Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

Out of the hotel by 11 and only took a few minutes to actually make a LEFT turn at the nasty little intersection -- good riddance. Motorways are good quality here. When a hill or mountain gets in the way, it's "tunnel time". There were several well over a kilometer long on the route here. We made very good time to north of the Plitvice Lakes area but then had to get off the fast road and on to Highway 42. You could say it was all paved but some areas through the forest stretched the definition a bit. We ran low on gas when we got near the area but found a station eventually.

We had a late lunch at Kamp Turist Restaurant (they have wifi) -- big sandwiches and then went in search of our pensione, Villa Plitvicka Sedra. This time the GPS failed us. The coordinates from Booking.com are off by a good quarter mile or so. A best guess and ask strategy found us the spot. Rustic would be a good hashtag for the Villa Plitvicka Sedra. It is nice enough but specs said it had AC and our room does not. Fortunately, it's not as hot as it was a month or so ago.

We drove around some and checked out the park so we can get a good start tomorrow before the "people of the bus". We went back to the same place as lunch because the attached restaurant at the "hotel" here didn't seem to be seating people efficiently and those who had tables had no food -- a bad sign.

I almost ordered the Ćevapčići -- a Bosnian dish that had been highly recommended by the fellow who rented us the car. However at the last minute I veered off to kebab because the menu described Ćevapčići as "mixed meat". I got something like that once in Italy and it was "innards" which is not on my list of "good eats". It turns out I would have been fine. Ćevapčići is like Persian koobideh but prepped as skinless sausage style. I'll give it a try later.

Time to walk the netbook over near the window where I have barely enough WiFi signal to submit this story. Yes, the place advertises wifi but this pretty much means just around the lobby area -- not in the rooms. That's OK with me but I prefer "truth in advertising".

Our other big complaint with the Villa Plitvicka Sedra is that our room and another room share a basic foyer (a wide spot behind the joint exterior door). Each individual room has a deadbolt door lock but the exterior door also has a deadbolt with a separate key. We never locked the exterior door figuring the room door lock was just fine. When the other room got occupied, the residents locked their door and the external door. This strikes me as overkill and further a big risk in the case of fire. It would take longer to get through two doors each of which requires a separate key.

One other caution, in the pictures below you can see a "caution" sign that I spied in the morning after parking the car near it in the dark. The iconography sure gets the message through -- death by snake bit is likely.

Today was Plitvice Lakes day. I've been wanting to see this place for years. We got a fairly early start for us and got to the park at 10 AM. We were prepped for some hiking so chose the trail route that was estimated at 5-6 hours.

The first thing you see is acquamarine water -- very clear and very blue green. This is due to the minerals in the region and several other factors but all you need to know is WOW that's beautiful. The whole park has duckboards to walk on which certainly preserves the place but in most areas you would be getting your feet wet without them. First stop is "The Big Waterfall" which is its official name. It's more like a whole bunch of spread out waterfalls cascading down a cliff face. We hiked to the top of it for a different angle.

Our hiking route took us past most of the lakes in the complex. We started at the Lower Lakes and worked our way to the Upper Lakes. Each lake feeds the one below it through a complex system of waterfalls, small cascades, streams, etc. After hiking the lower lakes you take a boat to the climb to the Upper Lakes. From there, you work your way slowly upward again to the end. We took less than the estimated hours to hike it despite numerous photo stops and some geocache diversions. Still it was a long but memorable day. Take a look at the photos to get a sense of the place.