Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

I took these photos about 5 years ago in Croatia at Plitvice National Park located between Zegrab and Zadar in central Croatia.

"The national park is world famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. Currently, 16 lakes can be seen from the surface.  These lakes are a result of the confluence of several small rivers and subterranean karst rivers. The lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of mossalgae, bacteria [and a high concentration of calcium in the water]. The particularly sensitive travertine barriers are the result of an interplay between water, air and plants. The encrusted plants and bacteria accumulate on top of each other, forming travertine barriers which grow at the rate of about 1 cm per year."


The park is one of the first natural sites to be included UNESCO World Heritage register and has over a million visitors very year.  Although my pictures look like I was the only one there, that was not the case at all.  I did a lot of walking that day and a lot of tourist dodging.  On the edge of a few of the lakes the fish, which were as large as 30cm., would sit near the surface, near the shore and float, waiting for bugs and other insects to pick off.  This is definitely one of the coolest natural beautiful landscapes I have visited.

1 comment:

  1. I have been to Plitvice Lakes once with my wife and son and we loved that place. We have stayed in Miric Pension and everything was ok :)