Standing on a narrow wooden walkway, inches above a fast-flowing roar of water, my heart was pounding. There were no barriers and no safety rails. A small hand rail ran round some sections of the walkway, but disappeared at various points around the trail.
This was Plitvice Lakes. A national park in Croatia, around 3 hours journey from the town of Split. Known for its lakes and waterfalls, it was a stunning sight, but my heart was in my mouth the entire time.
Visiting the whole park in a day is a tough challenge. As we were only in Croatia for a couple of days, we planned to see as much of the park as possible in a day trip. Taking a coach to the top part of the park, we hiked around the top lakes and waterfalls, followed by a bus ride down to the bottom end of the park for the final hike around the waterfalls.
Croatia makes travelling easy. The names of the lakes and waterfalls are exactly how you would expect them to be: the biggest waterfall? Welcome to the ‘Big Splash’. A slightly smaller waterfall? It’s obviously ‘the Little Splash’! Follow the names of the waterfalls and the park is really easy to navigate.
The hike to the first set of waterfalls was the most impressive; walkways that hovered over the tops of the pouring water, deep lakes and the sounds of the water hitting the rock below.
We visited in October (luckily we avoided the rain!) and the paths were much clearer than they are in the height of summer. I don’t want to even think about navigating those walkways on a crowded day. It would have been very easy to step off the planks into the water below.
The colours in the park were amazing: deep blue and vivid aqua waters, green vegetation, grey rock and orange and brown autumn leaves. Everywhere we looked there was photo perfect scenery.
The final photo of the day was from the top trail, looking out over the cliff side at the waters below.
I’d love to visit the park again, perhaps spending a day or two to wander round and really take in the sights. Have you been to the park? What was your favourite site?
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