Last week, we went for Easter holidays to Croatia, where we visited the Plitvice lakes National Park. It’s located on the south of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and it is the biggest national park of the country. It is composed of 16 lakes, linked by 92 waterfalls. This is a very particular place, because it looks like huge stairs, where each step is a lake.
We were very lucky about the weather this day : 25 degrees and a very shiny sun (which made all our friends in Nitra jealous !). This summer day made us want to take a bath in the lakes, which had a beautiful turquoise blue color… But it wasn’t allowed ! Indeed, it is a national park, so the human activities are strictly forbidden. With the exception, obviously, of some accomodations for tourists like boats to cross the biggest lake (Kozjak), a train which goes around the park and a wooden way for walkers.
The main sources of these lakes are the black river (Crna rijeka) and the white river (Bijela rijeka). They join to become the Matica river, which empties in the first lake : Prošćansko. This lake empties after that in the second lake (Ciginovac), which empties in the third (Okrugljak veliko), etc… In total, it has a difference in elevation of 158m. Sometimes, the difference between 2 lakes is not so big, but it can also be 15 or 20m, which gives big waterfalls !
This day, we walked a big part of the pedestrian way : we did 18km (that’s why we wanted to swim so hard !). This hiking lasted about 6 hours, which is the time needed to visit the place. I think we chose the good moment to go to Plitvice, because it’s even warmer in summer, with a lot of tourists. Indeed, 1 million people visit the park each year.
We followed the wooden way. On each lake side, we could read panels with written informations about the lake on it, like the altitude, the surface and the deepness. In total, the lakes cover more than 200ha. The lakes are all different : some of them are not so big (0,6ha for the smallest), one is composed of several pools, where the water is choppy. The biggest has the surface of 81.5ha, its deepness can be 46m and it contains an island (Stephanie’s Island). It was the first lake we saw, and also the last one.
Erasmus in Slovakia 