We visited two national parks with travertine waterfalls. Carbonate crystals accumulate to dam up rivers and create cascades along their course. 
A great place to just veg out and whip out a book to read as water gurgles in the background. The water is the colour of varying shades of turquoise. And there were cherry blossoms everywhere. Alas, no swimming allowed.
We thought we had the whole place to ourselves, save for a few other off-season tourists. Until...
We had a late lunch while waiting for the boat queue to peter out. It didn't! So, we got on board - definitely more people than the maximum capacity of 200 persons and surely not enough life jackets. Along the boardwalks, browsers annoyed us because the stopped to chit-chat and held up the line behind them.At least the French tour group made way for us, with some calling out to friends ahead to alert them that we were coming. The German-speaking ones simply couldn't be bothered. And everyone behind them had to wait for them to end their chatter - not always a commentary about the falls, judging from the fact that they looked like they were trading gossip more than admiring the scenery! Aaargh! We tried to push on ahead!
We booked our room in Jezerce, which is just minutes' drive from the park entrance (only one entrance was opened in April), online through an agency. Looks like a Swiss chalet no?
But the elderly woman who runs it doesn't speak English and brought in her sister from Zagreb - she had thick Mr Magoo glasses and slurs when she speaks (a stroke?), and a bit hard of hearing. Despite heating, the room was cold. It was very basic and beds were covered with gaudy made-in-China (?) type woollen blankets. Actually, we needn't have bothered choping a room: The entire village is rooms-for-rent, filled with chalet-like buildings, kinda like a resort village with no swimming pool and central restaurant. In fact, there were no restaurants nor shops nor grocery store nor laundromat! Just sobe (rooms, not noodles).
There are hotels within the park, but even the "budget" ones were pretty costly. On hindsight, maybe we should have stayed there so we could get unlimited access to the park. After the long drive from Krk, we had only the afternoon and evening at the park.
By the way, the park was where the first gunshot was fired, marking the start of the Serb-Croat war of 15 years ago. On our way in and out, we passed by deserted homes pockmarked with mortar and gunfire hits.
Krka National Park
Krka National Park has a different atmosphere altogether. More like a destination for family picnics. And the falls were more torrential. Swimming is allowed in certain areas, but in April? Brrr, no thank you!A friendly guy called Joseph Medved-something ("It means bear," he told us) approached us on the ferry to the park (included in entrance fee) and even gave us his number to call if we ever needed help in the country. He was on a day trip with water project colleagues "for team-building". Friendly Slovenians who had just come off a yacht also chatted with us.
We went via Skradin town, which was en route to Split from Zadar. But we missed the first boat out (10.30) by minutes and had to wait for the next one at noon (not every hour, like in summer). The town was dead, save for the waterfront. Yet, it took us so long to get to a counter at the bank to change money! We noticed that the bank tellers in Croatia take a long time to "process" customers.
Skradinski Buk is the biggest of the falls, and we have seen pictures of people diving off from there (click on this link)! Crazy! But not during our visit, unfortunately. Behind HB in the pic above is hidden a geocache (naturally!)
The park had a little artisan village with demos (in peak season, of course) of blacksmithing, weaving etc. The jacuzzi-like thing above is a cave and the contraption on the right looks like an old-fashioned washing machine - it pounded the white cloth wedged in it.
We sat by the falls and had a picnic lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit and orange juice (Juicy brand is nicer than Cappy). And then we Split!
2 comments:
Looks really interesting. Not sure how anyone could actually block the way for the boarding a ferry? Did you chope your lifevest? No restaurant? How to eat?
Nobody got to chope lifevest. There, of course, some KS frenchies who tried to push their way in and out of boat. One restaurant outside the park entrance was opened, altho it took a long time for us to realise it. From where we were at carpark, building looked closed until we saw a couple walk down to a basement entrance. There's an awful cafeteria in the park and hotel restaurants in the park. But in the village... nada.
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