Green forest, turquoise river…
We had so much rain and gloomy cold days this Spring that as soon as the sun and warmer temperatures came, I just had an overwhelming wish to spend as much time possible outside in nature. Living in the city for me that means that I have to plan my trips to somewhere that is not too far (up until about 2 hours drive in one direction from Zagreb), somewhere where there are not may people or ideally almost none, where the nature is breathtakingly beautiful, that there is enough shade if the day is very warm and preferably that there is some water nearby, a river, a lake, a stream anything! Not an easy task but from time to time you hit the jack pot and that’s exactly how this location seems and feels to me! 😀
Trail along Slunjčica river…
So where is this dreamy location you may wonder? I almost don’t want to disclose because I don’t want too many people to know about it but I’ll try not to be selfish and will share it anyway. 🙂 Of course it’s not a secret and I’m sure there are plenty of people who know about this hiking route but it’s new to me and I must say that when I went there with my friend, we spent half of the day there, it was Saturday, beautiful warm weather and we met only few people along the way.
The trail is called Route SL4 and it goes along Slunjčica river for about 6 km in one direction, you need to come back the same way but if that’s too much, you can easily just go part of the way as there are so many pretty spots to sit by the river and just relax, listen to birds singing and enjoy the stunning views…
In some areas it can be quite muddy so make sure you have appropriate waterproof footwear. Wonderful thing is that there are many wooden benches along the way so you can slow down and rest whenever you feel like it. We asked for starting point in Tourist Info centre at Rastoke village and it starts from a place called ‘Moćanov most’ (Moćanov bridge) near Rastoke village.
My favourite part about the trail is that for most of the part it goes along Slunjčica river and the colour of the water is just incredible! I could watch it for days and not get tired of it… Slunjčica river flows through the Kordun region in central Croatia and surfaces from underground in the vicinity of the city of Slunj.
Rastoke village and waterfalls…
At Rastoke village, Slunjčica river splits into several river branches flowing across cascades and small waterfalls into the Korana river. Rastoke is sometimes known as “the Small Lakes of Plitvice” and is connected to Plitvice Lakes by Korana river. Village and waterfalls are beautiful and if you are visiting bigger and more famous Plitvice Lakes you will most probably pass by them, however they definitely deserve a visit as they are simply picture-perfect beautiful! This time I focused more on the river and the trail by the river but here are few images of Rastoke just to give you an idea of their beauty…
Rastoke and the travertine barrier itself used to be separated into the ‘Upper’ and the ‘Lower Rastoke’ (Croatian ‘Gornje i donje Rastoke’). The lower part of Rastoke consists of 23 waterfalls, which fall about 10 to 20 meters deep into the Korana river and the most famous waterfalls are Buk, Hrvoje and Vilina kosa. Once I would like to spend the night there as the village is so charming and the sound of water so relaxing…
Here are few more photos, I hope you enjoy them and that they maybe inspire you to visit this beautiful place. And I’m already imaging how beautiful it must be there in Autumn and definitely planning to come back! 🙂
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