Water Music

Today I'm on a quest for some sunny day photos - it's been a crepuscular world here for at least a week. I decided to revisit this lovely day trip in nature, undertaken on our tour in Croatia last spring. This is the incomparable Plitvice Lakes National Park, blessed with 90 waterfalls and sixteen lakes. Words fail.

No brain-breaking architectural research today, just the memory of trickling and rushing water and lush green and blue nature everywhere. Paths throughout the park, causeways and boardwalks bring you into close communion with this healthgiving place. Dense forest of beech and fir surround you.

I've labelled a few photos and included links to a couple of videos, but as they say in the guided tour business, this is your free time. Wander at will. Meet me here later.

Plitvice Park is a UESCO World Heritage experience, with over 90 waterfalls of varying heights and effects, from curtains to tapestries. 

natural travertine dams caused by mineral-rich water

Veliki Slap - Lower Lakes' Great Wsterfall

The UNESCO website explains what I'm not doing very well. And Rick Steves weighs in here, including an incident from the 1991 war, a heart-breaking juxtapostion with all this beauty about.

our tour manager Michael and a hesitant fellow traveller

Some of the rustic boardwalks had railings, others, more floating causeways had me wondering how often visitors just stepped off them, distracted by the beauty around them.

I read that the lakes' colour changes between turquoise, green and azure due to a high calcium carbonate content, originating in the surrounding limestone. Sunlight reflects on the water, and moss and algae contribute to the light play, as does water depth, weather and the angle of the light.

Electric boats traversed the lake we circumnavigated like taxis, offering a unique trip to the next dock and a new trail.

Here's a link to an eight-minute video orientation to Plitvice Lakes. The background information, omitted in this post, is there for you. At the two-minute mark, the video walking tour begins (holy moly.) It's worth the watch to enjoy the sounds of water music, which I have no good way of sharing with you.  Adjectives can only do so much. 

If you want to see more, there are dozens of good videos of varying lengths on YouTube.

Now, for the final antidote to today's cloudiness. To just get back there.