We had breakfast as soon as the doors opened this morning - 8am. We wanted to get an early start at the park as we were planning on doing a 5 to 6 hour “lap”.
Our hotel was located just a short downhill walk to a very rarely used entry to the park, so within 10 minutes we’d dropped into the gorge that is home to the series of lakes and waterfalls that make up the focal point for the Unesco designated park.
Everywhere we went today we walked on either manicured gravel walkways or wooden boardwalks. The organization/layout of the place is great, as long as you’re good at reading maps... we’ll get to that later!
The water in the lakes was crystal clear and bright green at the edges with little fish lazing at the surface. The water in the middle turned more of a deep blue green. Between the lakes, the water ran between reeds and trees and burst out into differing sizes of waterfalls that filled the lake below. Our main comment today was that it felt like we were in a Disney set - the whole scene was very dreamy.
We hiked downhill next to some smaller lakes and after about 45 minutes got to the big waterfall near the bottom of the park. This waterfall wasn’t from the lake system, but from water cascading over the edge of the top of the valley. It was very picturesque.
We hiked back up to the middle of the park where I examined the map and (following the instructions from the hotel) hiked up a less used path right along a large lake that had boats traversing up and down on the opposite side of the lake. Our destination was the start of a bus/train course that would bring us up to the very top of the park. The walk was great - shady, flat and virtually empty of people. Of course, this emptiness soon brought chirps from the peanut gallery. First Beth
“Craig, are you sure we’re going the right way?”
“Yes Beth... and we are walking now... don’t you love walking?”
“Yes, but only when I know where I’m going.”
“Well... if we get lost you’ll get a ton more steps.”
“Hrmph”
Then Robin...
“Dad.. where are we going? This looks sketchy. Are you sure this is the way to the train?”.
“Yup.”
“But no one is here.”
“Nice, isn’t it?”
“Pffft”
Then ten minutes later, surprisingly, as she’s usually the least geographically challenged of the three, Abby chimed in...
“Dad... those are boats, not buses.”
“That’s true...”
“Well, we’re supposed to be going to the bus stop. Not the boat stop”
“That’s true, but the buses don’t run on water.”
“DAD!! Are we lost?”
“No, I know exactly where we are.”
“Then why are we heading towards THE BOATS!”
“Trust me Abby....”
“{unintelligible sounds}”
Half an hour later, we emerged at an opening, turned left, climbed 40 steps and hopped on the train/bus (we figured out why they couldn’t find the right word.... it was a bus with four little wiener link sections). Not one person in our party had the courage to speak up “oh... I guess you knew where you were going” or “sorry for doubting you”, so I took that as a small acknowledgment the we GOT TO THE BUS. lol... you need firm resolve and nerves of steel sometimes leading this group.
The bus weaved and climbed to the top of the park, letting us out at “station 3” where we were ready for some food. We were offered a packed picnic lunch for 10 Euros from the hotel, but the research showed there was food available throughout the park and we collectively had a fear of packed lunches cultivated from numerous, disgusting packed lunches on the Big Trip 2015. All we saw was ice cream. It was 12:30. I asked the info desk and they said “yes, there is food throughout the park. But here, only ice cream.” So, we begrudgingly (not really) had the equivalent of a magnum bar for lunch. We all thought that if we saw Blair and Paul, he would have discovered these magnum bars for sure!
The walk down from the top of the park to the middle was gorgeous, but very busy. The boardwalk wound in and out of small lakes and rivers, with small, medium and large waterfalls scattered throughout. It was really nice experiencing a little natural wonder on a trip like this. It kind of reminded us of Mulu in Borneo crossed with the hikes in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.
When we got back towards the middle of the park, we took a little ferry to the other side of the lake (near where we caught the bus earlier) and spotted Blair and Paul - sure enough, they’d had their magnums and were also looking for lunch! We grabbed a Croatian style burger (basically, like our burgers but with hand made Croatian beef patties) and a drink and chilled out in the shade. It was about 130 and the sun was blazing hot.
After lunch, we caught the long ferry that brought us pretty much to the road we had entered the park from. A short walk back up and back to the hotel and in short order we were drinking an icy cold beer!
We lazed around in the afternoon - Blair and Papa napped, Beth slept then read, Abby read - “don’t talk to me!” (that meant she was in proper reading mode) and Robin and I listened to some music, played cards and hucked a frisbee back and forth. Chill time was excellent today.
The food here was really good - we’ve all been doing the chefs menu - soup, dessert and a choice of five main courses. Tonight, I had grilled trout - so good.
Tomorrow, we’re off to eventually reunite with the Taylors, but not before we take a detour to meet Hitler.
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