Jugoslovenski Rotar

In a lovely highland valley surrounded by imposing mountains lies the famous lake of Ohrid at a height of 700 meters (2300 feet) above the sea-level. This is the largest lake in Yugoslavia and the deepest on the Balkan Peninsula (200 meters or 660 feet). Its pastel-blue waters, its clearness and abundance of fish, the picturesqueness of its shores with the ancient village of Ohrid and the monastery of Sv. Naum, form the greatest attraction of the southern part of Yugoslavia. Higher than the lake of Ohrida, 853 meters high, beyond the mountain of Gali%ica lies the lake of Prespa. This lake, however, is considerably shallower, its water is greenish, often also muddy, so that it cannot compete with its famous neighbour.

Talking of the lakes of Yugoslavia we cannot omit to mention the glacier lakes of Bled and Bohinj at the foot of the Triglav. The Julian Alps with the dominating Triglav, which is the highest mountain of Yugoslavia (2864 meters, 9400 feet), are today the best known region of Yugoslavia among mountaineers. It is talked and written about, and is always well frequented. Here is the far-famed northern wall of the Triglav, with its fascinating excursions for mountaineers, here is the celebrated springboard for skiers, the largest in Europe, here is Bled, in winter and summer a rendezvous of fashionable society.

But there is in our country a region which more than any other deserves to be noted here. It is not a high chain of heaven-kissing mountains, it is not a vast expanse of land, it is not the work of man, because man can add nothing to the perfection and beauty of nature in this spot. We mean, of course, the Lakes of Plitvice. In a day or two we can walk round and visit all the Lakes, from the Black and White Rivers (Crna Rijeka, Bijela Rijeka), past the still lake of ProSéa, past the roaring falls of the Upper Lakes (Gornja Jezera), past the lake of Kozjak, down to the canon of the Lower Lakes (Donja Jezera) as far as the magnificent Confluence (Sastavci) and further still to the Falls of Korana. But it is far from possible to get to know the Lakes of Plitvice in a day or two. Even after a long acquaintance with this region, and after many days spent on its waters, we shall still go on discovering the rainbow in its water-falls and the secret of the emerald depth of its lakes. When the lake water is broken up into crystal streams and the sun trembles in a thousand tiny drops, we shall then understand that the beauty of the Lakes of Plitvice does not lie simply in the harmony of the sky, water, stone and woodland. No, the beauty of the Plitvice Lakes is not static; on the contrary, it is so dynamic and powerful in its every smallest part, that precisely in this eternal power man himself becomes an atom of nature and its everlasting energy. The Lakes of Plitvice must always remain our most treasured possession.