7-8 July: Krka National Park – the breathtakingly beautiful heart of Croatia

Author: Mr A

Location: Krka National Park, Croatia

Sitting in New Zealand at Christmas we had read about this National Park that has 17 waterfalls cascading through its limestone country. Now we were here..and loving it. Yes it’s popular with 1 million people visiting last year, but there’s a reason it’s popular – it’s absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

We had booked a tour from the camp site we stayed at, a 9-5 day visiting the highlights of the park by minibus. There’s no way we would have seen some of these place left to our own devices.

A two hour walk had us deep in the forest on boardwalks, with streams and small cascades flowing all around us.

Water water everywhere, the boardwalk wound across lakes and streams
A Baltic Green Lizard poised ready to fight his opponent
The boardwalk – busy already at 9.15am
Small cascades give us hints of the beauty ahead
The waterfalls increase in size….helped by a huge thunder storm last night, bringing the first rain here for 40 days

Then we came to the first major waterfall, which allowed swimming. Catherine was off as I guarded our bags. It did look quite spectacular.

Skradinski Buk – the longest waterfall on the Krka River . Swimming is allowed here
Mrs A feeling refreshed after her dip
Travertine islands, barriers and lakes help create the falls which send a fine refreshing spray of mist for a hundred metres
Enjoying the spray
Relishing the shade on the the way back to our bus – it was about 34 degrees centigrade
Cloth making and basket weaving was common here historically and here we see where the cloth was washed – right up until the 1970s
The power of the water here has been harnessed for electricity since the late 1800s – the first hydro electric plant in Croatia

A Franciscan monastery sat resplendent on a tiny island in one of the lakes, Roman catacombs beneath another monastery…this park has the lot.

An Eurasian Kestrel soars above us searching for food in the valley
A dry, harsh country – much of the water deep underground
Those monks certainly knew how to isolate themselves
Beautiful pink Oleander grows wild everywhere we go in Croatia

We had lunch in a little tucked away cafe alongside the ever present waterfalls. Simple but lovely food served with Croatian wine….yup still the same verdict…thumbs down in the vino.

Cold meats, cheese, bread, olives and sliced tomato – simple fare but tasty
If you wanted to cool down you could sit at one of the wet tables, with the water rushing past your bare toes
Krka Monastery – built on top of Roman catacombs – mentioned in texts back as far as 1402. The fountain in the foreground is thick in dripping moss
The church painted in richly coloured frescos was renovated in the past decade
A refreshing breeze entices you to this window
Imagine the monks here…
More secret viewing spots visited along the way
Bilusica Buk – at the furthest easterly part of the park, very remote
A Roman military camp and amphitheatre are to be found near here – Bisulica Buk

The park entrance fee was about AU$50 and the trip including the monastery tour and lunch the same. What great value! With a million visitors a year it was disappointing to see little evidence of that money being reinvested in the park, but that seems to be the story across Croatia with the tourist dollar. I wonder whose pocket it goes in?