Plitvice Lakes - Wendy's view

Hi everyone! Karen has let me loose on her blog (watch out Kaz...ha ha!). Well, after we checked out Varazdin, Karen - in her usual style - wanted to check out everything else within a 10km radius of where we were, so we tried to get to this castle (apparently the most impressive one in Croatia so definitely well worth the effort...hmmm) but the bus timetable didn't work out so we headed straight for Plitvice national park instead. Woo hoo! This was high on my 'to do' list having seen some impressive photos taken by a colleague (which actually compelled me to visit Croatia in the first place!)

Anyway, we arrived in Plitvice at around 3:30pm, just in time to do our first walk around the national park. The park is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains 16 lakes. They are an amazing blue and green colour and contain numerous waterfalls - seriously, you cannot imagine the colour and photos cannot do it justice. Apparently the colour is due to lots of scientific things which I cannot explain but have something to do with limestone, calcium, algae, minerals and organisms...

The park is fantastically well set out - there are board walks and trails snaking all around and connecting all the lakes for tourists to walk on. These are well set out - they do not impact on the environment, but allow you to still closely inspect the water, waterfalls and fish! There are a number of different routes you can do throughout the park. The main ones are amongst the 'upper lakes' (which we did when we first arrived), and the 'lower lakes' (which we did the next day).

Anyway, our first impression of these lakes was that they were spectacular and definitely a highlight. This remained so despite the fact the next day the weather suddenly turned from a balmy 30 degrees to a freezing cold and wet 10 degrees. Karen was happy as she suddenly had a reason to use her cosy Kathmandu raincoat which kept her nice and dry...while Wendy had to do with her 3 ringgit (ie, A$1.50) shower coat thing which resulted in her being drenched within the first 15 minutes...nice going Wendy.

Despite this lacklustre weather, Karen and Wendy, the ever-intrepid, ended up walking for 7 hours in the cold and rain. This is because the views were so fantastic, and the walks were well planned (even giving you access to bus and boat services where necessary). We both agreed it was the best walk we had done since Cappadoccia...(well, yes, it has been the only one but that's besides the point Karen).