Water, water everywhere

This post is a bit wordy, as we had an interesting day. As in, "May you live in interesting times".

Today was our day visiting Plitvice Lakes National Park here in central Croatia. This park is the largest in Croatia, which means it is about 1/10 the size of Yosemite. Both Plitvice Lakes and Yosemite are renouned for their waterfalls, but they are quite different. Where Yosemite's waterfalls are majestic, tall and isolated from each other as they plummet over granite cliffs, Plitvice's are broad and tumble through lush vegetation, often dozens in parallel.

Wide waterfall, May 2014

The main attraction of the park is a series of 16 lakes which are separated by waterfalls, with the water exiting the lowest lake into the Korana River. They are arbitrarily divided into the Upper and Lower Lakes, with Parking 2 being situated at the intersection between the two(1).

A problem with this sort of a vacation is that you get a day or two in a location, and everything needs to go reasonably right on that day or you loose the opportunity. In this case the thing which was less than right is rain. While I understand the ecological necessity of rain, it really puts a damp-er on outdoor activities like hiking in a national park. It was also cool, with the high in the low 50s and a nice breeze from time to time. The breeze not only blew the rain and cool air at us, but the spray from some of the waterfalls.

But we had a good time, more or less(2).

We also unanimously agreed that the park is screwed up.

After a fine(6) breakfast at the Inn, we headed to the park trying to beat the crowds as well as the rain forecast for the afternoon. We parked in the middle of the park and headed down to look at the Lower Lakes first. This involves parking at the aforementioned Parking 2, then taking a tram from ST-2 to ST-1. From there, you walk down the trail along the canyon rim, passing a number of waterfalls between the Lakes.

Sally & Beebs on the single track, May 2014

Finally you decend into the canyon, cross the water on a wooden boardwalk, and go to see the Big Falls(3). The Big Falls are formed as the Plitvica River tumbles over the canyon wall and falls about 300'. We retraced our steps and took the tram back to ST-2. At this point we separated into two teams.

Big Falls, Four friends and the other woman, May 2014

Beebs and Miguel decided to walk up past the Upper Lakes, and then take the tram from the ST-4 stop down. Sally and I decided to take the tram to ST-4 at the top of the Upper Lakes, then walk down. We agreed to meet in a couple of hours at the snack area near ST-2.

Beebs takes a picture, May 2014

After riding the tram up, we had our picnic lunch while sitting in the cold at a picnic table. Then we headed down. While some of the details of the trek are hazy, we do know a few things:

- at some point near the top, we took a fork(5) in the trail because the other fork was closed due to high water levels, which in turn was due to the rain over the last couple of days.

- at a much later point in our walk, we took a fork because the sign said it would take us to the the tram and the ferry.

- at some point after that, I decided that we would be arriving at the ferry stop near ST-2 and Parking 2. Thus there would be no need to take the ferry, as our destination was Parking 2.

- the maps which they give out, the signs throughout the park, and the naming nomenclature for the parking lots, tram stops, boat stops, and scenic viewpoints are confusing at best.

Along the way we saw some panoramic waterfalls - separate falls. stretching across an expanse of hundreds of feet and with very green, very dense vegetation throughout. We saw uncountable smaller falls, many equal in beauty and impact to the larger ones.

Not a giant, May 2014

We eventually came to and passed the ferry dock which was stop P2, because I had decided there was no need to take the ferry.

Mistake.

About ten cold and wet minutes later(4) we returned to that same fork. We had made a complete circle. At this point we were tired, cold and the rain was coming down hard enough that I put all the camera gear into my backpack and put the rain cover over the pack. When we made it back to the ferry I realized there were two, not one ferry routes. The one I knew of took you the long way across that lake and was essentially a way of covering a lot of less-interesting terrain without walking. The one I knew not of took you 100m across a narrow piece of the lake, to where you could climb up and out of the canyon to eventually reach ST-2 and ultimately Parking 2.

Sally estimated the climb out as at least 15 stories, most of it on steps.

Cold and wet, May 2014

Along the way I started getting texts from Miguel, as they (and we) had assumed we would walk down much faster than they would walk up, and were waiting back at the bistro near Entrance 2 (corresponding to Parking 2). At first we assumed that we had made some terrible wrong turn and so took a much longer path down than they did up. It turns out they never made it to the top because they hit the same detour (although much lower down) that derailed us and turned back, not wanting to be too late for our meeting up. So they walked a lot less than Sally and Me.

Cold, wet and exhausted, we tried to leave the parking lot, only to realize that Miguel had paid for the parking and then threw out the validated receipt we needed to make the gate go up. The good news here is that the bar code reader didn't mind a few wrinkles and water spots on the paper.

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(1) Bear with me; this will become significant.

(2) More: the waterfalls are really beautiful. Less: we were cold and damp.

(3) At least in English, that's what they call it.

(4) Hillary: colder, but not as wet.

(5) The great Yogi, Berra said: when you come to a fork, take it.

(6) A fine breakfast, as in: "How was breakfast?" "Fine."

 

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans