Sunsets in Slovenia
Slovenia is a central European country known for its beautiful mountains and lakes. Something we didn’t know until we arrived is that it is also known for its extensive cave network with more than 10,000 caves.
We flew into Ljubljana and then headed towards Triglav national park where we booked an airbnb in Bovec. We had originally discussed flying to Venice in Italy and then driving across the border as the flights were much cheaper. We decided in the end that it was just going to be easier to fly to Slovenia as there was going to be complications with taking Italian rental cars across the border.
Triglav is the only National Park in Slovenia although there are many other protected areas. Triglav is home to the Julian Alps and that’s the main reason we are visiting Slovenia.
We planned to spend 3 days hiking in the mountains before heading to Lake Bled and exploring that area. From Bovec we had to cross the famous Vršič Pass which has 50 hairpin bends and climbs to an altitude of 1611 meters. The pass is an excellent starting point for many mountain hikes. We headed to Kranjska Gora and the nature reserves in the shadows of the Julian Alps. The crystal clear lakes are an emerald colour and is a beautiful spot to relax in nature as the sun sets over the mountains.
There are also many gorges and waterfalls to be explored in the local area. One of the biggest waterfalls that we hiked up a mountain trail to get a better view of was Slap Boka. The moody weather and morning rain created a beautiful sight as the waterfall crashed over the edge.
We visited several beautiful gorges in the area. The most famous one we hiked around is Tolmin Gorge. It has a good trail and bridges built around the gorge to make it more accessible. I think our favourite gorge though was the Grand Canyon of Soča. It’s perfect emerald water and white sand river beds were incredible. The further we hiked up the deeper and narrower the gorge became.
We enjoyed Triglav National Park for being able to get out and hike through the mountains, we hardly saw anyone when doing so and some trails we didn’t pass anyone all day. We were there in the low season and that obviously makes the areas quieter, but as a whole Slovenia is a beautiful untouched part of the Alps.
Our time in Triglav came to an end and we started our journey towards Lake Bled. We decided to take the very scenic and long route and pass through the mountains towards our destination. The journey led us through incredible mountain roads and ski resorts. We spent a good chunk of the journey up in the clouds with limited visibility. After two hours we rounded the final corner and Lake Bled came into view. We passed through a tunnel and turned up a few more streets to our hotel. It’s always nice to break up a hiking holiday with a little bit of luxury and our hotel overlooking Lake Bled was just what our tired feet needed.
We had a nice couple of days rowing out to the island in the middle of the lake and also walking around the lake in surprisingly warm weather hitting more than 20 degrees for this time of year.
I loved getting up early and walking down to the lake to fly the drone and catch the sun rising over the mountains. The light hit the church on the lake perfectly, watching the row boats from above making their way to the island was a lot of fun.
After a day or two of relaxing we were ready to tackle our final challenge in Slovenia before our time in the country came to an end. We planned to do The Valley of the Seven Lakes Hike. It is regarded as one of the hardest if not the hardest hikes in Slovenia.
We parked our car and headed towards the trail after walking through a forest area we soon came to the steep mountain track that clung to the side of the mountain we were heading up. It was rocky, dusty and dry and in some sections very steep and exposed. We both have a lot of hiking experience in many different countries between us, but we both felt that this was an incredibly challenging hike. The route tries to break you time and time again. When you have finally climbed the very challenging 1000m and made it to the first lake the Black Lake. We were barely halfway though and we were very drained from the intensity of the climb in the heat.
We then had a much more gradual climb through rockfalls and woodland until we finally reached our goal, the mountain hut at the plateau surrounded by two lakes. When we reached the mountain hut we quickly realised it was locked for the season and the outside drinking water fountains were no longer in use as they had fallen into disrepair. We couldn't top up our water bottles and so we sat down for some lunch. After a little while sitting and recovering we had reached 2pm which we had decided was our turn around time to make it back down the mountain before dark.
The route back to the black lake seemed much longer now that our legs were tired and our water was running low. We were kinda dreading the very steep trail back down the side of the mountain as we knew we would feel exposed facing outwards. After half an hour into it Hannahs knee gave in and she slipped, luckily she fell towards a section where there was a bit of path and not outwards over the side. I shouted at her to grab something and tried to get down to her as quickly as possible. My heart was in my mouth. Luckily there was no permanent damage and we could carry on back down after taking a breather and making sure everything was ok.
Eventually we got off the side of the mountain and into the woods to make our final descent back towards the car. We were sweaty stinky and very tired, our knees felt pushed to their limits but we were so excited that we had done it. We had made it back to the car just as it was getting dark and we stopped off at a petrol station on the way back to our hotel to get some drinks.
We were blown away by the beauty of Slovenia, how quiet and relatively untouched it is and we are sure it is only a matter of time before this beautiful alpine country booms in popularity, it has everything you could ask for.
