Croatia – Beautiful but fraught with danger

Croatia is a small but beautiful country. Last year we drove through its countryside to explore some of its dramatic areas and realised how dangerous a place it can be.

On a single lane road we passed the real outback Croatia with areas that had suffered damage during the Serbian-Croation war of the early 1990’s. The effects were still visible with burnt out and partly demolished houses, many with bullet holes and shrapnel marks, and in the fields there were markers indicating the presence of land mines. Seeing these made the war we we had heard about real. Even today, civilians are killed and maimed when these landmines suddently explode.

The mines were randomly laid down in the fields and the military has no knowledge of exactly where they are all located. Normally mines laid by armies are mapped as to their exact location. The demolition experts have to painstakingly go about discovering and defusing these deadly weapons.

Our drive led us to the Plitivic Lakes National Park. This is a beautiful area classified as a World Heritage site. There are 16 lakes which descend through the hilly, mountainous landscape in a stair step or cascading fashion.

Through naturally occurring dams caused by an accumulation of limestone or dolomite, with a build up of algae, mosses and bacteria, a wonderful array of waterfalls connect each lake to the next.

We hiked along the shore of Kozjak Lake and 3 other smaller lakes with numerous waterfalls along the way. The culmination was the Big Waterfall which is the highest in Croatia. While the waterfalls were striking, the other thing that stood out was how clear the water was. The colours varied from green to blue-green to aqua depending on position and on the amount of sunshine. The waters were also filled with an abundance of brown trout.

Along the route we saw houses that had been destroyed from the war, set on fire, while others had numerous bullet holes. The coastline seemed free of that sort of damage and people were sitting around sipping on coffees or going into the water. Along the coastline, the mountains and sea made the views quite spectacular.

While in Croatia we also managed to have lunch in a Croatian home in the town of Lazlovo. Our host was Valerie, who was in her parent’s home and she served us a wonderful lunch with of course, Slivovic (Croatian national drink) and Cherry brandy. All of the vegetables and fruit were grown in the yard, and there were also chickens and pigs raised there as well.

What really impressed us was Valerie’s account of her experience as a child. When she was 7, the Serbian forces appeared at her school and she had to go straight home. The family had to leave the town immediately with just what they could carry. In the end most of the village was destroyed. This was obviously a very traumatic experience for her as it was for many others. The good news is that many new homes are filling the village. The memories however, will linger for some time. That is life in Croatia.