Zadar's Natural Beauty – Krka River Falls
By Lilliam and Larry Larsen
Visiting Zadar is like walking back through layers of time and history. From pre-historic times to Roman ruins to 16th century walls by the Venetians, this Croatian city offers more history
than many of the cities bordering the Adriatic Sea. But to us, the natural outdoors beauty is what attracted us to visit this destination.
Many of our fellow Celebrity
Cruise ship passengers simply disembarked at the seaport and walked around town, enjoying the local flavor of the people, food and architecture. However, we donned our sunglasses, hats and
sunscreen and headed to the gorgeous outdoors.
We chose a tour that would enable us to spend 5 hours or so visiting the famous and beautiful
Krka National Park. Krka was created in 1985 primarily for scientific, cultural and educational purposes, and tourism was introduced just recently. After a
one hour scenic bus ride through the hilly country side, we arrived at the main parking area. It's obvious that the original plans for the pristine park did not include large tour buses as the 1 1/2 lane wide road leading down a mountain to the parking spot had to be carefully negotiated by the
bus drivers traveling in each direction!
The ecologically and geographically
diverse park can only be seen by walking up and down trails over rocks, catwalks, bridges and well-marked paths, so wear comfortable shoes. The
trails offering a thorough exploration of the grounds and natural gypsum waterways are at least a couple of miles long. Various wooden and rocky footpaths lead directly to several
waterfalls, souvenir shops, boat trips, a museum and a restaurant.
We would categorize these trails
as "moderate" to "severe" activity in several places, and many of the older travelers or those with some mobility concerns in our group had difficulty climbing some of the
steps and/or navigating through rough areas throughout. Many of the trails did not have handrails and, if a visitor is not careful, they could easily step off and down into dangerous
terrain or even into large pools
of water bordering some the trails. Small lakes, rivulets, sinks
(where water seemed to funnel down a hole in the limestone) and other wetland areas made for a unique flora community.
One of the most attractive and
popular parts of the park is Skrakinski Buk, a large clear natural pool with the beautiful 150-foot high waterfalls at one end and many-tiered travertine (limestone) cascades at the lower end. The pool is formed by the Skradinski Falls, the lowest of the 17 sets of waterfalls along the
Krka River. I wish we had brought our bathing suits and that
the air temperature had been slightly warmer! There were many families and adults enjoying the cool water, and we certainly
would have had plenty of time to do so ourselves. The clear waters might have been a bit cold, but it would have been worth it.
There are also several archaeological remains of ancient
fortresses, not restored, dating back to the Roman times, an old mill and a museum, but we did not have time to visit them. We did enjoy the diverse bird and fish
life that was abundant throughout the Park. This is not only a Croatia natural wonder, it is a beautiful natural wonder along the Adriatic.
For more information on Zadar Croatia and Krka National Park, visit http://www.npkrka.hr and
the Croatia National Tourist Board at http://croatia.hr/en-GB/Homepage.
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