Croatia 4th October Plitvice Lakes National Park

We had spent a very comfortable night in Pansion House Prijeboj  just south of the Plitvice Park entrance. The owner had a tank where he kept trout and had cooked us one for our dinner that was so fresh it was almost flapping! Delicious.
Our last excursions were to be to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Croatia is the place for lakes and waterfalls.
As it is so large we had decided to take two days over it as the park can be easily divided into upper and lower areas.
The lakes lie in a descending string linked by waterfalls that cascade over travertine ledges. It is a karst system like Krka Park.
The first day we explored the lower lakes, coming in by the north entrance. It was pretty busy with lots of tourists, mainly Japanese.
The entrance to the lower lakes lies above the lakes and you get an aerial view over to the waterfalls on the other side.
Here is a map of the walk we (roughly) took. The water is flowing north. After walking up the lake system you can catch a boat to take you back nearer the entrance. There was a long queue for the boats but, as I was always lagging behind, Anne had got there before me and I did not have to wait long.

We almost immediately saw a sign for a cave system, Supljara, which is actually a large sink hole rather than a cave. The path leads down an extreme number of steps to a lake at the bottom and the entrance to a cave.

We were surprised to see the ubiquitous wedding party at the bottom, having come in from the lakeside rather than climbing down the stairs.

We paid a quick visit in to the cave which had the weirdest concretions coming down from the roof. Anne nearly knocked herself out on one as we were bumbling around in the dark! That would have been hard to explain away!

The rest of the day was spent doing a circular tour of the lower lakes, stopping for a coffee and eating the lunch we had packed to bring. I did have the tripod with me for the slow water shots and Anne was very patient. The water is crystal clear, almost aquamarine in colour and packed with fish. The park is very rich in flora and fauna containing 321 species of butterflies and moths, sundew, lady's slipper orchid, and several very large mammals, brown bear, wolf, lynx and wild boar as only part of it's diversity.We saw a large hairy caterpillar crossing the road, I hope it was looking for somewhere to form it's chrysalis.

I am posting a selection of pictures taken through the day, ending with the park's 'Great Waterfall'.

We went back to our pension but realised we had no wine left, so we drove for about 5 miles south till we came to the nearest small town. Unfortunately we had forgotten it was Sunday and the shops were closed. Not to be put off we went into a garage which had a small grocery supply. The man behind the counter had his hand on the bottle almost as we entered the premises. He must have read the look of desperation on our faces!