Croatia: Plitvice Lakes National Park
July 13, 2008
Living in Belgrade, Serbia, We’re always looking for oportunities for a weekend break in the region to do some filming for iStock and generally get away from city life for a few days. When we heard that Croatia’s most popular turist attraction, Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site was only 4.5 hours from Belgrade, we jumped at the opportunity (Map).
A bit of research, car-booking and hotel-finding later, we were on our way westwards on the E70 out of Belgrade towards Zagreb where we hit the E71 south towards Karlovac - total journey time so far: less than 3.5 hours. After Karlovac the roads get a bit trickier but Plitvicka Jezera is well sign-posted for most of the way and one hour later we were pulling up outside of Hotel Jezero, for dinner, drinks and and early night ready for the Lakes the next morning.
As soon as you arrive in Plitvice you’ll notice a background noise of waterfalls for that is what Plitvice is famous for, multi-level lakes interconnected with waterfalls on 7 or 8 different tiers. Its a strange experience with that background noise especially as you can’t see the Lakes/waterfalls until you enter the national park due to the heavy tree cover throughout the region, but relaxing in the dark on the hotel balcony with a drink, fresh mountain air and the sound of water rushing, truly is a wonderfully relaxing experience.
The national park itself isn’t open until 8am so don’t bother getting up early hoping for some sunrise shots… knew we should have done some more research…. but getting there at 8am sharp is advisable if you want to avoid the horde of ageing Japanse bus tourists who descend on-mass at about 10am.
Nature has been unkind to late-risers in laying out the lakes and waterfalls though - all of the waterfalls more or less face East which means the morning light is the best for photography/vidoe as the sun sets over the back of the falls creating unfavourable shadows, especially in the northern part of the park where the big watefall is. We’d suggest breaking up the day into two mini-trips, the morning one to the northern part and the afternoon trip to the southern part. Actually we did it the other way around but suffered from failing light behind the big waterfall….
For lunch, there’s a great restaurant outside the northern entrance to the park called Licka Kuca, well worth a visit to taste some authentic Croatian domestic food and take the weight off your feet between the two parts of the park.
The €15 entrance fee to the park is paid once for the whole park and you can leave the park and re-enter on the same ticket. For those of you who like walking (and are not carrying a tonne of equipment) you can walk/boat between the two parts of the park.
Tip for videographers - the lakes are viewed from a raised wooden platform that snakes around and through the dozens of small lakes providing many different opportunities to get the angle you want however, beware, anyone walking within 5m of you will send vibrations through the floor to your tripod. We must have spent half the day waiting for a decent 10-20 second break in walkers to get some tripod-mounted shots - again, get there early to avoid the crowds or use a shoulder mounted bracket and absorb the vibrations with your legs.
On the eastern bank of the southern part of the park there is a road-train to get you up to the top if you want to short-cut the 1-hour hike but we didn’t bother because you really would miss out on the best views. On the opposite, western bank of the southern part of the park, higher up on the hillside there as a walking path (still under construction when we were there) which we believe would have far better viewing points for elevated shots of the waterfalls, as long as they clear the trees at the viewing points we think this will be the best path for shooting from, just watch out for the bears and wolves apparently….
All-in, with car hire, fuel, hotel, food and lake entrance we spent about €250 per head (based on a car of four people sharing two double rooms for two nights at hotel Jezero) for the weekend round-trip from Belgrade. Considering the awesome beauty of this amazing nature spot, we think that’s an absolute bargain!
If you’re in the neighbourhood, don’t miss it.
Check back soon for video clips.
Lagoons of New Caledonia named a UNESCO World Heritage site
July 11, 2008
Lagoons of New Caledoni (France), Pacific Ocean.
Part of a French-controlled island cluster located about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Australia, the lagoons of New Caledonia—including those around the islet pictured above—make up the third largest coral reef structure in the world.
The healthy, intact marine ecosystems are home to threatened fish species, turtles, and the world’s third largest population of dugongs, large vegetarian mammals related to manatees.
The lagoons were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2008.
From National Geographic: Read more
Abrolhos Bank: Brazilian reef largest in South Atlantic Ocean
July 9, 2008
The largest and most diverse reef system in the South Atlantic Ocean, the Abrolhos Bank, is twice as large as thought and teeming with life, scientists now say.
“We had some clues from local fishermen that other reefs existed, but not at the scale of what we discovered,” said Rodrigo de Moura, Conservation International Brazil marine specialist and co-author of a study about the discovery. “It is very exciting and highly unusual to discover a reef structure this large and harboring such an abundance of fish.”
Home to a variety of marine species such as soft corals and mollusks found only in Brazil, the Abrolhos Bank is recognized as one of the planet’s most valuable coral reefs. And the most prevalent coral in this reef, the Mussismilia coral genus, represents the only remaining plants from a coral fauna with origins in the Tertiary period, which ranges from about 2 million to 65 million years ago.
Other creatures found at the reef include the dog snapper, black grouper, and adult and juvenile masked boobies.
From LiveScience.com: Read more
Video: underwater volcano eruption
July 4, 2008
More than 1,800 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, the eruptions of an undersea volcano have revealed themselves on film, including the ejection of glowing red lava and the sounds of exploding gases.
“It’s the first place where we’ve been able to observe an active volcanic eruption underwater,” said Bill Chadwick of the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, who led the group that observed the volcano with a remotely operated vehicle.
“Most of the geology that we probably eventually see, a large part of that has happened underwater,” said Michael Perfit, a marine geologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “We have to look backwards and try to figure out how it happened. By looking at this, you get a sense of how these very important processes take place.”
The team will return with the remotely operated vehicle next spring to make more visual observations. But the last expedition could be hard to top.
From Discovery Channel: Watch amazing video here
Census of Marine Life & the Yeti Crab
July 2, 2008
This new species of crab was discovered off the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge in the South Pacific Ocean.
It was named Kiwa hirsuta kiwa, after the goddess of shellfish in Polynesian mythology, but has become known as the “yeti crab” because of its hairy appearance.
With 120,000 species now on-line, the Census of Marine Life considers itself half-way to its goal of checking and validating the 230,000 marine species currently known to science. Once completed, the World Register of Marine Species, called WoRMS, will be the first source for descriptions on all marine life.
The World Register of Marine Life finds itself in good company. In fact both the Register and the Census of Marine Life are working with similar projects like Species2000, The Encyclopedia of Life, and ZooBank to create places for researchers and educators to find authenticated and up-to-date information on the globe’s total species.
From Mongabay.com: Read more
See also:
www.marinespecies.org
www.coml.org
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