Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Plitvice National Park is a pretty green area of inland Croatia famous for its clear blue lakes and waterfalls. The tourist board's website advised that the park could be quite busy in summer and recommended an early arrival to beat the crowds. We ignored the warning - how busy can a national park be? Turns out, VERY busy. Hordes of tourists were queuing for tickets as we entered. We spent 10 minutes winding through the tree filled, gravel carpark area, searching for an available spot to park. Instead of having demarcated carparks, it was a free for all, so cars were parked at odd angles, some were packed in tightly, others parked between trees in such a way that one car took up the space of two. We had arrived at around 11:30am and as the website had predicted, hundreds of carloads of visitors had beaten us to the park which had been open since 7am.
Tickets cost approximately $20NZ per person. It was chaotic around the ticket area, where three separate booths sold entry tickets and one booth was to pay for parking. Tour groups and holidaying families jostled around us, there was a crowd of people around a notice board, there were queues for the toilets, and already tourists were ordering big plated of fried food from the overpriced snack vendor. Apart from a small park map on the back of our ticket, we were provided with no information about the different tracks or attractions (we should have spent a bit more time reading up on that website).
We joined the exodus of tourists leaving the 'staging' area and heading into the park. The standard of dress varied greatly - socks and sandal wearing Germans, chain smoking Frenchmen in jeans and polo shirts, a family of Italians in khaki outfits with hiking boots, umbrella carrying Japanese tourists wearing short sleeved shirts and long trousers with multiple cameras draped around their necks, Croatian girls in diamanté studded sandals and frilly dresses, and my Kiwi companions in their shorts, t-shirts and running shoes. The pathways were narrow and it was slow going, trudging along behind the line of people in front of us. We reached a bottleneck where crowds of people pooled, waiting for one of only two modes of transport into the park - boat or 'train' (it had tires rather than tracks). We opted for the boat, because it had a smaller queue. Two small electric boats ferried passengers from one lake shore to the other. Upon reaching the far side of the first lake we continued our slow progress behind the mob of shuffling tourists in ahead of us. Although we overtook groups whenever we could, we found that the Europeans weren't very good at sharing the track, often stopping right in front of us to take an agonisingly ponderous photo, or waddling two by two instead of keeping to one side. The park itself was pretty (although coming from New Zealand we take such natural beauty for granted) but it was the water clarity that impressed us most. Glassy pools of water through which we could clearly see the stones and water weed at the bottom or small trout-like fish near the surface. Depending on the depth of the lakes, shades of bright blue merged into deep midnight tones. Sometimes the water appeared turquoise. Other times we saw rushing white water swirling around jade-green mossy rocks. As inviting as the freshwater lakes appeared in the midday heat, swimming is forbidden. Having seen the hundreds of tourists tramping along the walkway, I can understand why the park authorities do not want all those bodies submerged in the park's pristine waters.
On the main lake, people can hire rowboats to sedately glide about, admiring the views from the water. At various points around the park we also came across wooden chalets selling food and drink, with picnic tables scattered around them. After 2 hours of walking up to the top lakes, we caught the 'train' to the other end of the park to see the bottom lakes. The train stop was high above the bottom lakes and their were different walkways snaking down the valley walls to the water. We chose one of the paths that would take us by the largest of the park's waterfalls. It was just as busy at this end of the park and so we continued our slow progress around the walkway, weaving around the slowest of the tourist parties and trying not to interrupt the photographs of people posing for snapshots with the beautiful watery backdrop. It was tedious going, and we were all grateful that the national parks back home are not the jam packed tamed version of the wilderness we were experiencing at Plitvice. We finally reached the queue for the ferry terminal, and waited for the next boat amidst a Japanese tour group. As we putted down the lake back to the park entrance we passed a row boat where a white-bikini clad blonde of no more than 17, posed for her camera wielding friend, arching her neck over the side of the little boat so her long straight hair almost touched the surface of the water. The Japanese men seated behind us started clicking their cameras furiously as we went by!!
- comments
Phill Best blog I've read in a while