RED RIDING HOOD

The oldest and largest national park in Croatia in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia with the many rivers passing through among which the biggest one is river Korana.

They say one needs to visit Plitvice in all four seasons. Me so far missing only the winter when the waterfalls became frozen castles above the frozen white lakes.

The national park is world-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. Sixteen lakes can be seen from the surface. There are three different paths to go through, depending on your walking capabilities. We choose the one that is 8 km long which takes 4 to 6 hours to go through – depending how much you stop to admire.

he lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of moss, algae, and bacteria. The particularly sensitive travertine barriers are the result of an interplay between water, air and plants.

People usually admire the waters of Croatia for being so clean, transparent and genuinely rivers flow everywhere. Although it is under UNDESCO protection, I can see more and more the waters being polluted with the number of tourists and weekend houses around the Park without proper system arrangement for the waste water.

Finally, the village next door is Rastoke, famous for it small wooden houses that grow around the tiny lakes and waterfalls. It is an etno-village with the mills.

Rastoke is a place of autochthonous ecologic and ethnographic significance due to its symbiosis of natural and civilizational features. Visiting Rastoke after so many years, I have noticed that the village is becoming bigger and bigger with more house owners appearing. 🙂

After all these walks, we deserved a plate of nice local meal: trout and potato grilled and served with lots of love in the Feniks restaurant Feniks in the city of Slunj.