Lika: Secret Beauty of Ličko-Senjska County

Secret Beauty: The Spectacle of Rocks and Silence

Ličko-senjska county has far too long been a transit Croatian region on the way to the sea or from the sea to the capital city, or a place to casually rest at its best. It's time to unveil Lika and present all the secrets of this beauty whose wildness calls primarily to active and adventure tourism.

If you are a motorbike rider, you'll enjoy the curving roads and tamed nature in one part of it, but if you wish to go deeper inside, go cycling, and if you prefer hiking, trekking or mountain climbing, you won't regret no matter which route you take, from Gacka valley and the Plitvice Lakes on one side, or Udbina and Krbavsko field, that is its majesty Velebit from the south side.

A Land of Contrasts: Irreconcilable at First Sight

All these routes are mutually intertwined, reconciling opposed elements at the same time: Velebit rocks at the national park in the north, nature park in the middle part of the mountain and in the south part with Paklenica, green fields of Gacka, water harmony of the Plitvice, cave park Grabovača in Perušić area with a scientific attraction Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre at Smiljan or the Castle of Nehaj at Senj. All the routes are very well presented on Lika Tourist Community web pages, www.visit-lika.com.

Out of six motor-routes, we choose the Spectacle of rocks and silence, as we named the route from Gospić to Korenica via Sveti Rok since it seems to tell the story of true Lika best, and if you don't set off from the county center, but from Tesla's Smiljan, the experience will be complete. After a 32-kilometre drive through the inland, you'll reach a place at the bottom of Velebit called Sveti Rok where you turn to Velebit all the

way to Mali Alan, a mountain pass with the highest peak at 1044 metres. You'll be travelling by Majstor road, built by Austrian-Hungarians 200 years ago to join Croatian north and south. This area served as the scenery of Wild West during the shooting of a film about the Indian chief Winnetou by Karl May, and under Tulove grede, you'll find his film grave. After that, you head back to Lika, but not before you take the breath-taking view of the Zadar aquatory. Through Krbavsko field via Udbina you'll reach Korenica, and if you go on, you'll reach the Plitvice Lakes after about 30 kilometres. Motorcycle routes should be taken in spring and autumn.

Amazing Scenery: Hiking and Cycling Routes

With its 150 kilometres of length, with its protected areas and magnificent scenery offering a large number of

appealing paths coming one after another with 35 control points, Velebit is certainly Croatian most attractive walking promenade. But one must be careful and respect the wild side of the mountain, so we're leaving it to mountain climbers. We recommend something more tamed to hikers, but not less attractive. Two routes, a longer and a shorter one at Otočac and Gospić, have become parts of the Walking Festival since last year and this takes place every second weekend in September. The participants are given starting numbers, refreshments, fruit, even a ride between the two towns in case you want to combine these two routes. The organizers welcome more 1000 hikers from all parts of Croatia and from abroad. The paths are between 10 and 30 kilometres long, there are no age limits to take part in this unique recreation-tourist event.

Lika offers about 50 marked cycling tracks, approximately between six and eight on seven main points. Although the Plitvice Lakes are far from not being familiar among tourists, cycling around them definitely gives a new dimension of experiencing this pearl. There are seven tracks, from the recreation ones around the lake, to the more difficult mountain ones over the slopes of Plješevica. One of the longest tracks is the one from Korenica to the upper Plitvice Lakes passing by the less exposed pearls, the Black and White river. The route leading through Korenica field follows a small river called Matica, all the way to its going underground and then you'll climb a beautiful vantage point. Adventurers should take Plješivica route which occasionally goes as high as 1000 metres above the sea level, leading over the hills of Mrsinje and on old shepherd paths before going down to Korenica field. The track is 36.5 km long, a combination of paths and roads, and the way down is a path partially rocky, so one should be careful.

Besides experiencing the phenomenon of karst waters, both the Plitvice Lakes and the Black and White river and Plitvice creek which turns into the Great Plitvice waterfall in its last part, at Plitvice village and Korana village you can see some traditional Plitvice houses, a mill and a sawmill, and the route takes you to Šupljara, a cave in the east part of the Lower Lakes.

Velebit Nature Park: The Father of Croatian National Parks

In the great Croatian family of national parks, Velebit is - the father. Its boundaries from Vratnik in the north and Senj at the sea travel towards south following the Adriatic coast for another 145 kilometres, all the way to the Zrmanja estuary where it takes a turn towards the continental foot of Lika. As vast as 30 kilometres at some places and never less than 10 kilometres, with more than 2270 square kilometres of area and numerous cliffs and karst sinkholes, ridges, glades and peaks, 130 out of which are higher than 1370 metres, this nature park is our largest and most complex protected area and has been the part of UNESCO international network of biosphere reservation for more than 40 years.

The Two-Faced Mountain: Sea and Forest Landscapes

If you want to see all of it, you have to go up in the air for on at least 8000 metres above the sea, and then you'll see its two faces: the sea face - karstic and barren like the surface of the moon, wrinkled with rocks, and the land part, tamer and mostly covered with forests. These two sceneries blend at the top part of the karst.

We find as many as two national parks on Velebit: The North Velebit and Paklenica, a part protected as a nature park, in addition to a special reservation of forest flora called Štirovača, Cerovačke caves, a geomorphic nature monument, an extraordinary cove called Zavratnica with its significant scenery and Velnačka glavica, a geologicalpaleontological nature monument with 32 species of fossil flora and fauna left intact from older geological past - Permian.

This area is the most significant floristic area in Croatia, and European-wide, it is one of the most important areas of bio-variety which gives habitat to about

2000 plant species, let's just mention those famous on our mountain: Degenia velebitica, Adriatic bellflower and fairy thimble bellflower. Reminding us of a huge Noah's Ark rising over the Adriatic, thriving with life, it is the habitat of three wild beasts, a bear, a wolf and a lynx, the most frequent herbivore is a fawn, but there are chamois, mouflons, deer, fallow deer, rabbits and boars, while otters can be found along all of the Zrmanja's flow. There are 23 species of bats and as many as 257 bird species.

Diverse Attractions: Something for Every Traveler

Besides the Zrmanja, the Lika and the Gacka are its most significant rivers, but it's important to say there are significant amounts of underground drinking water in all of the park area and thus there are two hydroelectric power plants - HE Senj and HE Obrovac.