Plitvice Lakes National Park

As with the previous bus trip, this was just as smooth.

Cool sky from in the bus on the trip there

The bus stopped at Entrance 1 at Plitvice and then carried on an stopped at Entrance 2, which was the one I needed to be at. I stayed at a hotel in the park which was a good call, will cover more about this in the accommodation post, which entitled me to free park entry each day. Seeing as I was there too early for check in, I stored my bags in the hotel luggage room and got my park ticket and was on my way out and about to start my sightseeing. The problem with this post is going to be selecting images as they are almost all really cool to see.

Flags at Hotel Jezero

As I mentioned above there are 2 park entrances. There are 3 Panoramic Vehicle Stations (shuttle bus) St1 - St3, you can take this as many times as you like (at the 2 entrances and then at the NW of the lakes). There are 3 Electric Boat Docks, P1 - P3. You can take P1 to P2 and visa versa as many times as you like it is short trip to the other side of the lake. You can take the boat to/from P3 once per day. I didn't take it on the 1st day as I thought it was 1 per visit but found out later it was per day, no biggie.

Plitvice Map (click to enlarge)

There were a few amusing signs telling people what not to do on their stay in the park.

Sign at entrance. I like what it said:
Take Nothing but Pictures,
Leave Nothing but
Footprints and Use Nothing
but Time!

Notices

Notices, LOL at the picture

Notices

Shuttle that goes between St1, St2 and St3

Taking shuttle from St2 to St1
First thing in the morning, was empty except for me

Park Entrance

Park Map

Different Park Map

At P1 waiting for boat

During my stay there I think I pretty much walked all the trails and routes you could do, maybe not all in the specific order of the trails/programs they have but I can see I went pretty much everywhere (from the photomapping image from Plitvice admittedly it only shows where I took photos, but I took a lot). The half day when I got there was quite sunny, the sun was in the wrong place in sky to get some nice pics so made mental note that those were morning places to revisit.

The first full day I was there it was coolish to start with but warmed up quickly, it was overcast for most of the day which helped to get nice photos. My second full day it had chucked it down with rain the night before so was wet all over. I went prepared and needed to use my jacket/brolley for a large portion of the day. I wore my strops so that my shoes didn't get soaked, my feet were quite fine and not cold at all.

I'm going to show a load of photos of various areas in the park, I'm not going to label each unless it calls for it. I also made some videos and there is 1 that has a load of various sights that the video also covers.

Pathway/Lake

Lake

Waterfall

Lake/pathway

Lake and caves (you can't go in)

Waterfall

Lake

Lake (cool reflection)

Waterfall

Lake

Waterfall

Pathway/waterfall

Waterfall

Lake

Pathway

Lake

Electric boats on Kojak Lake

Waterfall

Pathway

Lake

Waterfall

Lake

Waterfall

On Electric Boat between P1/2 and P3

Lake/Pathway

In my opinion the most scenic of all the areas in the park was Korana Lake, especially from above. Amazing !! Picture postcard photos.

Korana Lake and Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall)

Korana Lake

Tomićevo Pogledalo Viewpoint

View from Tomićevo Pogledalo Viewpoint

In this video at the time I thought that Vidikovac is the name of the viewpoint. That's a bit of a fail. Vidikovac actually means viewpoint and it is actually the Tomićevo Pogledalo Viewpoint. I stopped here for my lunch.

One of the main highlights in the park is Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall).
From the signboard: The height of the Veliki slap waterfall from its top to the first lake at its foot is 62m, and to the beginning of the Korana River 87m. The measured average maximum flow is greater than 4000l/s & the measured average minimum flow is less than 80l/s.

Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall)

Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall) sign

Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall)

Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall) after rains

Waterfall (next to Veliki Slap)

Lake (next to Veliki Slap)

Some more assorted pics

Very relaxing

Ducks

If a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound?

Tired feet

Water refill at St3

P2 waiting to head back to P1 & hotel for lunch
The boats you can see there are the ones going to/from P3

As I say in the below video, on the 2nd day I had done stuff in the morning. I went back to my hotel and was having lunch and tinkering online for a while touching base with friends etc. I then happened to look at the Plitvice Webcam (yes, I have one there, not one that I can be on though) and saw how massive Veliki Slap was now. That couldn't be missed. I got myself all ready again and headed out for more sightseeing, the waterfall specifically.

As I maybe mention before (getting confused with what day is what in my blogging), on my final day at Plitvice I woke up to it having rained big time over night, which I knew was going to happen from the forecast. It was looking like a super bleak day.

After breakfast I had a look outside, yuck. How much would I be able to get done? But I wasn't going to let a little rain stop me that was for sure.

Raining so needing brolley

In the hotel I found a few amusing bears. The park is open (may not be accurate based on season) from 7am - 5pm. I asked a staff member "what if people aren't out by 5pm". He said it's up to them to get out before dark as there are creepy crawlies in the park at night, you wouldn't want to be there at night. A quick Google for Plitvice Animals gave me Most dominate mammals are rodents, rabbits, wolfs, foxes, skunks, weasel, otter, badger, marten, lynx, wild boar, deer, fallow deer and brown bear ... so yes if you are out at night you are taking your life into your own hands.

Bear

Bear scaring me

Bear now that I've tamed it

During my walks at various times I started taking pictures of some mushrooms I came across, some look poisonous I reckon. I could Google Image search them but that feels like a bit too much effort for information I don't really need to know.

Mushroom