Plitvice Again, Plus Rastoke

Today, I went back to Plitvice National Park, but this time I used the other entrance, Entrance 2, rather than the one I used yesterday, Entrance 1. After leaving the park, I visited the small village of Rastoke.

I think this will be a relatively short post, despite it being a full-day, rather than a half-day entry, because I spent several hours of the day enjoying natural beauty.

The truth is, I lack the necessary skills to wax poetic about scenic grandeur. Or about pretty much everything, for that matter.

I considered trying to paraffin poetic, but I think it lacks the allure of waxing poetic.

Besides, lots of words rhyme with wax. Tax. Racks. Hacks. Backs. Lax. Max (the name) and max (short for maximum). Sax. Fax. Vax. And I could probably go on, but why bother?

However, I can’t, off the top of my head, think of any real words that legitimately rhyme with paraffin. The closest my mind is coming, which is not close at all, is “muffin” or “puffin.” All the rhyming they achieve is the “ffin” sound at the and, which hardly counts. So how would anyone even go about paraffining poetic?

Sometimes I worry that I don’t have a firm grasp of literary styles and forms. But enough about that.

Plitvice National Park, Again

If you read yesterday’s post, you may recall that when I entered Plitvice National Park through Entrance 1 to walk around some trails and visit the Grand Falls, aka the Veliki slap, I found myself among half the world’s population. They swarmed the place also hoping to view the Veliki slap. Of course, if you didn’t read yesterday’s post you won’t recall that. However, the first two sentences of this paragraph provide a decent recap of the relevant information. So you can go back and read the rest later.

Alright. For the benefit of the sticklers among you, I readily admit that I exaggerated in saying that it was half the world’s population. Probably only a quarter of civilization was there yesterday. And I don’t know what portion of the world’s uncivilized people came.

The point is, a lot of people were there yesterday. Too many.

As I mentioned in the introductory paragraph, today, I went to Entrance 2. It’s farther from the Grand falls and close to the head of some trails around the upper lakes of the park.

My hope was, because it’s farther from the main attraction, the crowds would be much thinner. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes wishes do come true. Today was my day.

During most of the time on my walks today, I saw only a smattering of people. People being smattered is not a pleasant sight, but what can you do?

I crossed paths with a couple of tour groups being led along the trails, but only a couple of them during the whole five or so hours I was there. So that was easily bearable.

Ferries

Getting to the start of the upper lake trails from Entrance 2 requires taking a ferry across the narrow width of a lake. The slow, electrically powered ferry completed the trip in a minute or two.

I then walked a couple of trails that, together, took me in a circle back to the ferry dock.

From there, I took another ferry of the same variety, but this one travelled the length of the lake rather than the width. That took me to the ferry dock that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. In contrast to the long line of people I saw waiting to go in the other direction yesterday, fewer than a dozen people rode on the ferry with me.

When I arrived at the dock at the other end of the lake, more people were waiting to go the other way than came in on the ferry I was on, but not nearly as many as yesterday. I think the time of day had something to do with that.

From that ferry dock, rather than head to the crowds that likely swarmed near Entrance 1 again today, I took a path that I thought led to a trail running near the lakeshore and back to Entrance 2.

It turns out it led to a road used occasionally by a shuttle bus the park runs, not a trail. But it did, indeed, lead back to Entrance 2. And it goes through a nice, forested area. I would have preferred a trail, but I encountered only one of the shuttle busses and the forest is scenic. So, all good.

Scenic Majesty

Due to the aforementioned lack of skill, I won’t attempt to wax poetic about the scenic majesty of the upper lakes trails. But I will say that it is gorgeous. I walked by rivers, streams, lakes, hills, and mountains, and lots and lots of trees. The waterfalls weren’t as tall as the Veliki slap, but they had a grandeur to them nonetheless. And, unlike with the Grand falls, the viewing points weren’t at all crowded. And one of the paths today took me up close and personal with the side of one of a waterfall between one upper lake and a less upper, but still upper lake.

I have probably seen a few paintings by the late Canadian artist, Tom Thomson, and even more reproductions of his work. But I’m not an expert in his work, or even close to one, so it might be a misperception on my part. But looking at the blending of trees, lakes, hills and mountains led me to think that this is exactly the sort of location that Thomson would seek out as the subject for one of his paintings. If he visited Croatia. And if he were still alive. And if he weren’t too busy painting “Moose at Night.” (Sorry. That last one is an inside joke. A couple of readers will get it.)

For most of the way along the trails, the music of water serenaded me. Brooks babbled. Streams gurgled. Rapids roared. And waterfalls thundered.

Wait. Did that take a baby step into poetic waxing territory? I’ll accept kudos if it did.

In place of an attempt at waxing any more poetic about the natural beauty, I posted immediately below a small selection of the pictures I took today in Plitvice National Park. When you finish looking at them, please keep scrolling down. This post isn’t quite finished yet. Almost, but not quite.

Rastoke

When I checked out of my hotel in Split, the desk clerk there asked me where I was heading next. When I told her Plitvice, she said something to the effect of, “Oh, then you have to visit Rastoke. It’s a beautiful, fixed-up old village by a river. And it’s close to Plitvice.”

I had no other information about Rastoke, but based on that recommendation, I went.

Rastoke is only about a half-hour drive from Plitvice National Park. And after more than five hours in the park, I was ready to leave. How much glorious landscape can one curmudgeon stand? So, off I went to Rastoke.

Rastoke is inside the Town of Slunj, which itself, is probably better classified as a village. Rastokee is the old part of it, which is beside a little river with a couple of low waterfalls. Rastoke is definitely of village size, if that. Maybe a hamlet.

The few buildings in Rastoke are of dark-stained log construction. I think they spiffed up this section of town solely for tourists. The buildings contain a restaurant and souvenir shop and I think a few other things.

Touristy though it may be, it is quite attractive and it’s in a very rustically scenic setting. Rastoke was very nice, but enough said.

Tomorrow, the car, road, and health gods, blessed be they, willing, I will drive to Zagreb, Croatia, where I will drop off the rental car. But I’m thinking of making a detour to take in a site before turning in the car. We’ll see how that goes.