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Plitvice
A sinkhole. Terry is standing on the far edge of the sinkhole.This really should be two blogs but to be honest I’m a bit too lazy to split this into two. At the time of my last blog we had left Split and we were on our way to Plitvice Lakes by bus. The bus journey took about 5 hours, resulted in a sore backside but I found it to be quite interesting. I had thought that we would journey north from Split along the Croatian coastline to Zadar before turning inland to Plitvice – i.e. not the most direct route. I was very pleased when I realised that we were taking a more direct route that travelled directly inland from Split and paralleled the Croatian-Bosnian border for most of the route.
The first part of our journey climbed through the mountain range inland from Split to Knin in the foothill of the Dinaric Alps – the main mountainous backbone of Croatia and the rest of the Balkans. The centre of town is dominated by a huge 10
th century medieval fortress that appears to be in excellent repair. From Knin the road started to climb into the Dinaric Alps proper. The vegetation on the mountains seemed to be quite stunted with
conifers standing only a few metres tall. The Dinaric Alps aren’t a single mountain range but more a series of parallel ranges and steep-sided valleys. The valley bottoms seemed to be used for agriculture although it was impossible to see what that was.
As we travelled further inland both the land and the people seemed to become poorer. It was evident that many farms had been abandoned and those that still existed were truly battling with the environment. The Dinaric Alps are composed of dolomite and limestone, both of which are quite porous and so the area appears quite barren as water sins through the rock into underground rivers. In places we could see areas where fields had previously been worked but these were now rocky grassland divided by lines of remnant shrubs. Occasionally we saw a shepherd tending a flock of sheep.
Closer to Plitvice Lakes the landscape seemed to become lusher and the vegetation was taller. We managed to miss the bus stop for our accommodation as it was the one before the main Plitivice stop and marked only by a small roadside shelter. Thus we alighted at the main Plivice stop but we were lucky
enough to get a ride back to our accommodation with someone hanging around the bus stop looking to sell lifts and accommodation. A well spent $5 as the 2 km walk to our accommodation would have been along the main road dragging luggage.
The following day we set off early for our walk through the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The National Park is composed of a series of lakes, cascades and waterfalls that descend from an altitude of 636 to 503 m over a distance of some eight km. In total there are 16 lakes with the deepest lake having a depth of 49 m. The thing that is special about the whole region is that the lakes are incredibly clear and a beautiful turquoise colour. The lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine which is deposited by the action of plants and bacteria. As vegetation dies and falls into the lakes it becomes encrusted with chalk (arising from the dissolution of limestone that drops out as chalk) and gradually forms travertine barriers that result in the formation of the individual lakes. As we walked to the park we
commented upon the strange large conical depressions that dotted the landscape. These sinkholes were huge and some have formed caves. The waterfalls and lakes were beautiful but I found the surrounding forest to be just as beautiful. We were there at just the right time as the forests of beech were in new, bright green leaf and wildflowers dotted the hillsides. The young woman at our accommodation told us that the forests had only come into full foliage in the past week or so. Once again we were surprised by the number of visitors in the park. The park can comfortably cope with 8000 tourists per day but during the summer period this number can swell to as many as 25000 visitors. Given that we had to wait in some places to pass on narrow pathways it’s difficult to imagine what it must be like with even greater numbers of tourists.
We also talked with her a little about the recent history of the region, in particular the Croatian war. During the war (1991-1995) this whole area was held by Serbian forces and the local Croat population either fled or was ethnically cleansed from the region. Thus, many of
the farms are still deserted as these people have never returned. The following day we caught the bus from Plitvice into Zagreb and it was possible to still see bullet holes and damage on the facades of some houses.
Our bus trip into Zagreb was fairly quick, about 2.5 hours, although I found the idea of catching a bus at a small roadside shed a bit peculiar. Nevertheless, the bus driver was on the lookout and pulled up for us and all was well.
Our accommodation in Zagreb was a spacious apartment a 15 minute walk from the bus station and a 5 minute walk from the train station. We easily found the location and our “landlady” approached us on the street as we made our way towards the apartment. When we left Australia we hadn’t intended to visit Zagreb but only decided to visit when the logistics of travelling from Plitvice to Vienna made that the easiest transport option.
I was very pleasantly surprised by Zagreb. It’s a relatively small city with a population of about 1 million. The city seems to have a pretty good public transport system with frequent trams and buses throughout the
city. It also appears to cater for bicycle riders with bike paths marked on either wide footpaths or on roads. Where the bike paths are shared with roads the cyclists are unlikely to be 'doored' as parked cars and bikes are separated. Along the wide boulevards in the newer parts of the city there are separate bike paths and pedestrian paths. We arrived on 1
st May and it was very quiet as the local population were celebrating May Day with a festival at a park in the hills to the north of the city. The following day (a Saturday) was beautiful weather and we started our explorations by walking through the series of parks that run northwards from the main train station to the city centre. The parks aren’t huge but people were out enjoying them – walking dogs and/or children, listening to a jazz band and meeting friends. We then walked through the historic part of town to the local food market (Vic market only smaller), climbed the hill to the upper town and walked through historic streets lined with well-patronised restaurants and bars before making our way to the suburbs. I’m pretty sure that we were in the
suburbs of the elite as the houses and gardens were large with some of the houses used as ambassadors’ residences. We returned to the city area via a path known as Sophie’s Path. This was a wide path through forest right and was frequented by dog walkers, joggers, cyclists and a bloke walking backwards and forwards talking on his phone. The rest of the day was spent looking for a new pair of shoes for me as I had managed to finally wear mine out over the previous 6 weeks of holiday.
Our second day was pretty much the same thing – walking. On that day we followed our land lady’s suggestion and walked to Mirogoj
Cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place of many famous Croatians and is a member of an association of significant European cemeteries. The locals are proud of it; it has a magnificent front entrance while locally it is considered a peaceful place for a walk - the paths are lined by huge Horse Chestnut Trees which were in full bloom (pink and white varieties). I can’t say that we saw people out for a stroll but there were a number of people
visiting graves, sweeping away fallen leaves and replacing flowers. Later we caught the bus back to the upper town and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the sights that we hadn’t managed to see the previous day.
We left Zagreb early the next morning to journey to Vienna by train.
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