After Ljubljana we headed southwest back into Croatia to visit the Plitvice (“Plitvitza”) Lakes National Park where we also stayed the night. It was quite a long way through windy regional roads and Iva was aiming to get there by 4pm as the entry gates close at 5. We knew it was a 2 hour walk through the park “out in the nature”.

For some reason people weren’t told, or didn’t figure out that they needed to get something quick to eat on the bus if they didn’t do so in Ljubljana (we left Ljubljana at about 12.45) so we ended up stopping at this large roadside hotel not far from the park at about 3.30. The restaurant had a huge range of food which they delivered reasonably quickly but it was a good hour before we all got away and there was a huge thunder storm while we ate. “Perhaps you will want to take your umbrellas on the walk” said Iva, and she was serious. Europeans do seem to carry umbrellas on bush walks. We were at a restaurant so convinced ourselves we needed food. Barbara and Kay had an apple strudel with custard. I had a cheese strudel also with custard. Quite nice but a lot bigger and different than expected or necessary. Mike and George ordered a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and got a large plate with 2 slabs of bread and salad on top. Nice but enormous.

We went through a lot of rural Slovenia. It’s leafy and green and they seem to have big houses. It had stopped raining by the time we got to the park and we eventually set off for our 2 hour walk just after 5.15pm. A first for most of us.

Well I’ll let the photos tell most of the story for the Plitvice Lakes. It was truly beautiful.

There are 16 lakes all in all separated by rapids and waterfalls as the river descends down this valley. There is this limestone tufa stuff in the soil which makes the water seem a bright turquoise blue. Some of the lakes are quite big and others are more like pools. We walked along about one third to a half of the lakes, crossing over the top of waterfalls in places on these primitive but effective boardwalks. The waterfalls seem to come straight out of the hillsides.

We also twice crossed a lake on this electric boat/craft.

It was like a natural wonderland. Some of the party are reasonably physically challenged. One Australian lady has advancing arthritis but was determined to complete the walk, which she did. The steep stepped climb up the hill to the hotel at the other end was a bit of a killer for all but we eventually retrieved our bags from the bus and checked in at 8.30pm. It was nearly dark and quite surreal finishing a bush walk at that time. So glad we didn’t miss it though.:

Iva had warned that the Hotel Jezera (Lake Hotel) was pretty basic but is the only place big enough for large groups in the park. It would have been nice when built but has not been kept up and the food and service was pretty institutional. However the rooms had everything we needed. Even little plastic clips to hold the curtains closed. You need those when you have the curtain track installed along the edge of a sloping ceiling otherwise the curtains keep sliding down. Seriously someone didn’t think through the practicalities when installing the tracks. You also need a towel to hold the plastic nozzle of the wall mounted hairdryer but it works if you can avoid burning yourself. There is no reason for the lack of attention to the place. There were 4 tour buses there and this is not even high season. I guess having a bit of a monopoly means less incentive to modernise and improve.

The dinner was fine. Lots of fish and rice dishes. The breakfast was adequate and allowed guests to be creative in finding combinations of items to generate a flavour. Say no more.

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