We had another unexpectedly good breakfast this morning. Our hotel isn’t very big, and the breakfast/dining room is equally small. But they managed to put together a pretty good spread. Lots of cheese and charcuterie, several kinds of granola and other cereals, multiple kinds of juices that were really good, yogurts, fruit, etc. I wasn’t expecting it, but it was really good. So we left for the park full and ready for the day.

This is the dry season and it’s pretty obvious all over the park. Many waterfalls are completely dry and the usually green moss has gone brown. Others are still flowing, but at an extremely reduced capacity. We got some good advice from our hotel and started our loop in the middle. We parked near entrance 2 and immediately took the tram up to the top of the park (tram stop 3) and started walking the waterfalls from there.

After walking the whole top area, we took the boat back to entrance 2 (where we started) and then walked around the lakes down to the big waterfall before walking up through the cave and then back to our car. All in all, we walked about 7.5 miles inside the park. I guess it was a good thing we had such a good breakfast.

Trade-offs

The waterfalls were pretty and we could imagine how much more amazing they could be when water levels are high, but there’s always a trade-off with national parks like this. Do you plan your visit for the “best” amount of water and the most tourists in your way? Do you come during the off season when you can move freely through the park, but may not see it at its full glory? Or do you just visit when you can, because that’s when you have time to take the trip? That’s what we did, and it happened to correspond to the off-season. But you know what was really cool? Being able to see all the fall colors in the park. The reflections of fall colors on the tops of the blue green lakes was pretty neat. I think I would have preferred to see more water, but I wasn’t upset to have this be how I got to experience it.

After leaving the park, we drove on to our next adventure near Krka National Park. We arrived at our hotel around 4 pm and didn’t want to waste any time, so we dropped off our stuff, changed into swimsuits and headed to the nearest beach.

Rezalište Beach

Rezalište Beach was exactly what we expected it to be. Gravel above and below the water line. We all got out there. The water was pretty nice, but the air was already getting pretty cool. That didn’t stop Katie from swimming with me out to the buoys marking the edge of the swimming zone (about 100 yards out from shore). We wore our flip-flops out into the water to protect our feet from all the gravel and other rocks, so we had to put them on our hands and use them as very poor hand paddles while swimming. We didn’t have goggles, but the sea water didn’t make my eyes hurt much. The biggest surprise was that my shoulder didn’t hurt. Could it be that I have finally strengthened it enough that I can start swimming again? That would be amazing.

We went back to the hotel to wash off the salt water before heading to dinner. We walked to a local place with really good reviews (1300+ reviews and a 4.8 star average rating). Sadly, our expectations were way too high. There were some really good parts to the meal, but there was also a whole lot that needed work. For example, the “tomato salad” was just a bowl of sliced tomatoes with no seasoning, dressing, or anything else. The cabbage salad was similarly sparse. The “specialty” that Charmaine and Jess both ordered was anything but special. So we were a bit disappointed, but still went away happy.

After dinner it was getting dark, but we walked around the small town here, hoping to find a gelateria that was still open. We had no such luck, but we did wind up hiking up to the “fortress” that overlooks the town. There wasn’t much there other than a decent view. After that we headed back to the hotel for the night.