Cruising up the Krka River and Visiting Krka National Park

On Thursday morning most of us got up and went for a swim around the boat or a stand-up-paddle.  After breakfast we headed up the coast to the Krka River. The plan for this day was to cruise up the river to the Krka National Park and meet up with a guide there. The guide would take us on about a 2 hour hike up to the waterfalls. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Dalmatia. 

We were lucky to have a gorgeous, sunny and warm day as we cruised gently up the Krka River. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

We learned that the Krka River is brackish in that it has a mixture of salt water and fresh water. The reason for this is that the ocean tides travel as far as 10 miles up the river. There were portions of the river where we could see oyster and mussel farms along the shore. I have heard that this water is ideal for farming high quality oysters and mussels.

Lunch on the Boat Prior to our Hike to the Krka Waterfalls

We have been so fortunate to have such great food here on the boat. Our Chef, Billy, is a 23 year old Frenchman and he really knows what he is doing. The lunch for today consisted of a gorgeous green salad with feta cheese and figs followed by a terrine of raw salmon, avocado, kiwi and onions:

Meeting with our Guide for the Hike up to the Krka Waterfalls

After lunch, we jumped off the boat and met our guide for the trip upriver and eventual hike to the Krka Waterfalls. Our guide was a very animated Aussie named 'Brandon.' He had lived in Croatia since 1989, so he considered himself a Croatian in many ways. We took a 20 minute cruise up the river and jumped off at the starting point for the hike.

There were at least 100 other tourists gathered at the bottom of the trail and/or on the trail. Brandon told us that the peak number of visitors to this park occurred in 2019 and that the numbers were much much lower during and after the Covid Pandemic. Prior to 2021 it was possible to swim in the waterfalls, however the rules had changed this year due to some accidents that had happened. But it was great to be able to hike in and around these beautiful waterfalls!

One of the interesting facts we learned about these waterfalls was that there was a hydro electric power plant developed here that actually began producing electricity just two days after the first hydro electric power plant in the United Sates at Niagara Falls did. The Jaruga Hyrdro Electric power plant was developed, in part, by a Serbian-American scientist named Nikola Tesla. Yes, that is the same Tesla that Elon Musk's car company is named for. Below is a picture of the giant turbine from the power plant that stands next to the hiking trail on our way up the canyon

We learned that the source of the Krka river comes from Dinara Mountain range in Northeast Croatia at the border with Bosnia-Hercegovina.

After about 90 minutes of hiking around the falls and hearing about the history of the national park, we jumped back on the boat which took us back to the Sunliner X. From there we headed back downriver to our next destination.