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WONDERS OF NATURE
Plitvice lakes. Nature miracle
The road winds along the dry, stunted spurs of the Dinaric Mountains. But then the car takes off on a low ridge of the pass, and the heart involuntarily stops with delight. Right under your feet, at the foot of the Mala Kapela ridge, lies a deep, gorge-like valley of the Korana ("Crown") river. And in the valley, among the lush greenery of beech forests, stretched like a string of precious beads, a chain of turquoise-blue lakes, separated from each other by foamy cascades. These are the famous Plitvice Lakes - the most precious natural pearl of the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic.
At first glance, it is hard to believe that in a waterless karst area, among bald rocks and fissured limestone plateaus, such a wild romantic landscape can arise. On an eight-kilometer stretch of the valley, the river falls 133 meters, and on the transverse steps of its channel there are sixteen large and small lakes, the waters of which look like the steps of an amazingly beautiful staircase, reflecting the green slopes and the blue sky. But the main miracle awaits the traveler ahead. It's hard to believe, but on the sixteen steps of the lake stairs, the river and its tributaries formed one hundred and forty waterfalls! Each lake overflows into the underlying one with a foamy cascade of waterfall jets. Waterfalls break into lakes and from the steep slopes of the gorge, turning the entire valley into an endless symphony of flowing and noisy streams, surrounded by rainbows in clouds of spray! The largest of the Plitvice waterfalls falls from a height of eighty meters. In winter, when the cold wind - bora - rolls down from the mountains into the gorge, the waterfalls freeze, turning into sparkling ice cascades. The whole area at this time is covered with a white carpet, and only the bluish ice saucers of the lakes stand out against the background of the snow-covered valley. And in summer, on a sunny day, the color of the water changes from lake to lake, from waterfall to waterfall, representing an amazing palette of shades: from emerald green to opal turquoise. Particularly impressive is the most beautiful of the Plitvice waterfalls - Pad Korana ("Crown Waterfall") - a true masterpiece that arose from water and stone ... The first lake from above - Proschanskoye - lies at an altitude of 636 meters above sea level, and the last, lake Nowakovsky Brod - at an altitude of 503 meters. The largest of the entire lake chain, Lake Kozjak covers an area of more than eighty hectares, and its depth exceeds forty meters. From the main peak of Mala Kapela - the Selicky Vrh mountain, from a height of almost 1300 meters, a panorama of the valley and the surrounding green mountains opens up. The Matica River (this is the name of the upper course of the Korana) permeates one by one all sixteen lakes, dammed by natural dams made of travertine tufa. Dozens of waterfall jets of the most bizarre appearance rush down from the dams. The Plitvice waterfalls are unlike most of the world's waterfalls, which are constantly breaking down their crest, slowly receding upstream. At the Croatian cascades, the reverse process occurs: travertine barriers are constantly growing due to the deposition of new layers of tuff from water saturated with calcium carbonate. Every year, the ledges of the waterfalls are made 10-30 millimeters higher. Thus, in a hundred years, the Pad Korana waterfall, for example, will grow by three meters. The lake will also become deeper, from which its jets merge downward. As in many other places in the Dinaric Mountains, karst caves are often found in the Korana Valley. Speleologists count 36 deep and picturesque underground cavities in the area of lakes. Although they are not as famous as the longest cave in Dinar - Postojna Yama or the deepest karst mine Shkocyan, but an inquisitive tourist who has climbed into the valley should not neglect visiting the local underground palaces, especially since they are located very close, with lakes and waterfalls. If you cross the river on the bridge below the second Plitvice waterfall, then a narrow path after fifty meters will lead to the entrance to the Golubnyach cave. The 46-meter arch of the entrance invites you to enter the "Reception Hall". From here, a thirty-meter corridor leads to the "Cylindrical Hall", and from there tunnels diverge leading to the next grottoes of the cave. In terms of the richness of natural "decorations" on the walls, floors and ceilings of the halls, Golubnyacha, perhaps, will not yield to the famous Postojna, only here everything is smaller. After all, the cave itself is much smaller than its Slovenian neighbor - its length is only 165 meters. And at the fourth waterfall, just two hundred meters downstream, is the cave of Mratsna ("Gloomy"). Indeed, its appearance is more gloomy than that of the Dove. There are fewer stalactites and stalagmites, but much more living creatures live here. In addition to typical cave crabs, insects and spiders, as many as three species of bats have found shelter in Mratsnaya: the small and large horseshoe bats and the long-winged bat, which is very rare in Croatia. Archaeologists and paleontologists have made many valuable finds in Mratsnaya. Even in the Stone Age, the ancient inhabitants of Dinara discovered and settled this cave. Yes, and it would be hard not to notice it: the entrance to Mratsna is clearly visible from the river and is a huge gap 24 meters wide and 7 meters high. In the vicinity of Plitvice Lakes, in dense beech and spruce forests, you can meet a bear and a lynx, a wolf and an otter. Flocks of wild pigeons keep closer to the lakes, and capercaillie lek in the forest more often in spring. They have few enemies here - except for a peregrine falcon and an eagle owl. There are also rare birds here: the blue kingfisher and the serpent eagle. And in the forest glades, flower lovers can see a unique flower disappearing in Europe - a lady's slipper (the northernmost orchid on the planet). Of course, in the old days, the forest jungle in the gorge was even thicker and more impassable, and they occupied a large area. The gloomy thickets along the banks of the Koran were notorious among the surrounding residents, they called this region "Devil's vrt" ("Devil's Garden"). Alas, today thousands of tourists seeking to see this picturesque corner of Croatia often unwittingly destroy the natural environment, trampling and polluting the valley, especially near the vantage points. After all, the entire length of the lake chain is some eight kilometers, and the density of the human flow on fine summer days is very high. Now the Plitvice Lakes region has been declared a National Park, and one and a half thousand hectares near the lakes have become a strictly protected area. I would like to believe that the "symphony of flowing waters" will retain its beauty, and every traveler who arrives on the shores of the Adriatic will still be able to admire the amazing valley, where there are two lakes and twenty waterfalls for every kilometer. Author: B.Wagner
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