The Bridge Was Out, So We Got to the Hotel By Walking Across the River over Two Wooden Planks

The Big Waterfall, or Veliki Slap in Croatian, the tallest waterfall in Plitvice Lakes National Park.

True story. The bridge into the town of Plitvica Selo was closed. So how did we get to the hotel? By crossing the river over a wooden bridge that consisted of two long planks. It did have handrails. And the water wasn't far down. And the water was very shallow. We could have walked through the river and only gotten wet up to mid-calf.

None of us fell into the drink.

I awoke to find a warning from the guest house where we would be staying that the bridge was out. We had options, including a long, out of the way drive through a forest. We thought we were taking that route according to Google Maps. We weren't. We were on the main route. The one where the bridge was out, as evidenced by the above picture.

So the proprietor of the guest house told us to drive to a house beyond a restaurant and he would meet us in about ten minutes. How? Hot air balloon? Walking across the water? Telepathy? We weren't sure.

It turns out another alternative bridge was available for a pedestrian-only crossing. See pic immediately below.

Yes, the bridge was indeed two planks. With guardrails! You thought I might have been exaggerating in that opening paragraph. Well, feast your eyes on this bridge:

We left the suitcases in the car. They were eventually retrieved, although I packed an overnight's worth of supplies into my backpack just in case they weren't. As you can see below, we did indeed cross the two-plank bridge:

Again, you thought I was kidding. Duson, the proprietor of the House By The River guest house, went over and above all reasonable norms to get us across the river. Where we soon were greeted by the house dog:

And, as you can see, the House By The River is indeed a house. By the river. The Potok Plitvice, or the Plitvice River.

Time to check out the parts of Plitvice Lakes we can reach sans car. But first:

This is the view of the bridge from the other side, which we could not reach by car.

And immediately after crossing past the point where the bridge was out, we were met by this sight:

Veliki Slap. The Big Waterfall. Yes, "slap" is the Croatian word for "waterfall." Look it up.

The waters of the first of the lakes of Plitvice Lakes (plural) National Park were an amazing shade of aquamarine.

You can see the pedestrian walkway over the lakes visible down below:

The aquamarine color is even more visible in this one:

You can see some caves in the cliffside, plus some more walkways, in the center of this picture:

Fall colors!

Lakes and fall colors, all in one artsy shot:

Continued walking was forbidden:

So it was time to eat. We ate at the Restaurant Ethno Houses. I had the octopus goulash:

The octopus was perfect, although I believe that the octopus did not come from the freshwater Plitvice Lakes. 

We were quite entertained throughout the meal by the vocal stylings of Mango The Parrot.

Laku noć from Plitvica Selo on the outskirts of Plitvice Lakes National Park.