10 days in Croatia - part 3: Waterfalls at Krka National Park

Oh goodness, what a day I had when I went to visit the waterfalls of Krka National Park. The national park is located about halfway between Split and Zadar and it's easy to do a day trip from either town. There are organised tours available (some include a stop at Sibenik), but I decided not to overpay and hopped on the bus from Split myself. Arriving after a two hour bus ride, I went to the visitor center and purchased my ticket to the park including the boat trip to the falls. The falls were lovely, but not quite as big as I imagined (the ones at Plitvice NP where I went to later that week more than compensated for that though).





I'd looked forward to a big day of walking and hiking around the national park, but as it turned out, after no more than an hour we (me and the Malaysian photography enthusiast I met at the entrance who I happily tagged along with that day) had already looped around the track closest to the falls. Information staff told us that since we didn't have our own transport, there wasn't much else we'd be able to do. There were other walking tracks, but their entrances were about 13 kilometers from where we were. The only other walk was the one leading back to the town if you didn't want to take the boat, and that wouldn't take more than an hour either. Oh...

So my new pal (wisely) left, but I was faced with the problem that I already had my bus ticket, which I'd booked for 5pm to give myself plenty of time at the national park. It was 11am when we finished our walk. Fortunately the weather was really nice, so I decided to stay. I walked around the waterfalls again, and then parked myself in the grass, read a book, and enjoyed the sun. At 3pm I started walking back to the town, which turned out to be a really nice walk along the lake with cool views.




And so I got back very much in time for my bus, and I sat waiting with my ticket in hand. A few buses arrived, but a local gentleman who'd seen my ticket informed me my bus wasn't amongst those. The buses left, however, and twenty minutes later I was still at the bus stop in Skradin. "Is late, 10 minutes", the gentleman kept telling me. I stopped believing him when it was 7pm and I was still sat there. There was a couple there who'd booked the same ticket as me, and they waited patiently, seemingly convinced the bus would still come, but at this point I was starting to get a little panicky.

It turned out there were about six more people who were stuck. There was supposed to have been another bus to Split at 7, so the sign said, but later we found out those weren't running anymore since the summer season had ended the day before. One of the other people finally called the bus company but they didn't offer much help. Great, now what? Now we were all stuck. Shall we order a taxi bus together to bring us back to Split? While the one guy was still on the phone with the bus company, another girl called the taxi to pick us up. We'd just agreed we were all going to chip in about 25 euro for a taxi (big sigh), when the bus lady on the phone told us to wait. So we did, once more, and yes, at 8.20pm a bus finally picked us up to head to Split, only three and a half hours late.

So yep, quite a long day. I would have been happy to head back to Split at noon but ended up back at the hostel at 10.15pm. Was it worth it? Eh, I guess, since the bus company refunded my return trip after I'd sent them a polite email about the situation. The waterfalls are worth visiting, but definitely not for a full day. Still, it made for an experience and a story to tell.