Jeff: A week of activities

We relaxed at the campsite for a few days which was really nice. It wasn’t a real campsite, it was a unofficial rustic stop. The kitchen had a couple of taps and a hob which worked, a fridge freezer which didn’t and some tables while the bathroom had some toilets and a cold shower but it was a great place to be. Everyone was really friendly and we chatted to lots of people from all over. Our neighbours had a lovely dog called May who loved to come over when we had food and even when we didn’t. We did a couple of different walks to waterfalls but you couldn’t swim in either of them and as it was getting bloody hot we decided to swim in the river on the walk back from the furthest one. That water was freezing as, like most of the water around here, it was glacial! The first waterfall we visited was Slap Virje which was about a 20 minute, mostly up hill, walk from the campsite and it was a nice little waterfall which you could get quite close to. The second one was Slap Boka and this said it was 30 minutes away but actually it was about an hour away and while this one was much higher, 144 meters, you couldn’t get that close to it which was disappointing. We also cycled into Bovec on the Tuesday which was a bit of a climb (100meters) but we wanted to get a couple of bits from the supermarket and have a wander around the little town. It’s a cute town with some shops and lots of activity centres selling everything from hiking, rafting, kayaking to paragliding and canyoning.

Finally Wednesday rolled around and we had the morning to chill and prepare for the scary afternoon in the canyon. There were choices of canyon from the beginners one to the more advanced one and for some reason I have chosen the more advanced one meaning that the jumps are higher and the rappels/abseils are higher. We cycled down to Bovec and tied the bikes up before having a quick bite of lunch I had packed and then headed into the office to prepare for the trip. We had to sign our life away and then got measured up for shoes, socks and neoprene suit and wait for the others to arrive. Finally the other family arrived and they were from Belgium and luckily had also been canyoning before but the father was a little scared of jumps so I was in good company given I am scared of heights yet I planned and booked this!

We jumped in the van once we all had our stuff and headed off to the canyon and then suited up before we climbed up 200 meters to start the descend through the canyon. It was lovely when we got in the water for the first time as it was cool, around 8degrees which was nice after all that climbing. We then started descending and it wasn’t long until we got to our first rappel down a 15 meter rock face. It took a couple of deep breaths but I managed it without too much issue and we carried on and did several slides down the different rocks and scrambling in between the canyon walls on the way down. There was one slide where the guide held us over the edge of the first section and we slid down the second section and both Rich and I messed our landings on this one, I went in butt first while Rich bounced off a ledge so this wasn’t our favourite one!

Next came the big one, it was a rappel down a 45 meter waterfall, although we weren’t rappelling, the guide was lowering us down a bit like an elevator but this meant you didn’t have any control over it. Rich went over and down he went and said it was very scary and you got pelted by the waterfall but also went behind it which was nice. I tried to do it but given the view from the top and the sheer height I decided to give it a miss and walked down instead. It was just a little too high for me! Once down we caught up with everyone else and carried on down the canyon, there were a couple more slides and the jumps started which were a bit scary. The first one was about 8 meters and involved jumping off the side but not too far as there was a rock wall in front of you (although I doubt you could actually hit it but it appeared close) and down into the deep blue water. Next was another two big jumps around 6 meters into the water but without the rock wall on the other side which made them easier. Now it was just the final rappel down the 20 meter rock face/waterfall. This was a little slipper in places and you had to step across the waterfall and then at the end you swung back across under the waterfall but we all made it down safely and carried on down a couple more slides until we made it to the bottom and had a short walk back to the van to get changed and drive back to the town.

Once back we picked up our stuff and went for a well deserved beer and some vegan Pad Thai at a local restaurant. We then had a decision to make, the football was on and one of the bars would be playing it but it wouldn’t start till 9pm over here and it would make for a dark cycle home and we still had an hour or so to kill before it started. We decided to risk it and head back to the van and hope our data would let us stream it. Luckily it did and apart from a couple of times when it buffered we managed to watch the match on the laptop outside the van before we headed to bed exhausted (and glad it didn’t go to extra time!).

The next morning we had a bit of a lie in before getting ourselves moved and off this lovely camp site. We headed not far away but across the border into Italy to Lake Predil where we managed to park up and get the paddleboard out. The lake was around 1km long and we paddled around the whole thing before having a swim and a lie on the beach. We chilled there for much of the afternoon before heading to the van for the evening because as its Italy we can park most places overnight. The next morning we headed not far up the road, but back into Slovenia for a big cycle. We got the bikes out and started the shortish (10.6km) cycle up Mangart’s saddle. This included a 960meter climb with gradients ranging up to 14% but with an average of 9%. As when we reached the top we had completed the 960 meters but as gluttons for punishment we did a small loop that was at the top and completed just over a 1,000 meter climb. The views on the way up and at the top were great (although we didn’t stop at all on the way up as it was too difficult to restart). We had a walk around the mountain area but we didn’t climb Mangart as it’s a 5 hour round trip and most of the routes require the use of via ferrata. Once we had spent enough time walking around we jumped on the bikes and headed down which was a lot of fun! We got some good speeds but you can’t go too fast as a lot of the road does not have continuous crash barriers and does have sheer drops. You also have to be aware of on coming traffic and bikes/motorbikes so we had to manage the speed down. Once we were down at the van we had some very much needed food and then popped back to the lake we were at yesterday for a dip to cool down before we headed back towards the lake Bled area for the night.

We made a mistake where we parked however as it was near a railway on which several trains went by over night and disturbed us. The next morning we got up and headed up the mountains to a place called Pokjuka where we managed to find a space to park and headed out on a hike. We walked for several hours up to the start of the main climb of Triglav which is the highest mountain in Slovenia. Most people, who are climbing the mountain do it in two days and climbs to one of the two huts before summitting the next day. We did consider doing this but again to summit you need to use Via Ferrata which we are not trained in and with my fear of heights I’m not sure I would be any good at it. We reached the bottom hut which was still a long walk and then headed back to the van to complete the 17.5km hike and climbed 900meters (we did consider adding on to it to make it the 1,000 meter climb but it had already taken us 6 hours and we were ready to get in the van and head to our place for the night which is near Lake Bohinj.

The next morning we got up and cycled to the lake which was around 5km away and found a spot on the beach to relax and have a swim. After a couple of hours we cycled around more of the lake before heading back to the van as we have to check out of the campsite and we headed to Ljubljana as it’s the football tonight so we thought we could cycle in to watch it as we knew there was a big screen in the town. We managed to get to the same stop we parked at last time we were here and we cycled into the town, which only takes 25 minutes, and grabbed a quick pizza before we headed to the now crowded square. There were more Spanish fans than English but it was a good atmosphere to watch the match in and we managed to get a beer to drink while we watched the match and then we cycled back in the dark to the van for the night.

As it was a bit of a late one by the time we got back we had a chilled morning before we headed out to a town called Celje, which is east of the capital. We parked up and did some laundry as we are in need of some clean clothes and towels and got some admin done. It’s a really hot day so it was nice not to be doing lots of activities but even tasks like the laundry leave us hot and sweaty! We are now planning the next couple of days here in Slovenia but the sun doesn’t seem to be going anywhere and its staying in the 30’s so we have to plan accordingly!

The view from the top of our cycle

The view down the valley from about 1/2 back down on the cycle

Rich happy to be going down hill. There were 5 tunnels to go through along the route

The valley from our hike, it was a similar set of views but still stunning

The mountains we had to hike through to get to Triglav

Some of the smaller mountains on the hike

Lovely little flowers we found

The hut we reached and turned around at. This one is the better one to stay at as it has running water but its a couple of hours from the top of Triglav