Lonely Planet

October 2017 Lonely Planet Traveller 83Our planet holds a lifetime’s worth of surprises, whether wrought bynature’s hand, or the wayward imagination of humans – read on fora sampler from our new book celebrating lesser-known marvelsPLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARKWar-torn history is washed away by Plitvice’s ever-changing landscape of pools and terraces. As youstep along wooden walkways over cerulean pools, it’s hard to imagine that landmines once dottedthis slice of Eden in Croatia. Waterfalls feed the park’s 16 crystalline lakes and butterflies gather nearthe spray. The tallest waterfall, Veliki Slap, tumbles from 70m high. But Unesco-listed Plitvice LakesNational Park was also among the first battle sites between Croatia and Serbia during the BalkanWars of the 1990s, with ‘Plitvice Bloody Easter’ in 1991 the first fatal armed confrontation of theCroatian War of Independence. The last of the remaining landmines are thought to have now beenweeded out, but in the more untrodden depths of the park, it’s impossible to be sure.In a place touched by war, it’s cathartic to know that the Plitvice Lakes are constantly renewingthemselves. The lakes form as water washes over the chalk and limestone, creating travertinebarriers. As sediment is deposited and washed away, the lake system moves as well (even if youmight have to wait hundreds of years to observe the effects). The names of different lakes hint atregional history: Kaluđerovo Jezero takes its name from a monk who lived in a grotto at thecanyon’s edge, harking back to times when this landscape was used as a spiritual refuge.O Buses connect the lakes (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) with Split, Zadar and Zagreb.### Secret### Wor l d### MarvelsOF THE