We had two choices for buses to Krka, one at 8am and one at 10.15am. In the end, we chose the later one because we really needed a sleep in - I for one was getting sick of being woken by alarms! I packed our salads (and sneakily put the rakija in too), Dan grabbed the wine in our sippy cups, we donned our bathers and made our way to the bus station. The town we needed for Krka was Skradin, but this wasn’t listed on any of the signs for Platform 1. Eventually a bus pulled in and we sat in our assigned seats near the front. I wanted to jump off so I could use the ATM, but found myself unable to get off the bus. There was an argument breaking out over the front seat of the bus. Two French women had apparently especially chosen the front two seats so they had a view. A lady was sitting there already. The lady was saying there’s no assigned seats. The driver said there were no assigned seats. The argument continued until the French ladies won.
I managed to quickly jump off for the ATM now but it wouldn’t give me what I wanted, so back on the bus I went. The journey was uneventful after the arguing - it was pretty windy so I had to chew gum to make sure I wasn’t motion sick. About 1.5 hours later, we arrived at Skradin and I asked the driver how to get tickets for the way back. He said either from the river or from the little office - but that’ll probably be closed.
We followed the signs until the ticket office, where we were pushed in front of, then bought our tickets. They weren’t cheap but they were cheaper than if we had come at the peak time of the year! The park is huge, and we didn’t have the means by which to explore the whole thing (namely, a car), and the bit we wanted to see specifically was the waterfall that you can swim in. Therefore, we knew there was a boat to the waterfall at 12pm so when we found the queue, we joined it. Ended up being the last people to be let on, which was a relief as we thought we would have to wait a whole hour for the next boat. Turns out at peak times they just keep the boats rolling, so we wouldn’t have had to wait long, but still - much better to be on our way!
We had to sit inside as all outside chairs were taken, and put on some sunscreen in anticipation of our swim. The waterfall was hidden from view, and once we were off the boat we had to follow a little path. At first we struggled to find a place to set up - everyone just seemed to be leaving their things at the base of the tree roots but I had wanted somewhere were we could also picnic later too. In the end, we just put our things under a tree a small distance from the water and decided to figure out the picnic later.
And so we stripped down to our bathers and made our way to the water’s edge! It was cold but not like Kravice Waterfall in Mostar, but I was also forced to enter the water quickly as there was a queue behind me! It was not deep here, there were lots of rocks but with sandy bits in between. The water was so clear, we could see everything. Dan kept his glasses on this time and I had my contacts in, so neither of us put our heads under the water this time.
We waded out to the "photo" spot, and took a few ourselves. It isn’t quite as beautiful as Plitvice Lakes, or as large, but it was still damn beautiful! Especially able to be in it was spectacular. There was a rope stopping people from being able to get into the waterfall (it was pretty hard flowing) so I was happy I had climbed all over the waterfall at Kravice.
As we were hogging the photo spot, a lady offered to take our photo on our GoPro. I went to offer to take hers but her phone wasn't waterproof and I didn't feel comfortable doing that…I think she was a little disappointed but I’d rather her disappointment at not having a photo than me dropping it in the water.
We found a rock in the water to sit on. From here, we witnessed some dragonflies mating and watched the sky change as the sun popped in and out from behind the clouds - it wasn't really that cold now, either. We paddled over to the edge of the waterfall - you could get close to the corner of it, and took some more photos I loved putting my hands in the water flowing down the rocks - it was gushing very strongly and made a lot of bubbles.
By now we were hungry and it was time for lunch. A flat spot with a lovely view and a tree stump for a chair came available so we nabbed it for our picnic. Ever industrious, we drank the glass of wine we had packed in our sippy cups and ate our salad which was actually quite tasty in the end! We also shuddered our way through the rather terrible rakija I had sneakily packed.
We wanted one more dip in the water, and to explore the right hand side this time. We nicknamed it the “mangrove swamp” as there were more trees and tree roots in the water over that side, as well as being a fraction shallower. We found another rock to perch ourselves on which covered us up to about our shoulders, and watched the world go by. When we started to get a little cold, it was time to jump out. In all, it was beautiful sitting here in the waterfall. It’s what we had come to do - basically the only reason we had come to Croatia at all. It was probably a far greater expense than necessary but whatever - I enjoyed it and I think Dan did too.
There’s a path around the outside and up around the waterfall which takes about an hour. It was beautiful seeing all the different trainees and pools, all different colours depending on the light, the depth and whatever was growing in the water. There was some wildlife too - we saw some baby duckies and some froggies sitting on lilypads. I sad myself down in the middle of the path to take piccies of some of the beautiful deep blue dragonflies that inhabit this area. As we started to make our descent, I saw some people crowded around a corner and realised there were some super teeny weeny kitties there! When we walked down the path, we found a third kitten, who got a little frightened and joined the other two who were playfighting.
