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Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27
We left Split and went to Trogir, a small island not far from Split. It's a small place with a cathedral, museum, monastery and fortress. I wandered around, listened to a female a capella group, found the bayfront promenade, and went to Kamerlengo Fortress. The Fortress was built around 1420 when Trogir became part of the Venetian empire. When we left here we drove inland and stopped near Krka National Park where the Krka River forms waterfalls and lakes. We couldn't actually see this from where we stopped though.
Then we traveled further inland to Plitvice Lakes National Park, the most visited park in Croatia. Since we arrived around 5 p.m. we would see the attractions the next day. We had another group meal that evening with more guitar & accordion music. At least these guys stuck to Croatian folk music and didn't do Beatles, Billy Joel, Credence, and others like the previous night in Split.
Plitvice (Pleet-veet-see) has 16 terraced lakes separated by travertine dams and flowing waterfalls. It became Croatia's first national park in 1949. My guidebook says the first shots of the war were shot here in
1991 and the Serbs controlled the area for 4 years. That meant no tourists for 4 years, and the area recovered from so many previous tourists. But now this park is overrun with tourists during the summer.
Our hotel is very close to the tram line and the walking paths. We took the tram toward the north end and started walking on the top and descended to lower lakes (Donja Jezera) and waterfalls. The boardwalks are crowded, and this isn't even tourist season. Alot of people are using their selfie sticks and at times it's impossible to get by people taking their hundred photos of themselves. We were warned that people have fallen off the boardwalk by not paying attention. The boardwalks are built right over the water and travertine formations. We walked to the Big Waterfall (Veliki Slap), 250 feet drop. Then we skirted Kaluderovac Lake, a bank of waterfalls, took a detour to Supljara Cave, went by Gavanovac Lake to Milanovac Lake to Lake Kozjak and the boat shuttle. Since its spring there are lots of flowers out. There are chub in the lakes also.
Once on the boat shuttle we had choices and I decided
to continue hiking with Ariel and Michael (NY) the rest of the way to the Upper Lakes (Gornja Jereza). We passed lots of waterfalls as we walked by Gradinsko Lake then 4 smaller lakes, back to the tram station and back to the hotel. The Upper Lakes area wasn't as crowded and was more enjoyable. We figured out from the map that we had hiked about 5 miles.
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Pat Collins
non-member comment
Beautiful place
The scenery is gorgeous - love the waterfalls and lakes. Do you have a traveling partner - or just by yourself?