A Natural Wonder, Krka National Park

Zagan the motorhome is in shock, he’s never seen the like of this place. He’s parked up next to the sea (of course) at Camping Solaris Beach Resort (N43.69943, E15.87959) and he cannot get over the size of the place. The camping area alone is bigger than anything he’s stayed on, but there are also apartments, a marina, numerous holiday cabins, a wellness centre, a couple of supermarkets and a few of the obligatory tat shops, a water park, mini golf (and full sized golf) not to mention the five hotels and numerous restaurants and bars!

In total contrast Camping Krka where we stopped last night had a restaurant and a shower block and that was about it, but that was still more than we needed. I woke early this morning, wanting to hit the Krka National Park before it got too hot. Luckily the weather was on my side, and pulling back the curtains we were greeted with a thin layer of cloud. As the park was only a couple of kilometres from the campsite we were there by 9.30am which we thought was early for a Sunday – not so if the number of coaches rolling in was anything to go by.

The sun was now out, so we parked under the shade of a tree and joined the queue to pay, only one window was open which was also selling tickets to the coaches, and when I say tickets I mean not one per coach, one per person, so the poor tour reps had fistfuls of them. As the people before us left the serving window an Austrian coach pulled up and the tour rep walked straight up with a wad of Euros and with us bristling behind him started trying to buy tickets. How big were our smiles when the lady said they didn’t take Euros? While he headed off to find a credit card, we nipped in and bought our tickets, which for some reason were only 50kn (£5) each, when the sign on the window said it was 110kn.

Having previously visited the Plitvice National Park we knew pretty much what to expect, and Krka didn’t disappoint, in fact I think I preferred it. It might because it wasn’t as sweltering hot, it was still quiet enough to find a place to yourself and wasn’t a massive long walk (as Charlie needs carrying a lot of it due to his fear of loud noises, water, bridges, crowds etc), however we only visited a tiny part of the 109km² area.

We spent three and half hours walking around the paths and taking in the views, the vivid greens and blues felt like someone had turned up the colour on the TV. There was a small centre showing you how they used the water the soften wool and mill corn, which was interesting but I suspect more crowded than it should be as it provided a nice bit of shade.

A coachload of American teenagers stripped to tiny bikinis or shorts to swim and squeal under the waterfalls, part of me wanted to go in there with them. After having been under a waterfall in Bosnia though, I know what a pummelling they can give, so I opted to stay dry.

I’ll make no apology for the rest of today’s post being just photos. We took hundreds of them as everywhere you turned there was more water showing its natural force in the most beautiful way. Charlie is fast asleep as I type this and I won’t be far behind him. If you are over this way, you need to visit Krka or Plitvice, you won’t be disappointed.

Ju x