Our intention was to follow the Dalmatian coast to a small town called Senj before heading inland to the Plitivice National park. Unfortunately we could not find anywhere to park for the night so decided to carry on to the National park for an early morning start and get ahead of the crowds. Although the meander along the coast had added an additional two hours to our journey the stunning coastline made it worthwhile. It appeared to be a series of large wide inlets that reminded us of the ffords in New Zealand on a much larger scale and always hovering just above the water there was an eerie heat haze. Sadly I do not feel my photos truly capture the essence of the scenery.

Despite our early morning start the next day we arrived at the car park to find it already nearly a third full? obviously we had underestimated the popularity of the Park which is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the oldest and largest national parks in Croatia home to Brown bears, Lynx and the Grey wolf. The main attraction for walkers are the sixteen lakes linked by picturesque waterfalls split into upper and lower clusters surrounded by woodland.There are various footpaths to choose from around the lakes all very clearly marked giving you the choice of either the lower or upper lakes and for the hardy walkers you could cover the whole park.

We opted for the lower lakes footpath B that was expected to take three hours. We followed the footpath which took us through woodland, and along boardwalks to various viewpoints to take in the numerous waterfalls for which the park is famous though at this time of year they were not in full flow which if they had been one could imagine would have been a spectacular sight, it also included a boat ride across the lake.

On disembarking we decided to take the train to the bottom of the upper lakes and explore more all in all our “three hour walk” became a rewarding full day walk in beautiful surroundings with the surprising discovery of one of the many caves.