From Novigrad we drove for about four hours southeast and inland to Plitvice. These lakes and falls are famous in Croatia and one of the most visited tourist attractions. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest National Park in Croatia and you can walk along boardwalks along by the lakes, marvelling at the amazing tall falls and the just as spectacular lower ones. There are 16 interconnecting lakes and the water is an incredible turquoise, with a photo op at every turn!
There are two entrances to the lakes and we chose to do the lower lakes. There are several routes that can be taken, but the main one is what we did, where you walk along the boardwalks for several kilometers, then take a boat along the largest lake. A bus brings you back near to the entrance again, and you walk the rest of the way. All included in your entrance ticket. I found it absolutely fine for my dodgy knees and hips as there were few steps and the paths were mostly just sloping, which is much easier.
This is the main waterfall called Veliki Slap, which is 78 metres high and the tallest waterfall in all of Croatia. Its name means Great Waterfall in Croatian. Isn't it just glorious?
You can see how the lakes are connected with water gushing through the vegetation from one pool to another.
A wildflower in the Dianthus family, very possibly Dianthus hyssopifolius.
A very old worn butterfly which is one of the Blues - I think it is a Chequered Blue (Scolitantides orion), which is a lifer for me! I saw very few butterflies whilst away so I am excited to have found a new to me species.
Back to the lakes and you can see the paths in many of the photos. It looks busy and yes there were loads of people, but it never seemed too crowded as we were walking around, which made it a much more pleasant experience.
Honestly, the colour of the water was just incredible!
At the end of our initial walk we came to a clearing which had a cafe and some gift shops. This is where we had to queue up for the boat to take us on the next leg of the journey, along the lake. The wait was awful though, many boats came but there was a long line ahead of us. Then as we got close to the front no more boats came for ages! Just like when you wait forever for a bus then three come at once, it was a bit like that and very annoying!
Whilst waiting for the boat Keith took this pic of what I think is a Balkan Green Lizard (Lacerta trilineata). It was quite a big one and came close to our queue of people!
When we finally boarded the boat it took us to the other end of the main lake at the lower falls. We then had to wait yet again for another boat to take us across the lake to the area which was near to entrance no. 2 and the upper lakes.
We then had to walk up a bit to a 'bus stop' where we waited for a rather strange bus like vehicle which took us back the length of the lake, and dropped us off at a point where we had to walk back to entrance no. 1, only about a kilometre I should think.
The path was a different one to the one we took earlier on and as we got higher, the views were amazing.
Looking back down over some of the small falls.
And then we got to the end of the journey! It is a truly remarkable place to visit, and left me wishing we had the time to do the upper lakes the next day, but we had plans to move on. Another time, hopefully!
P.S. This will be my last post for a little while as we are off in the Moho to Catalonia in Spain next week for a fortnight. After three long trips covering vast distances we are just staying (relatively) close to home and doing a bit of birding, a bit of walking around coastal towns and villages, and hopefully a LOT of chilling on the beach or by a pool. 😁
P.P.S. We had more rain! Three thunderstorms brought rain three times and there are even patches where the tougher grass in the lawn is starting to grow! The ground still needs tons more rain though, as the temps are still around 26-30c.
We drove into the interior of the Istrian peninsular to visit a couple of hilltop medieval villages. The interior of Istria was very green - I noticed lots of what looked like hay meadows full of absolutely perfect grass, not a weed/flower in sight. That would make top quality hay. Not like what you see in my part of France, which is usually 50% weeds (/wildflowers depending on how you look at it). However we barely saw any livestock. It was a bit strange!
The first village was called Grožnjan. The population has fallen from between 3-4,000 people living here in the decades of 1910-1940s to its current about 656, which includes some other nearby settlements as well as Grožnjan itself. However nowadays it is known as the 'Town of Artists' and is visited by tourists and people visiting the art galleries and attending the annual jazz festival, all of which have brought life back to a declining village.
When we arrived we discovered some market stalls with antiques and bric a brac which I love mooching about in. I chose a Murano glass bead bracelet as a birthday present from K, as my birthday fell during our holiday.
This cute house below is for rent as a holiday home.
Lots of cute alleyways and totally unspoilt.
