And when the breeze calmed down a bit, we got the reflections I had wanted...

Huge dragonflies buzzed around, but they were very hard to photograph, hardly ever stopping...

More snowcapped mountain prettiness...

And even more reflections - I was in my element....

This was a pristine site for photography but something was really bugging me. The continual sound of a chainsaw in an otherwise beautiful calm morning. It was really getting my back up and I was just about to moan to Emily and Liz about it when something caught my eye....

And this is when I realised that there were no chainsaws in the area at all, but what I was hearing through my cochlear implant was a sound I hadn't really heard before in great detail.  Hundreds of frogs croaking....

I loved how they just floated on the top of the water, with the reflections making them look like they had four eyes, not two...

To get these photographs, one had to stand in the same place and be extremely still. The slightest movement then they stopped croaking and disappeared from the top of the water. As soon as you were stock still again, you would eventually hear their call, and then see them floating on top of the water again..

I loved seeing the Bullfrogs in action - how they puffed up their throats, which in turn sent out circular ripples...

I was actually surprised how large their throats expanded without exploding!!

At first when I processed these images I thought the black spots were dust on my camera lens - but later I realised they were insects floating on the water.  The frogs would suddenly leap and get these insects. I was never fast enough to get the image though!

And just a reminder to what it was like around this man-made frog lake, lupins and mountains all around. Jealous?

Here's another Bullfrog.

I love the way they floated on the water too - they seemed to use their webbed feet as a floatation device... 

Note the insect getting closer to this frog. Once again I missed the action of the tongue snatch and grab - they were so fast!

It was such a gorgeous morning, even the damselflies were enjoying the day making out in public areas not caring that we were watching.  I almost felt like I was intruding...

A hop step and a jump away from the man-made lake, was Lake Wanaka - (which isn't man-made!)).  The beach was full of bright yellow lupins and I'm sure this tree will not be in the lake now, as I believe the water levels are now very low after our summer...

Kayakers were enjoying the morning and scenery..

The little beach I was on...

Emily with her big lens taking photos of the Kayakers as they were passing.  I was sitting on a rock with my feet in the water as my foot was so sore - at this stage I hadn't realised I had broken it.  The cold of the lake was bliss on the ankle.

This is such a stunning place for photography. Can't wait to get back there again. Seeing the frogs was magic as you rarely see them anywhere.. They are starting to become endangered.