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Kravica Waterfall

Kravica Waterfall

WaterfallsBosnia and HerzegovinaWest Herzegovina,Bosnia and Herzegovina
Fragile nature — stay on the trail, leave no trace.

A horseshoe of twenty cascades fanning 120 metres wide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, swum beneath, over a tufa wall the river is still building.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

This is the swimming season: everything is open and the calmer pool sits at 16-20°C. The water is warm and turquoise, and you can wade or take a boat to the foot of the cascades. July and August bring the biggest crowds by bus from Mostar and Međugorje. September turns golden and quieter.



Year-round Kravica's 120-metre-wide horseshoe of cascades falls over a barrier of tufa, a soft, porous limestone, and flows all year. Spring runs it loudest and summer calms it into a green swimming pool. The tufa barrier is still slowly growing.

Kravica is a horseshoe of roughly twenty separate cascades, fanning about 120 metres wide across a curved wall of pale rock. The drop is 25 to 28 metres, so the falls are broad rather than tall, and the whole amphitheatre opens in front of you at once. The wall they pour over is alive: the Trebižat River runs thick with dissolved lime, and where it spills over moss and reeds the calcium hardens into tufa. The barrier keeps building higher and wider year after year. This is the best-known waterfall in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the dry karst country near Ljubuški, about 40 kilometres south of Mostar. The flow swings hard with the seasons, loudest in spring and calmer through summer, which makes Kravica as much a swimming hole as a spectacle. Walk down to the water and cool mist drifts off the rock, the roar swallows the birdsong, and the pool spreads out in green and turquoise beneath the falls. In the warm months the calmer flow makes this one of the region's favourite places to swim. Small boats and kayaks go right to the foot of the cascades. Shaded terraces under fig and willow trees line the pool, and the light on the water shifts all afternoon. An old stone mill still stands at the river's edge, from the days when this power turned grindstones rather than drawing visitors. Kravica is the most visited natural site in the region, crowded with day-trippers from Mostar and Međugorje through July and August, and quiet by early autumn.

Worth knowing

Good to know

  • Swim only after the spring torrent eases — from June to September the pool sits around 16–20°C; wear water shoes, since the tufa underfoot is slick and the real depth is out in the centre.
  • July and August draw the biggest crowds — arrive before mid-morning to beat the tour buses from Mostar and Međugorje, or come in early September when the tour season thins and the light turns golden.
  • Keep clear of the cascade base in high water — spring flow is powerful and the wet rock is treacherous, and with no lifeguards on duty, watch children closely in the deeper pool.

Things to do

  1. 1

    Swim beneath the tufa cascades

    Swim beneath the tufa cascades

    In the warm months the Trebižat's flow calms enough to swim, and the pool spreads out in cool green and turquoise below the falls. Wade in from the shallow, pebbled edges toward the deeper middle, where the water stays cold even in August. In spring, when the river is full, the spray reaches you from metres back and swimming is out of the question.

  2. 2

    Paddle to the base by boat or kayak

    Paddle to the base by boat or kayak

    Take one of the small rowboats or kayaks out onto the lower pool and paddle right up to the base of the cascades. From the water the falls tower overhead, and you trade the busy main terrace for the sound of spray and the pull of the current.

  3. 3

    See all twenty ribbons of the horseshoe at once

    See all twenty ribbons of the horseshoe at once

    Step back to where the cascades open into their full semicircle — some twenty separate ribbons of water spilling over the pale tufa wall into the green pool. Early morning light, before the sun climbs and the buses arrive, gives the cleanest view of the whole amphitheatre.

Watch

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