Plitvicki 2026

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20260906

The faint sound of partying drifted up from the street below the room window until some wee hour of the morning without disturbing me. I heard a text message arrive which served as a good wakeup call. An hour later with breakfast eaten and everything packed I walked to the bus stop for heading to the airport to rent a car. My watch and phone reported 7AM while the clock on the bus displayed 8AM which had me scratching my head; how could the bus clock and my phone be off by an hour? I pondered if it had something to do with a daylight savings. In the end the bus clock was wrong. (Another example of the 95%/5% rule.) On this Sunday morning bus ride, the city was quiet. A few older gentlemen were out with newspapers in hand and likely seeking a coffee at their favorite haunts. Several people boarded the bus with luggage.

It's amazing how quickly one can pull the curtain back to gain a little local knowledge. I'd been in Zagreb a day and half but was able to help someone navigate the bus fare. The unfamiliarity of new places sometimes holds us back or leads us to seek the security of a tour group. A little stepping outside comfort zones can be rewarding. (Boy, it helps that most folks speak English!)

The young woman at the airport car rental spoke English very well. She shared it was a requirement for everybody to learn in school starting on the first day. We had a pleasant exchange as she prepared the paperwork. She was emphatic that taking a car into the old city of Dubrovnik would result in a €2,000 fine advising strongly against it.

I've occassionally asked questions or guidance and received gruff short uninformative responses. Checking into my room when asking for a reference on a nearby grocery store, he said they are all over, but the ones further away from the center of town are cheaper. Then he told me do a Google search. Sigh...I was hoping for a personal touch. Today, the rental car attendant out in the parking lot handed me the keys pointed to the car and walked away. Humorously, a second attendant walked past as I was looking the car over and said, "You can't park the car there, move it." Say what? When I informed him I was picking the car up, he said, "oh, ok." I have found that if you can continue to chat, they warm up wonderfully.

I'm finding driving in Croatia a bit challenging. I didn't follow Google directions properly and found myself on a tollway - darn! (I think I said some other non-PG words.) Fortunately it was only a 13km diversion costing €1. The Google app provides the speedlimit. The car rented also displays the speedlimit. It starts beeping if you exceed it by 2kph. It turns this "feature" on every time the car is restarted. Now maybe in American this wouldn't a big deal but this is beyond a nuisance here. The speed limit often changes every few hundred feet. No lie. On the local roads a town starts, then ends, and almost immediately the next town starts. The speed limit drops to 30-50 kph then increases to 70-90kph and then immediately drops back. Before slowing the car down the car speedlimit beeper starts going off. You say why not just go the slower speed all the time? Because like in American there is always someone behind determined to do 10, 20, 30 kph over the speed limit. There I am trying to take in other cars, the signage, speedlimit signs, and scenery and instead am stressing over the whites of the person's eyes behind as their radiator is smooching my rear bumper. Another funny element is that between my interpretation of the speedlimit (there are special rules here), the cars posted speedlimit and Google, the three of us rarely agree! It marked a milestone when we all aligned. One last thing on driving - motorcycles. It is a Sunday and I imagine they are out in force today for pleasure. They speed and they pass with little regard to oncoming traffic and passing restrictions. I tried to just give them as much of my lane as I could.

I stopped in Karlovac thinking I might visit the aquarium there; I didn't. Instead I enjoyed a coffee on a plaza and purchased some bread and a pastry. Ned, if you are reading this, it meets your definition of a superior croissant - dough flakes everywhere! The name of the bakery is Pekara Tržnica. I found a public toilet at the local swimming hole on the Korana river that flows through town. There is a seriously high diving platform and some water play structures in this barely flowing clear river. Folks were sunbathing and swimming in the rapidly climbing temperature. In my short walk about town, I must have come across almost a dozen patio cafes filled with people. Some opened onto streets with several opening onto public parks with mature shade trees. It was peaceful, social, and lingering. I value the lifestyle.

My observation of the demographics are of a population equally weighted with children, young adults, families, and the elderly. The striking part are all the young people, babies, and pregnant women. Wikipedia reports that Croatia's population is declining as in most of the rest of the world. I wouldn't have guessed that from all the protruding bellies I've seen.

I continued southwesterly from Karlovac and somewhat randomly decided to stop in a place called Slunj/Rastoke. It was the crumbling castle that formed the catalyst. Such dumb luck! I got to stretch my legs about half way to my target destination for the day and found a placard in English showing a set of trails along the river Slunj. The two towns are at the confluence of the Slunj and Korana. The Slunj is unique in that it flows both above ground and underground through dissolved limestone passages. Where it emerges at the confluence a massive tufa mound has formed. This mound is almost hidden from view because of the vegetation and the homes built on it. It brought a smile to me as I remembered the tufa mounds I've experienced in Turkey and on a couple of the northern Canadian rivers I've paddled. This one was so different on the surface and yet identical underneath with it's cascading pools and waterfalls. The castle turned out to be Nepoleon's Warehouse (last use anyway). This pause in the drive turned out to be so fortuitous.

The drive took me past where I plan to visit tomorrow, Plitvički National Park. As I turned north and climbed a switchback section of road, the air become foul with smoke from a nearby fire. Fortunately the route took me out of the smoke. I stopped at the place I'd planned to camp. The elderly lady spoke broken English. Two issues emerged: 1) because the camp is in the park tents are not allowed (at least her permit doesn't allow it), and 2) potable water was not available. I could tell she wanted me to stay but didn't think it wise. So I drove further west to the "Big Bear" caravan park and paid the shocking price of €30 to pitch my tent! (Be warned, Croatia is a popular destination and these savy folks are pricing accordingly. Three years ago the price to pitch a tent across Europe was €10-15.)