We had a wonderful day today exploring Krka National Park. It was a day of waterfalls, a beautiful monastery, and lots of steps (over 26,000 according to my fitbit).
We started the day with a coffee and yogurt in the room, then walked to the coffee shop/bakery by the bus station to pick up a coffee and sandwiches for lunch later. Our mini van picked us up shortly after 8 and we were on the road for Krka National Park. The park is enormous, extending from the Adriatic near ibenik to the mountains of the interior. We drove for about 20 minutes from ibenik, and then walked for about two hours, walking on boardwalks past the Krka River and passing waterfall after waterfall, and climbing lots of steps.
When we got to the park about 8:30 we were the only ones around, which amazed Tamara as she says it is usually packed with people. Maybe because the forecast was for rain, it wasnt as busy as usual.
It was a very enjoyable walk, passing so many beautiful views. It was cloudy but there was no rain (it ended up not raining the entire day, except for a teeny bit
of light rain later in the evening). We were very happy it turned out much better than expected. Tamara told us on the ride to Krka that she had good news, the trip to the Kornati Islands tomorrow is a go! We all were very happy to hear that.
As we were finishing up our walk and waiting for our mini van, several big tour buses in, so we were really happy that we had avoided these big crowds. As we were walking up to meet the mini van, we stopped at a table where a vendor was selling dried figs and nuts and candied orange peel, and got a little container of almonds and candied orange. Candied orange peel seems to be a speciality of this area of Croatia, and is really good.
In the mini van driving to our next stop, we each other photos we had taken (this reminded me of doing the same thing in Morocco). We made a stop first to a viewpoint of Visovac Island, in the middle of Visovac Lake. The island is teeny, and contains a monastery and a church. It is very picturesque.
continued to another beautiful area of the park, this time walking down over 600 steps to the Krka river (thankfully we were not walking up!), for more beautiful views. We had our lunches at a picnic table by the river. On the way down to the river, we stopped at Ozidana Pecina Cave, which is a Neolithic era cave, also known for being a home to bats. We did see one bat flying away, but we were suspicious the other bat which was just hanging out on the ceiling might have been a prop (since it didnt fly away when we were close – but it did seem to be moving slightly so maybe it was a real bat). Anyway, it was an interesting cave to see.
This area where we had lunch was where the Krka Hydro Dam was located, which was the second hydro dam of its type in the world (the first was at Niagara Falls – put into operation only two days before the Krka Hydro Dam). The Krka Hydro Dam was in operation until World War I.
We continued on to the Krka Monastery, which is a Serbian Orthodox monastery. The oldest part dates back to the 4th C, and the newer part is from the 18th C. It was founded in 1346, and is dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It is very beautiful inside, with bright frescoes (these were repainted around 2010) and 17th C. icons. There are under the church, which we saw as well. Legend has it that St. Paul visited this church.
We left the park and drove back to ibenik, arriving about 4 pm. We dropped into St. James Cathedral, because we werent able to go inside during our walking tour the other day as there was a wedding going on. It is very impressive inside, although there was scaffolding up around the stained glass rose window, so we couldnt get a good view of it. After the cathedral, Susan and I left the others and walked through the old town streets, up lots and lots of stairs, to St. Michaels Fortress.
