After an unusually good night's rest in Split, we gathered our things and I maneuvered the Porsche like a surgeon between cars parked on the sidewalk, construction vehicles parked in the middle of narrow streets, and showed the roundabouts who's boss. About halfway into our journey north, it began to rain. A car spun out and went into a ditch next to us. I think this was actually an instant where they weren't trying to find a parking spot.
Eventually we arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park. The night before, Nicole had shown me a picture of the wooden pathway and it was jammed with tourists. Fortunately, the rain appears to have helped clear them out for us. The host at our guesthouse helped explain that there are two main entrances and most people go to the first one because it has a bigger waterfall or something like that. Our decision was made. We went to the other entrance. Nothing was marked out well and the process of getting around was a bit confusing.
After parking, we had to walk probably 1km to get to a tram to drop us off at another spot. It's set up a bit like Zion in the U.S. where no cars are allowed inside the park itself. From the tram, we began our hike. While Nicole was afraid the lack of sun would not showcase how green and clear the water is, the lack of harsh lighting made it easier to achieve some slow shutter shots like the one here. The falls and cascades we saw may have been smaller than what the other tourists see, but I think we made the right decision.
The path continued for a few kilometers and sometimes forked off in different directions without signage. We ran into a dead end trail that was marked closed for flooding, so we did end up doing a little bit extra, but we also saw more by doing this. The whole thing took us about three hours of walking on uneven wooden steps and muddied pathways in the rain. It should also be mentioned that it is a very different climate in this part of Croatia. While it may have been 70 in Split this morning, it was maybe 50 in Plitvice.
We saw a few of these kinds of lizards on the path. It seemed like it would have been too cold for such a creature, but they seemed comfortable. Our host said there was snow on the ground last month. So there's that . . .
Finally we reached the end...sort of. We had to take a ferry across a lake back to an area that was somewhat close to where we initially caught the tram. Keep in mind, none of this is described well so it was a minor miracle that we made it out before dusk.
Toward the end, the sun did make a brief appearance as well. We ended up getting dinner at a restaurant down the road, and went back to our guest house to rest after our day of hiking.
Tomorrow we have another long day of driving up to Slovenia to a place called Lake Bled. Though the rain worked in our favor today, I'm hoping it is good weather tomorrow to support a safe drive to the north.
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