Triglav

We crossed the Triglav National Park from just west of Gojace, in Nova Gorica to the extreme north of the country, right by the frontier with Austria.

Triglav National Park is so named because this is where Mount Triglav is located. The highest mountain of the country stands at 4,500 meters, if my memory is correct (all these facts, of course, will be verified eventually... of course... eventually... mmhh).

The sad fact is that we have no proof of this. We can't even assure you that the mountain exists! We never saw it!

The weather was incredibly bad while we were in Triglav. The sky was touching the ground all around us. Although we had the intention of doing some serious hiking while we where there, it was way too dangerous for anything past a few hundred meters. We stopped in a tourist information bureau and they confirm our choice of not hiking. They said that the mountains were treacherous and that in the event of an emergency, there would be little they could do for us.

I will try to attach a video we took using our digital camera to this page. If this works, and if you have a fast connection, take a few minutes and watch it. It should give you a pretty good idea of the nastiness up there.

The park is rugged but the roads are beautiful, as always in Slovenia. You can stop at many interesting points along the road. The traffic is fairly light.

So...

A pristine river, the Soca, running across the park from North to South. The water is as clear as can be. Probably just a few degrees above zero... so we didn't go for a swim.

Bad weather. Really bad. Click to run a video.

The highest point of our trek through Triglav. The Vrsic pass tops at 1611 meters. This is where we shot the video. A series of switchbacks (50 or so... on each side of the pass!) will take you up there and back in the valley. The road is extremely narrow. That is an advantage, since it prevents the hordes of (Asian) busses from cluttering the scenery.

Every switchback is numbered! The panel also displays the altitude. It's nasty driving... but I enjoyed every minute of it. The little Ford Focus proved to be a valorous transport, with its little 1.8 liter engine revving happily and pulling the car out of every bend effortlessly (...well for us passenger that is!).

On the other side of the pass, we found a little lake. About 200 meters across, a couple of meters deep. Granjska Gora.

We opted to stay put for a good night sleep in a lovely Bed and Breakfast.

On to Bled. A busy tourist town (that's where the busses are!) and a beautiful lake with a lovely castle on its bank. Worth the stop for the view, which is quite impressive, even with bad weather hiding the big mountains in the distance.

The Savica falls. A narrow road takes you around a large lake to a trail that will let you see the falls after a strenuous 20 minute hike. The water usually fills the pool at the bottom of the falls, but it does not go over the wall, as shown in this picture! Bad weather. Really bad.

The little hike up and down will take you through a magnificent forest, open and very luminous, littered with white boulders. Quite eerie!

The smallest lake in Slovenia! But a very healthy fish population...

We got back through very narrow (what else) twisty roads over the mountains toward the Ljubljana valley. Beautiful. One thing we did not see in Slovenia: trash. Not a single pile of abandoned garbage. Not a single old car rusting in a backyard. Even the smallest, oldest, remote village appeared as if if was ready to look their best to impress the visitors. Slovenians love their country and keep it clean.