On the Open Ocean and Other Tales of Peril

Heading further down the coast, we ended up in Split, where we rented kayaks and paddled out around a peninsula that is one of the big parks in the city.

Take to the sea!

Sea kayaking is one of my favorite things.  There is nothing like just a thin slab of plastic between you and the watery deep, paddling furiously to orient yourself so your boat doesn't flip in the wake of a larger and more motorized boat, and starting a friendly argument with your husband on what is the most effective paddling technique.

Our first stop was a small isolated sandy beach.

Here we stopped for a snorkeling break!  Even though the water was filled with life, few of them were photogenic enough to actually be caught on camera.  But there were a few photogenic creatures.
A sea cucumber, nestled among the rocks.  There were hundreds of them!

Some weird tubular thing.

A point if you can name it.

Next, back in the kayak and continued to paddle around the peninsula.  Our guide leads us around some steep rocky cliffs.

An old fortress on the cliffs.

A beautiful cliff... so beautiful, my husband is not happy just to look at it...

Rather, he wants to climb it!  He swims on over...

And begins to climb (even with wet tennis shoes and clothes!)

Go Bram go!  This was one of the items on Bram's bucket list - deep water soloing (climbing without a rope over water, so if you fall, you land in the water).  

Many people asked: did he fall?  Here's your answer:

splash!

But he's not easily discouraged, and he's back on the rock.

Then we got back in the kayaks and headed into the main port of Split.  It was really something to kayak next to cruise boats!  Ieee!

Our first view of downtown Split - approaching it from the water - the way it should be.  :-)

Small Town Life, Croatia Style

Next, we headed south along the beautiful Dalmatian coast, being treated to amazing views along the way.

Along the winding coastal road.

Soon we entered the beautiful old, do town of Šibenik.

Again we saw beautiful old town streets.

Near the fort was a small church and courtyard, the Saint Lawrence Monastery Garden, filled with the most interesting plants.

Looking into the main portion of the garden.

We also came across a small grotto, embedded in the face of the cliff, that featured  a small shrine.

The main church was the Cathedral of St. James, built from the 1400s to the 1500s.

I heard that this cathedral is only made of stone.  It doesn't even have mortar, and is entirely held together by gravity alone - even the impressive dome!

Gravity... and angels!

Chilling along the coast.

Chasing Waterfalls

There really are mystical places in this world.

Welcome to Plitvička Jezera, the place with the highest waterfall density in the world (or at least close!) and one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

Entering the park

Plitvička Jezera is a park with beautiful green and blue lakes and literally thousands of waterfalls. This is the view that first greets us.  Amazing!

The geology of this region is really interesting.  Geologically speaking, the area is young (only about 15,000 years old).  Plitvička Jezera is made up of 16 lakes, all at different levels.

The lakes are formed when carbonic acid, formed naturally from carbon dioxide and rain, slowly dissolves the limestone in the canyon, creating deep lakes.  In this chemical reaction, chalk is formed, which is then deposited in various locations.  Currently, the deep lakes at various levels are separated by high "pillars" of chalk, naturally holding in the lakes on various levels, and creating waterfalls between them.

Cross section of the lakes.
Thanks to: "Plitvice Lakes System" by Raffaello - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plitvice_Lakes_System.png#mediaviewer/File:Plitvice_Lakes_System.png

Because of this dynamic process, the layout of the lakes and waterfalls is constantly changing and is never the same.

The water is also amazingly pure and clear.  

Look!  Fish!

Another neat thing about the park is that most of the paths throughout the park are boardwalks. These boardwalks let you walk right above the lakes and the waterfalls.  Sometimes, the boardwalks are just barely above the waterfalls, causing them to become quite wet!

Boardwalks through the forest.

Boardwalks over the marsh.

And more boardwalks over waterfalls.

The chemical dissolution of the rock also cause the formation of several caves in the area.

This cave is the cave "without a roof or a floor".

It is said that the color of the water is constantly changing, depending on the vegetation in the water. When we were there, the color ranged from a light, foamy turquoise, to a deep dark blue.

Here you can easily see the lake in between the canyon walls.

Walking next to the waterfalls.

How often can you get a selfie with fish?

Croatia is one of the few places in Europe that is still "wild".  We even saw some wildlife in the park.

You can hike in the park, but sometimes, the way is cut off by deep water and steep cliffs.  In that case, you have to resort to taking the boat!

This brought us to a particularly mossy area with a huge waterfall density.

It sort of looks like some mythical place, like Naboo or Rivendell.

Looking back down on the park at the end of the day: here you can see several of the lakes at different levels with waterfalls joining them, and a serpentine boardwalk with one lone tourist finishing his late afternoon hike.