Hiking Krka National Park and canyoning in the Cetina river!

After our relaxing week in Hvar, it was time to get back on the track with adventure. And, we had a friend joining us for it! So, we took a ferry from Hvar to Split, picked up Noèmie (a friend of mine from working at the NBA) at the airport, and got ready for adventure. We were starting up right away, going straight to Krka National Park from Split!

Visiting Krka National Park (and swimming near waterfalls!)

To start with some background, Krka National Park is located about an hour north of Split in Croatia and it is a park that is ~110 square kilometers. To explore the park you take a bus from the car park to the start of the trail and then do a hike that is 1.5-2 hours round trip. It’s quite flat and easy, with a boardwalk most of the way.

You walk most of the hike with beautiful views of stunningly blue water. The minerals in the water make it this color and when the sun shines on it, it just looks brilliant. At a certain point you get to a lookout and you can see the main attraction below. We were so excited to get there!

But, before you actually get to the main big waterfalls you come across a few little smaller waterfalls in front of some caves. We decided (of course) to go and play under them. Have you ever seen Damian look happier?

After playing there it was time for the big kahuna! We walked up and they were so beautiful, but the best part is that you can actually swim in the lake at the bottom of the waterfalls! Of course you can’t get too close because the water comes down strong and is dangerous, but we still had lots of fun taking some pretty pictures and just swimming around.

After about an hour we did the hike out, which also had beautiful views! This park was crowded, but we did ourselves a favor by showing up on the later side – around 4:30pm. Not only do you get a reduced admission price after 4pm, but the day trippers from Split, etc. have left so the trails weren’t as crowded. I’d definitely recommend going in the afternoon if you can!

After our fun swimming in Krka National Park we headed back to the apartment we were staying in (only 10 minutes from the park!), showered up, got dinner at a delicious local restaurant and then hit the sack. We had an early morning in front of us the next day!

“Extreme” canyoning down the Cetina River!

Ah, canyoning, yay! I’ve only done canyoning twice (once in New Zealand and once in Costa Rica) but it is one of my favorite adventure activities. In short, canyoning is when you do a hike, but instead of going on land to get from the beginning to the end, you take a river. That means you have to swim, float, jump and rappel throughout. It’s exhilarating, a little scary, and a blast! Below is a topview of the canyon and river we were going to be hiking through.

The Cetina river in Croatia is one of the places you do canyoning (you can’t do it everywhere, in every river), and once I saw it as an option I knew I had to do it. Luckily, Damian and Noèmie were game! We went out with a company called Adventure Dalmatia, and since we had our own car, we met them near the launch point at 10am (they also have shuttles from Split). The first step was getting suited up and then hiking through the forest to get to the entry point on the river.

After the hike we got into river. Our guide gave us instructions and safety tips (note: never go canyoning without a guide unless you are a professional) and we were off! It was a lot of stepping on rocks, walking down the river in the water and floating/jumping/etc.

There were some points where the water felt really refreshing and there were other points where the water felt really cold (even with our wetsuits on!). In the second picture below you can see the reaction on my face when the cold hit me.

We also got to some places where you could do cliff jumping. The height of the cliffs ranged from about 5 meters to 12 meters, and some of them were in front of beautiful waterfalls. This part was really fun too!

We did the “extreme” canyoning tour, which includes a 50 meter (yes, meter!) rappel down a mountainside (and a second rappel, I forget how high, maybe 20-30m?), and our group was only four people, which was really nice. There’s also another option for canyoning without the rappel, but I love the heights stuff so I picked this one 🙂 And, at the end of the rappel you get to drop into the water, which is always fun!

Overall canyoning was one of the most fun activities we did! It was a day in the water, with beautiful scenery, lots of adventure and good peeps. Could we really ask for anything more?

Up next – Plitvice National Park!

Our time exploring the amazing natural beauty of Croatia wasn’t over with Krka National Park and canyoning the Cetina River. We still had one stop left, Croatia’s famous Plitvice National Park. More to come on that next!