We had a nice morning swim in the sea at Punta Povile before getting going.

We were positioning ourselves at a campsite near Plitvice Lakes so we could visit there early the next morning.

After a big climb up the mountain and then a nice drive through green fields on the plateau we arrived at Camp Place Bear only 6km from Plitvice Lakes. Plitvice Lakes is a UNESCO heritage listed national park and contains many lakes and waterfalls covering nearly 300 square kilometers.

We were given a choice of spots in the campsite and found a nice shady one. I asked if I could do a clothes wash – but the washing machine was out of order. But they offered to do it for free in their home machine! Such a lovely thing to do. And they wouldn’t accept money for it!

Anyway after getting all the domestics out of the way we went for a walk down the gully opposite to the river where an old mill had been. We could still see the mill stones there.

The river had stone formations from the limestone – travertine! It causes all sorts of little pockets and waterfalls. This was a good introduction to Plitvice Lakes which is a bigger bluer version of this.

We returned to the campsite and saw the resident massive bunny enjoying himself all over the campsite.

We cooked up a paella on our smokeless barbecue – which took a long time.

In the meantime we got ready for our 6am start in order to be at the lakes for our 7-8am entry time. This is the best way to avoid the hundreds of tourists. We were in bed by 10 for our early alarm.