The source of the Una

We had high expectations of the source of the Una. Croatia’s deepest spring, surrounded by greenery and beautiful scenery… We put the trip off for a long time, waiting for the ideal moment. In the end, when that moment came, it left us… hmm, fairly indifferent.

The source of the Una, at the foot of Mount Čemernica and the hill of Lisina, is our deepest spring. So far it has been explored to a depth of 248 metres, but the bottom has not been reached.

You could perhaps draw a parallel here with an actor in the theatre. We have all heard of him, the critics write glowing reviews, he genuinely has everything it takes to be outstanding – the finest training and real talent – but that simply was not his day. The performance was mediocre. Anyone can have a bad day: the actor, the audience, and a spring too.

They were not lying, it is surrounded by greenery, imposing cliffs frame its abyss from the north, and the Una at once turns into a wild beauty. But somehow the performance remained unconvincing. Perhaps we were tired, having spent the whole day on the road? Perhaps we had already had our fill of nature’s wonders at Štrbački buk shortly before? Perhaps we had got the time of day wrong, because the sun had already moved well to the west and the turquoise colour of the spring had faded? Perhaps there were too many tourists? Yes, there really were a lot of them. Several times we stepped off the path to let columns of day-trippers past. At the spring itself people were jostling to take one more photograph. They stumbled and slipped on the muddy edges as they tried to get out of the shot or into it… There was something grotesque about watching them. The bins at the nearby rest area were overflowing with rubbish spilling out all around…

Part of our group had already set off back, while my wife and I stayed a little longer. At one point everything cleared and fell quiet. We were left alone with the spring. The two of us and it… I washed my face in the cold, clear water. It felt like something out of an epic poem. I felt rested and alive again. As if a great weight had fallen from my back. I gazed into the depths of the spring. Its stillness was intoxicating. It seemed to be telling me “They have worn me out too. I am not at my best. We will meet again”.

And so, with the murmur of the river in the background and the sun’s last rays lighting up the tops of the cliffs, the spring and I settled everything between us, without a single word spoken. We will meet again!

We got up and headed for the exit.