Mountain biking, trekking, climbing and kayaking with some big rock jumps filled a week of adventure in this beautiful little country. Starting and ending each day with a swim in the lake before breakfast and dinner.
Mountain biking Slovenia
From our base, Hostel Pod Voglom perfectly positioned on the shore of Lake Bohinj and with the hire of equipment from Pac Sports, all ten in the group enjoyed an action and fun packed week in Slovenia.
A good flight landed twenty minutes early in a hot and sunny Ljubljana giving us time to enjoy a quick beer whilst we waited for our transfer vehicle.
Once on board our driver Jan drove us to our Hostel accommodation in Ribcev Lac, via the town of Bled one of the most popular tourist destinations of the old state of Yugoslavia, famed for its magnificent castle perched high above Bleds famous lake.
Our week of activities started with a mountain biking day spending the morning on the flat around the lake and after a lunch we took transport to Rundo Polje in the Triglav national Park to start out two hour downhill ride back to Bohninj lake. The route down was on rough dirt tracks with some steep downhill sections with tight bends making careful braking a major feature as we journeyed through magnificent woodlands with great views of the mountains and meadows below.
On top of Slovenia's highest mountain - Triglav
The next two days were spent climbing Slovenia’s highest mountain Triglav, standing at 2864 metres high (9395 feet) staying overnight in the beautifully positioned Kredarica Hut, perched high on Triglav at 2515m .
Our 7 hour trek to the hut was at times treacherous as we climbed into an Electric storm between the Vodnikov Dom hut (1817m) and the Kredarica hut (2515m) with thunder, hailstones and lightening all around, we were glad to reach the hut, soaking wet, tired, hungry but safe. The morning dawned fine and clear and at
7.30am we left the hut climbing the rocky ridge to the summit giving us fantastic views from the top.
Following out two days on the mountain we opted for a day off and visited the town of Bled by local bus and explored the lake area and its famous castle. After lunch we tried out the downhill toboggan run, a buggy on a steel rail which was great fun.
Kayaking Slovenia
After a good day off, kayaking the Sava River was on the agenda with canyoning to follow on our last day. Due to the good weather and lack of rain, the water level in the river was quite low so we opted for a lake paddle for the first 2 hours then a river trip on water no higher than grade 2. We soon entered a gorge area with obvious signs of rocks jumps which we took full advantage off, beaching our kayaks to climb the rocks for the 20 – 30 feet jumps in to the deep gorge water below. We also found some old cables attached high up to both sides of the gorge which we swung and dropped from into the water below. Back in the boats we continued down the Sava River for approximately 8 kilometres playing on any waves possible where we contacted our base for a lift home. With hot and sunny weather all day and loads of fun everybody had a really great day.
Our last day was to be canyoning but the water level was really low and as we had swam, jumped and played on rocks the previous day we decided to go high again, this time somewhat easier by taking the Vogel cable car. The view was stunning with Triglav standing big and bold in the distance affording a view of our route to the summit. The sun shone as we watched the Paragliders taking off before we had lunch then descended back to our lake shore base for swimming and for some more kayaking on the lake. A great trip!!
Watch this space as we plan to repeat the trip next year.