Krka falls
22 October 2017
We woke to sun perfect for the days adventure the reason we came up the river was to go to Krka national park. We had been told this place is amazing. We let the sun burn off some of the moisture in the ground and then made our way to the other side of the marina. We couldn't help notice the man in the small fish boat laying out his fish net in the marina he was using the cleats on the dock for one end of his net and his boat for the other effectively preventing 1/3 of the boats tied in the marine from leaving. He hit the water several times to herd the fish into his net then he slowly pulled it in we were unable to watch him pull in all of his net but we did see at least one fish. The boat ride to and from the park was included in the entry price. The boat left for the park every hour for a 30 minute trip it easily held the 100 or so of us that had collected at a strategically placed cafe. the shoreline varied between wetlands and cliffs. We left the boat and walked towards the lower water fall there were food carts, souvenirs, picnic tables and people lots of people. The number of tickets sold to enter the park each day are restricted now I can see why the area below the lower fall was packed with swimmers. We had no intentions of swimming in the cold water so we continued to follow the trail. The first thing we needed to do was cross a big bridge it was full of people taking pictures which of course we also wanted to take
so it was a slow process. Once on the other side the path started to climb when we came to the first of many landings there was a lady manning a table full of local seasonal produce including grapes, dried figs, nuts, olive oil and several different types of Grappa or whatever the local name for the thick burn the top of your mouth liquor was. The Krka falls were a collection of many falls none were very tall but several were wide and they filled large pools before spilling over creating the next level. As we continued to climb we came to the original power station built on the river it was designed by Tesla and turned on a day after the station in Niagara falls. However Sibenik the town it was made to power was the first town to ever have electric street lights. We couldn't go inside
because they were in the process of restoring it but there was a turbine and a shaft outside we could look at and touch. We walked past more lady's and their tables and up two big flights of stairs to a heritage type area where they had an "Ethno presentation" people in traditional regional clothes some rooms set to show little vignettes of everyday life plus watermills powering equipment there was a blacksmith and a weaving display some restaurants and of course more souvenirs. A little further up stream there was a mill grinding corn and two rooms dug into the rock used to beat wool to clean it and make it soft. From this point on we walked mostly on a raised wooden walkway which was good the water lvl looked high due to the recent rain and I suspect most of what looked to be solid ground wasn't. The wooden walkway crossed above the falls everywhere we looked the pools were full of big trout and they had no fear I'm guessing people fed them.
There were several look out points on the way down. At one spot you could see the heritage site looking all cute village like. The path ended almost where we started and we could see
that there were even more people swimming at the base of the falls. We wandered back to the parks dock and waited for maybe 10 minutes to load back onto the boat. The trip back was uneventful we parked ourselves at the bow
and could see fish, swans and the odd duck (hehehe I amuse me) that was until we stepped onto the dock where two swans had set up shop and decided several of the passengers wouldn't be permitted to pass. While the swans were preoccupied the rest of us made it without any drama. The next day we headed back down the river due to the speed limit and the limited space to pass the three boats in front of us and the four or five behind us
slowly wound our way towards the sea. Both sides of the river were lined with fish farms from what I have learned on this trip sea bass and bream seem to be easy to farm so I'm going to guess they were in the pens and well the oyster and mussel farms had big sale signs so it wasn't hard to figure out what they were growing. As we neared Sibenik the river opened and the race was on for anyone that could go faster then the first boat which I think was everyone. The powerboat behind us passed us like we were standing still. The sudden turn of speed didn't even seem to phase the 6 ft pink inflatable flamingo hanging out on the upper aft deck. Sibenik has a lovely sea wall to tie to right near the old part of the city the Warfenger saw us coming and showed us to our spot. Sibenik had everything an outdoor market, some malls and of course the old town. We decided this would be a good place to be for several days. We could restock the boats supplies and buy things for more boat jobs.