We took some photos and they let us pat them - even their little paws! I love kitten paws. They were all playing rough with each other, and maybe only a few weeks old.
At this point, it got a little less pleasant. When I stepped back from the kitties, something landed on my arm. As I went to brush it away, I felt an intense stinging pain in my forearm, which spread down to my hand and up my elbow. "FUCK something sting me!” I shouted loudly, and in front of children. It really, really hurt. I think what bit me was yellow and green, and may have been a horsefly. My initial reaction was that it was a bee or a wasp as I’ve never been stung by either of these, and is something I’m pretty phobic about.
Within minutes a lump had appeared and there was a stabbing, tingly pain every time I moved my arm. I wasn't particularly happy about this. Over the remainder of the walk, the pain began to dissipate a bit, which was a relief.
By now it was time to go back to Split, so we went back to the boat ramp. There was a big queue here - we thought the boats would be going constantly like they were that morning, but found out that the next boat wasn’t until 4.30pm. We managed to position ourselves close to the front, my arm still bothering me a bit, so that when the boat finally let us on (they were all standing there just watching us all for half an hour), we got ourselves some seats with a nice view out the front. Unfortunately the seats were possibly the most uncomfortable flip seats I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing, but at least we had leg room - the people behind us could barely even lower the flip seats! Rather hilarious, really.
The boat landed at 4.50pm and we legged it back to the bus station - the bus we wanted left at 5pm. We got there to be greeting by quite a crowd. And we waited. One bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Some people got on, minimising the crowd. Another bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Again, this thinned the crowd a bit. A third bus came - also not for Split. This was getting ridiculous, as the next bus was meant to be there at 6.10pm. The crowd had thinned but was now expanding again - for those who intended to get the 6.10 bus. Finally a bus to Split arrived, almost completely full.
Dan and I were pretty close to the front of the surge, and it seemed to take forever but we finally managed to buy 2 tickets and hop on board. We took the last 2 seats next to each other. We sat here til 6pm as the bus kept letting people on - although there wasn’t enough seating space for everyone, because each bus is run by a different company so they probably wanted to try to take the business of the 6.10pm bus.
We finally made it back into Split at about 7.30pm. We went to dinner on the foreshore at a place that was supposed to be a cheap eat but turned out to be pretty expensive. I had a seafood risotto which meant I had to shell the prawns (not a fan of this) and some nice beers. Even though it wasn’t quite what we expected, it was still lovely sitting out on the terrace in the lovely Mediterranean night air. No partying for us - back to the accommodation as we had - you guessed it - an early train to catch in the morning.
Back at the accommodation, I cooked the salad (as Dan calls it!), we packed and called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
I managed to quickly jump off for the ATM now but it wouldn’t give me what I wanted, so back on the bus I went. The journey was uneventful after the arguing - it was pretty windy so I had to chew gum to make sure I wasn’t motion sick. About 1.5 hours later, we arrived at Skradin and I asked the driver how to get tickets for the way back. He said either from the river or from the little office - but that’ll probably be closed.
We followed the signs until the ticket office, where we were pushed in front of, then bought our tickets. They weren’t cheap but they were cheaper than if we had come at the peak time of the year! The park is huge, and we didn’t have the means by which to explore the whole thing (namely, a car), and the bit we wanted to see specifically was the waterfall that you can swim in. Therefore, we knew there was a boat to the waterfall at 12pm so when we found the queue, we joined it. Ended up being the last people to be let on, which was a relief as we thought we would have to wait a whole hour for the next boat. Turns out at peak times they just keep the boats rolling, so we wouldn’t have had to wait long, but still - much better to be on our way!
We had to sit inside as all outside chairs were taken, and put on some sunscreen in anticipation of our swim. The waterfall was hidden from view, and once we were off the boat we had to follow a little path. At first we struggled to find a place to set up - everyone just seemed to be leaving their things at the base of the tree roots but I had wanted somewhere were we could also picnic later too. In the end, we just put our things under a tree a small distance from the water and decided to figure out the picnic later.
And so we stripped down to our bathers and made our way to the water’s edge! It was cold but not like Kravice Waterfall in Mostar, but I was also forced to enter the water quickly as there was a queue behind me! It was not deep here, there were lots of rocks but with sandy bits in between. The water was so clear, we could see everything. Dan kept his glasses on this time and I had my contacts in, so neither of us put our heads under the water this time.
We waded out to the "photo" spot, and took a few ourselves. It isn’t quite as beautiful as Plitvice Lakes, or as large, but it was still damn beautiful! Especially able to be in it was spectacular. There was a rope stopping people from being able to get into the waterfall (it was pretty hard flowing) so I was happy I had climbed all over the waterfall at Kravice.