The next village was called Motovun but it wasn't as scenic as Grožnjan. We had to walk a long way up a steep hill and after a while we just gave up and called it a day! It was too hot for walking uphill any longer and the main bit of the village was right at the top of the hill!
I think it was the next day when K took this picture of a Hooded Crow. Those who live with these crows would think of them the same way we do about the all black crow that we have in our part of Europe, so that explains the photo and the interest - because they are very different to what we are used to! (I should mention that some of these photos are K's mixed in with mine. I often just took pics with my phone when I was using my alpine stick as it was easier.)
The following day we went further down the coast to Poreč. Originally we had planned to visit Rovinj, but I couldn't find anywhere that we could park a moho so we compromised and visited another smaller seaside town where parking was a lot easier. This is what I see as the only real downside to motorhoming.
Upon arrival we came across an antique market - something we were very lucky with in Croatia was the amount of markets we stumbled upon - I absolutely love looking around them - whether it's old things or modern clothes or fruit and veg and honey, I don't mind what, I find it all fascinating.
There was a lot of building work going on in the harbour area around where the market was, so I haven't included any photos of that. I'm not sure what this tower is below but it looks like it has a garden, or at least a terrace, on the top.
A lovely facade with Venetian windows.
The main street was full of little shops - a mix of tourist stuff, clothing boutiques and lots of jewellers. Jewellery seems to be popular here and there’s a lot made with red coral from the Adriatic. I didn’t see so much of the blue coral though (I bought some blue coral bracelets from a market stall later on).
A lovely green square. It’s funny looking back on that after nearly three months of drought and heat, as everything is so brown and sad. But our seasons are like that and we will soon be moaning about the rain and the cold!
More Venetian windows.
There was an island just across the bay full of 4 and 5 star accomodation.
I think this is a part of the old town walls.
Looking towards the marina in the distance, which is where the market was.
So that was what we saw during our brief time in Istria, but there was so much more to see elsewhere and it was time to move on...
Novigrad was a pleasant place to stay for the next three nights and easy walking distance from the campsite, perfect as our first full day in Croatia was definitely to be a no driving day! We had originally booked a pitch beside the sea but the pitch proved too difficult to get into due to the pine trees in the way, so we asked to move to this pitch which was far easier to get in and out of and was huge! Cheaper too and we could still see the sea, which had a gorgeous colour.
After doing very little in the morning after lunch we wandered into Novigrad to have a look around. It proved to be a nice little town, with a scenic harbour full of small fishing vessels and a good amount of restaurants dotted about.
The building colours were gorgeous, all shades of orange and terracotta with yellow, green and blue thrown in for good measure!
This building had a lovely porch area with painted arches, not quite trompe l'oeil but close....
....and on the side of the building, these pretty painted window surrounds, and the top windows with either painted glass or decals, I'm not sure as I can see reflections in the glass in the upper windows. It gives the impression of being an old decoration though.
This building is the Rigo Palace, built in 1770 in the Baroque style.
A closer look at the lovely carved stonework and the carved faces. The metal framework looks like it is holding up the arched stonework as it looks a bit crumbly in places!
Above and below, colourful umbrellas have been used cleverly, providing a bit of much needed shade during the hot months and really brightening up the streets joyously.
This is Sts Pelagius' and Maximus' Parish Church, also a colourful building. The church has undergone many transformations over the centuries and is currently a Neoclassicist façade that was finalised in 1935, whilst the campanile dates from 1874, again a replacement for an earlier one.
And our walk brought us back to the harbour again. I love looking at boats and there was plenty here to stop and have a look at for a little while.
From the waterfront we took the little tourist train back to the campsite, and later in the evening took it again back into the town for dinner. Afterwards we walked back along the sea front, a gentle stroll of about 15 minutes. For dinner I had fish which was delicious, Gilthead Bream which was served quite commonly in the restaurants we went to. Fish seems to be always served with a potato and chard mix which I found too salty. I asked for chips after that whenever I had fish! Keith tried out a Croatian delicacy, Ćevapčići, which are small skinless sausages. My brother had a rolled stuffed pork dish - this was one of the best meals we had! It took K the whole holiday before he could get his tongue around the pronounciation of Ćevapčići (sevap-chichi - easy once you know how)! 😀
