Herbstferien in the Balkans, entry #1

"Herbstferien" (Fall Break) Trip: Plitviče Lakes, Croatia

The kids get a couple weeks in October for a Fall break, and so instead of placing them in "Play Care" at the school while we work, we like to take a trip and show them some things. Last year for this period we met up with some Portland friends in Lyon, France for a trip up to Grenoble, then hooked up with Seattle friends who were doing a year in Basel, Switzerland and went up to Grundelwald deep in the Swiss Bernese Oberland mountains. The trip provided a stream of incredible images and experiences and, we like to think, a wonderful education for the kids. We sought to replicate it again, this time heading to Croatia and Bosnia.

We initially played with Sicily, Sardinia, Portugal and Croatia, but Croatia offered the cheapest airfare and accommodation since we'd missed the prime season, so we went there. We booked a few days on either end of the trip and left the middle open to facilitate going into Bosnia (or, if the local information counselled against it, to explore somewhere else. It was a vacation risk, considering the whole 1.5 weeks might be spent in freezing rain, but with the cheap airfare we took it.

On Monday 23 October we flew into Zadar, Croatia, got the rental car, and drove north to the Plitvice Lakes region (indicated on map). It sits right at the corner where the horseshoe of Croatia curves around the corner of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The area is characterized by several north-south mountain ranges, all of which is underlaid by limestone. Limestone degrades with water, which is what makes such great limestone caves around the world. Here the landscape is littered with massive inverted-cone shaped holes ranging from house-size to small valleys. They are the remains of water ponds that eroded their way down through the rock.

The Plitvice area is known for a unique string of lakes which have arranged themselves in a picturesque line up one of the valleys. The limestone forms travertine dams at the bases of the lakes and the water pops through them not in one pour-over but through many little spots where it has burrowed through the rock. So the waterfalls look much different than your typical ones. The abundant water supports greenery along the dams between the lakes, so it gives the impression of a forested wall spurting with waterfall leaks.

The park is one of Croatia's big tourist draws, ranking behind the beaches and islands further south along its Dalmatian coastline. As such, it is well laid-out with full infrastructure for visitors. A system of hiking trails curves around and over the cascades. These are linked with a bus service and a boat service that links up the trails and itineraries one can do. Most people manage a day in the park before they continue further south to the beaches. We would spend three days there and as a result hiked all the trails, rode all the busses and took multiple trips on the lake boats. The weather was iffy the day we arrived, and from then on out it was beautiful fall days.

Clear water shows lots of fish, which fascinated the kids.

Jasper enjoys the brisk morning air on the deck to brush teeth.

We found wonderful hiking in the woods alongside the lakes. We missed the peak colors by about a week but nobody complained since the sun was out almost the entire time. 

  

The bridges over the cascades are sturdy enough in spite of their looks. At one end of one of the lakes the trail rose up into the canyon wall through a huge cave that had been hollowed out.

The kids seemed to enjoy the waterfalls and the boat rides, but they also were quite preoccupied with the local duck population, stick-finding in the forests and tying vines together to create fishing lines. These then turned into flails when they got bored of the fish not biting their vines.

I must admit that I never know what really impresses them from all these trips. You show them 1500 year-old Roman ruins or march them on log bridges over a landscape of spraying waterfalls and all we hear about later is the cat that was spotted in the hotel car-park, or the stick that needs to be brought back to Berlin because it is so awesome.

Apparently, getting children out in the woods is great for their development, so in the end who cares as they achieved plenty of this on the trip. There was lots of them leaving the trail and climbing up into the forest until we couldn't see them anymore. Every so often we'd hear a shriek. Then silence. Eventually they appeared, sliding on their butts down the slope of fallen leaves and grabbing onto saplings to aid in the descent.

After three days of exploring the lakes, we moved on into Bosnia to the small town of Bihač in the northwest corner of the country. We'd determined it was safe and booked a cheap apartment the day before. Read on...