Insider tips

So that visitors are offered a similar sight at every season of the year, and in order to keep the negative effects of erosion as small as possible, the water level in the Krka National Park is regulated by three waterworks. In the process water is always dammed up first, until you almost suspect the waterfall is drying up - then a mighty mass comes streaming down again. This phenomenon can be observed several times a day - it is best to ask at the entrance for the current times for the individual waterfalls!

Shortly before its mouth on the Adriatic, the salt content of the river Krka changes so greatly that it can no longer be regarded as a freshwater river. But this is not due to minerals washed along, as one might suppose; it has far longer-term causes: the river once ran considerably further west, but with the rise in sea level at the end of the last ice age the salt water from the Mediterranean slopped into the river valley, which now lies immediately behind the coastline. And only if this water should be completely flushed out of the depths of the ground in a few thousand years will fresh water flow in the Krka all the way to the coast!

Even though the park had been under special nature protection since 1955, there were times and situations in which no consideration could be given to such regulations. During the Yugoslav civil war, for instance, numerous anti-personnel mines were left behind in the thickets beyond the roads. The park administration now explicitly warns against leaving the signposted paths - whether live bombs ready to explode really are still waiting in the undergrowth may be left open - out of love for this unique nature alone one should abide by this recommendation (and the other rules too)!

It is not only tourists and the inhabitants of the nearby villages who are drawn to the green oasis on the banks of the Krka; the most famous of all Native American chiefs let out his cries of joy at the sight of the spectacular waterfalls too. So it is handed down, at least. That he bathed in the lakes below the falls, by contrast, we can still see today in the Winnetou films!