As we were hogging the photo spot, a lady offered to take our photo on our GoPro. I went to offer to take hers but her phone wasn't waterproof and I didn't feel comfortable doing that…I think she was a little disappointed but I’d rather her disappointment at not having a photo than me dropping it in the water.
We found a rock in the water to sit on. From here, we witnessed some dragonflies mating and watched the sky change as the sun popped in and out from behind the clouds - it wasn't really that cold now, either. We paddled over to the edge of the waterfall - you could get close to the corner of it, and took some more photos I loved putting my hands in the water flowing down the rocks - it was gushing very strongly and made a lot of bubbles.
By now we were hungry and it was time for lunch. A flat spot with a lovely view and a tree stump for a chair came available so we nabbed it for our picnic. Ever industrious, we drank the glass of wine we had packed in our sippy cups and ate our salad which was actually quite tasty in the end! We also shuddered our way through the rather terrible rakija I had sneakily packed.
We wanted one more dip in the water, and to explore the right hand side this time. We nicknamed it the “mangrove swamp” as there were more trees and tree roots in the water over that side, as well as being a fraction shallower. We found another rock to perch ourselves on which covered us up to about our shoulders, and watched the world go by. When we started to get a little cold, it was time to jump out. In all, it was beautiful sitting here in the waterfall. It’s what we had come to do - basically the only reason we had come to Croatia at all. It was probably a far greater expense than necessary but whatever - I enjoyed it and I think Dan did too.
There’s a path around the outside and up around the waterfall which takes about an hour. It was beautiful seeing all the different trainees and pools, all different colours depending on the light, the depth and whatever was growing in the water. There was some wildlife too - we saw some baby duckies and some froggies sitting on lilypads. I sad myself down in the middle of the path to take piccies of some of the beautiful deep blue dragonflies that inhabit this area. As we started to make our descent, I saw some people crowded around a corner and realised there were some super teeny weeny kitties there! When we walked down the path, we found a third kitten, who got a little frightened and joined the other two who were playfighting.
We took some photos and they let us pat them - even their little paws! I love kitten paws. They were all playing rough with each other, and maybe only a few weeks old.
At this point, it got a little less pleasant. When I stepped back from the kitties, something landed on my arm. As I went to brush it away, I felt an intense stinging pain in my forearm, which spread down to my hand and up my elbow. "FUCK something sting me!” I shouted loudly, and in front of children. It really, really hurt. I think what bit me was yellow and green, and may have been a horsefly. My initial reaction was that it was a bee or a wasp as I’ve never been stung by either of these, and is something I’m pretty phobic about.
Within minutes a lump had appeared and there was a stabbing, tingly pain every time I moved my arm. I wasn't particularly happy about this. Over the remainder of the walk, the pain began to dissipate a bit, which was a relief.
By now it was time to go back to Split, so we went back to the boat ramp. There was a big queue here - we thought the boats would be going constantly like they were that morning, but found out that the next boat wasn’t until 4.30pm. We managed to position ourselves close to the front, my arm still bothering me a bit, so that when the boat finally let us on (they were all standing there just watching us all for half an hour), we got ourselves some seats with a nice view out the front. Unfortunately the seats were possibly the most uncomfortable flip seats I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing, but at least we had leg room - the people behind us could barely even lower the flip seats! Rather hilarious, really.
The boat landed at 4.50pm and we legged it back to the bus station - the bus we wanted left at 5pm. We got there to be greeting by quite a crowd. And we waited. One bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Some people got on, minimising the crowd. Another bus came, we all surged forward, but it wasn’t going to Split. Again, this thinned the crowd a bit. A third bus came - also not for Split. This was getting ridiculous, as the next bus was meant to be there at 6.10pm. The crowd had thinned but was now expanding again - for those who intended to get the 6.10 bus. Finally a bus to Split arrived, almost completely full.
Dan and I were pretty close to the front of the surge, and it seemed to take forever but we finally managed to buy 2 tickets and hop on board. We took the last 2 seats next to each other. We sat here til 6pm as the bus kept letting people on - although there wasn’t enough seating space for everyone, because each bus is run by a different company so they probably wanted to try to take the business of the 6.10pm bus.
We finally made it back into Split at about 7.30pm. We went to dinner on the foreshore at a place that was supposed to be a cheap eat but turned out to be pretty expensive. I had a seafood risotto which meant I had to shell the prawns (not a fan of this) and some nice beers. Even though it wasn’t quite what we expected, it was still lovely sitting out on the terrace in the lovely Mediterranean night air. No partying for us - back to the accommodation as we had - you guessed it - an early train to catch in the morning.
Back at the accommodation, I cooked the salad (as Dan calls it!), we packed and called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
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