What a difference a day makes in terms of weather. Yesterday I was getting sunburnt sitting outside a cafe on the waterfront in Rovinj, and today I am wearing all 3 of my coats, in intermittent drizzle, walking through the Plitvicka national park ,where it is a chilly 3 degrees, with occasional patches of snow still on the ground.
The Plitvicka Lakes national park is on many of the tourist routes, and shows a very different side to Croatia to that of the coast.It is actually quite a small area made up essentially of one gorge through which a river runs over a multitude of waterfalls,the result of travertine building up over millennia to form natural dams.The park site is very geared towards the coach -trip type tourist ,with a series of paths and wooden walkways and a road train of three carriages pulled by a tractor linking all the waterfalls,and small boat rides joining them all up across several lakes.
To reach it was a fairly long 4 hour drive of 280km,which took me east to within 30km of Zagreb before turning south.I started on the motorway,or really I should say toll road. Initially as I joined it from Rovinj towards Rijecka it was a dual carriageway but soon became just a normal road with one lane each way,still tolled,because it burrowed through the hills on the way to Rijecka,the longest tunnel being 5km.Although it was not quick, as I was stuck behind a lorry some of the way, it was definitely worth the toll as it avoided the old road which has steep climbs over the hills, where there were still patches of snow in places.
Finally I was able to switch from the toll road,which had by then become a proper 2 lane motorway again, onto the old main road from Zagreb to Split, towards the park. This road is a fairly narrow A road but the condition is good. The landscape is largely deciduous forest and rolling hills, with some farmland, and with spring just beginning: the primroses are out on the verges. Shortly before reaching the park I passed an amazing little village,Slunj Grad,situated on the same river lower down and built all over one of the travertine dams,so that water flows through the village in about 20 places, between and even under the houses.
The Plitvicka Lakes national park is on many of the tourist routes, and shows a very different side to Croatia to that of the coast.It is actually quite a small area made up essentially of one gorge through which a river runs over a multitude of waterfalls,the result of travertine building up over millennia to form natural dams.The park site is very geared towards the coach -trip type tourist ,with a series of paths and wooden walkways and a road train of three carriages pulled by a tractor linking all the waterfalls,and small boat rides joining them all up across several lakes.
To reach it was a fairly long 4 hour drive of 280km,which took me east to within 30km of Zagreb before turning south.I started on the motorway,or really I should say toll road. Initially as I joined it from Rovinj towards Rijecka it was a dual carriageway but soon became just a normal road with one lane each way,still tolled,because it burrowed through the hills on the way to Rijecka,the longest tunnel being 5km.Although it was not quick, as I was stuck behind a lorry some of the way, it was definitely worth the toll as it avoided the old road which has steep climbs over the hills, where there were still patches of snow in places.
Finally I was able to switch from the toll road,which had by then become a proper 2 lane motorway again, onto the old main road from Zagreb to Split, towards the park. This road is a fairly narrow A road but the condition is good. The landscape is largely deciduous forest and rolling hills, with some farmland, and with spring just beginning: the primroses are out on the verges. Shortly before reaching the park I passed an amazing little village,Slunj Grad,situated on the same river lower down and built all over one of the travertine dams,so that water flows through the village in about 20 places, between and even under the houses.
water cascading through Slunj (not my photo)
I am parked for the night on a massive but pretty empty campsite "Autokamp Korana" which is well equipped.I shall definitely need my heater tonight, and there is a large restaurant, which makes life much easier.A good meal costs about £10 so its not really worth cooking in the van. After a month of Euros, I'm still getting used to Kuna, which are a factor of 10 less: an easy conversion as £1 = 10 Kuna.But it is still disconcerting when 100 Kuna notes keep slipping through my fingers, and the smallest note is 5 Kuna, which is 50p !
 |  |
No overnight parking because of the bears!
RSS Feed