Croatian Lakes District

Camping Costs: Autokamp Korana 171KN per night – 3 nights

Well…what a record, up and gone by 8.15hrs!!! Plus, Wendy went to pay for the night and made a complaint about being put on a pitch that wasn’t a pitch but a dog toilet! Well…they didn’t like this, but they still gave us a “discount”. We just wanted to leave this awful place.

We decided to head for Plitvička Jezera. No GPS to navigate us, so we decided to just head for the motorway. It was a toll road but fast, so we just sat back and drove. We finally made our exit and headed for the lakes. We found a campsite and decided 3 nights was a good stop. We were fairly early, so set up camp, went looking for a shop to buy lunch and dinner for today from. Back to camp and we just chillaxed, as Dan and Cassie say. Cassie and Dan watched a movie on the laptop while Wendy lay in the sun reading. Ah! Great to relax. We did some washing of clothes and got wifi at the information centre. Here we also got information on the lakes and entry prices. Had a beer at the bar and then headed back for our braai for dinner.

DAY 20: THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2011

Had a little lie in, but the heat of the sun coming over drove us out of our tents. We had a lazy breakfast and headed off to explore the lakes.

SHEESH!!! Talk about crowds! It was 11.30hrs and the car park was packed. We wondered over to the entrance and joined the extremely long queu for tickets. Dan managed to get student price by showing his University of Birmingham student card and Cassie being 6yrs old, was free! Actually, thats been a good thing about travelling through most of these countries, under 6yrs and you aren’t charged for them…BONUS!

So we followed the hoards into the national park, boy were there hoards. We made the choice to walk around and not catch the boat across the big lake. Once we got passed the point where everyone was boarding the boats, the crowds fizzled out and you could actually enjoy the walk. The walk took us 3½hrs and left the lakes at 15.00hrs. The lakes were beautiful. Crystal clear, you could see right down to the bottom of quite a few of them. Fish and ducks galore. We headed back to the supermarket for supplies. Back at camp, we lazed around and did a bit more washing etc.

A little accident happened to us the night before, we had bought 2 bottles of olive oil, one for us and one as a gift. Dan got ours out to cook with and when he went to open it, the cork popped out like gun fire. He asked me to find the second bottle, but I couldn’t find it. Dan eventually found it, exploded in the toiletry and medical box! Needless to say, we spent the next hour or so cleaning olive oil off our medicines. Not a happy moment.

That evening we took the computer to the bar and had a pivo whilst checking emails etc. Then we went back to camp and had another braai for dinner. We were going to head for the Barać caves just up the road tomorrow, then come back, do house keeping ready to leave early the next morning before the sun’s heat becomes unbearable in the morning.

DAY 21: FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2011

Another lazy start with a leisurely breakfast. Dan and Cassie went to check emails whilst Wendy went to shower. All dressed, so off we set for the Barać caves. After a little navigating hiccup, we found our way there and set off for the tour. We were told by some nice Dutch couple that the caves were 9°C, we decided to brave it without a jumper. In a small group, with our guide, we headed up to the caves. Hard hat kitted out, we entered the cave and so the tour began. We were told that flashes on our cameras were not allowed, but people continued to use them and eventually our guide banned the use of cameras outright. We managed to get a few pictures though. And I didn’t use the flash I might add. Cave expedition over, and back to camp we headed. Again we did mundane house keeping – clothes washing etc. and then relaxed in the sun. That evening we packed up camp ready for an early rise.