172 – Plitvice Lakes aka heaven on earth

Today I’m largely going to let the photos do the talking.

We drove to Plitvice National Park which is on the Croatia bucket list for many visitors with good reason – it is stunning!

We opted for the green route C from the main carpark 1 which covers the great waterfall and both the upper and lower lakes.

At first Mabel was scared of the boardwalk so I carried her until she felt braver…she was soon trotting along happily. We couldn’t believe how turquoise blue and clear the water was. You easily could see pools of fish in the shallows.

We hopped on a boat across the lake to continue our walk around the lower lakes

The waterfalls were amazing, especially dripping off the foliage

The water is drinkable, though you are not allowed to swim in it much to Jaspers disappointment.

We had multiple attempts at family photos but forgot the selfie stick as usual. Plus the pups don’t get the whole posing thing.

We then got the little train (which is actually a bus), back but stopped earlier at St2 so we could walk along the lake shore (end of route K).

The trail itself is really gentle and you can pick your distance. In the summer months the route we took would take upwards of 6 hours but as we are out of season there weren’t the hourds of tourists and at points we had the path to ourselves, so it only took 4.

Being out of season in early November also meant it was £12 each rather than £30 each, with free parking which really helps.

Nearing the end we realised we had forgotten to see the great waterfall up close at the start of our trail, so we walked back down. The Japanese tourists loved our pups, said hello and took lots of photos of them. They kindly took a family photo of us all by the waterfall – well several…and this is the best lol

By 4pm it was beginning to go dark and we glimpsed the moon over the water.

We decided to drive only a short distance to Sapina Restaurant which let’s you stay in their carpark if you eat there. While this is cheaper than a campsite, they are obviously less busy this time of year so didn’t have any jacket potatoes. The only other vegetarian option was a mixed veg pizza.

The waiter turned up with two quattro 4 cheese pizzas and apologised that’s all they could make. We were too polite to decline so my tummy is likely going to hate me tomorrow #veganfail

We are now bunkered down for the night. Pups snoring, Mark doing his Duolingo Spanish app and I’ve got meditation and coursework to do. Tomorrow we drive to the coast!