Extract from Julian’s Journeys

The heavy rains of the previous days meant that the streams between the lakes were in full spate and the water was really rushing under some of the Wooden Walkways between the lakes. It also meant that the waterfalls were spectacular, especially the ones that we came across next, the 10 metre high Mali Prstavac and Veliki Prstavac falls on the edge of Lake Galovac.

The lake was full, so the water was just overflowing, pouring down each and every hole it could find in the vegetation, to form a sheet of water that spread along the small escarpment between Galovac and Lake Gradinsko. At this point our route indicators were pointing both ways, so we followed our map instead past Lakes Vir, Veliko and Okrugljak to the southernmost Land Train stop.  Some of these paths were full of water as these lakes were brimming over too.

At the land train stop by the Ladunovac Falls, we had a cappuccino before walking to the southernmost lake, Proscansko, where the path goes across the lake at its shallowest point. The resulting views westwards were of autumnal colours mirrored in Lake Ciginovac.

A strange phenomenon of Plitvice is that people appear suddenly from all directions on paths that you didn’t know existed. This was the case here, as we were admiring the view on our own and then, in the next instant, there were half-a-dozen other people around. But they disappeared again just as quickly and we were left to proceed at our own pace down the western side of the Upper Lakes, through the beech forests, occasionally spying waterfalls through the foliage. The sun was shining, the air was clear and refreshing, and on some of the wooden walkways, the only noise you could hear was the water bubbling and gurgling under your feet as it headed to its next lake.