Today we went to Krka National Park. I know I previously said this was a local beauty spot, but my God. This was like Becky Falls on Dartmoor on a much, much bigger scale.

The hostel owner drove us and a couple of other guests to the park, which was about 20 minutes away. The whole park stretches for a significant length of the Krka river, but the bit we visited, Skradinski Buk, was at the very edge. This is the most famous bit because of the waterfalls, around which several trails are built, mainly out of boardwalks, with viewpoints along the way.

You essentially walk in a big loop around the waterfalls, starting at the top, working your way down through the valley to the bottom of the falls where you can swim in the lake. Then it's a tiring climb back to the top. The water was crystal clear, and perfectly clean. We tried snorkelling in the lake, but there was too much agitation underwater to see anything clearly apart from a few fish and lots of rocks. The main falls were blocked off by a floating barrier, but you could swim/climb to several smaller cascades around the edge of the lake and get in under the water. Getting in and out of the lake was slow business, because of limited access points and lots of slippery rocks to climb over before the water became deep enough to swim in.

Supposedly the park is a haven for wildlife, but I think there were too many tourists there for us to really see anything. It was quite busy and the viewpoints could get really crowded. We saw a few lizards and a grass snake hiding underwater amongst some weeds, and most of the smaller ponds were full of small to medium size fish, probably brown trout according to the Fish of Krka sign.

We were there from 10:30 to 5 and went round twice, before being driven back and having a rest. We ate out for the 2nd night in a row at Buffet Nostalgija, the restaurant owned by the same people that run the hostel. There is nowhere in England that you can get food as good as this for as little money. We spent £12.60 on 2 big chicken fillets, 2 skewers of pork, chicken and bacon, 2 drinks and a huge bowl of grilled potatoes. Without a doubt the best restaurant we have been to so far, and the staff are by far the friendliest, taking time to recommend things and help us out with what to do in Šibenik. We also had pancakes for breakfast there this morning.

After dinner, we tried to get up to St Michael's Castle, the best viewpoint in Šibenik, but after climbing up countless steps through the maze of the old town, we found it shut. We got lost on the way back down, and at one point were about to turn a corner when we heard a guard dog snarling at us. When we got closer to check around the corner it started to bark as if it was going to chase us, so we ran back the way we came, and luckily we never saw it.

Instead, we walked along the coast to the local beach, but by now it was dark, and there weren't many people around, so we skimmed a few pebbles and went back to the hostel.

Tomorrow we have our longest day of travel. We think we are going to be travelling for 14 hours from Šibenik to Budapest via Zagreb. We have booked a hostel in Budapest, we just need to get there.