After spending two nights at Lake Bled it was time to pick up my friend Johannes at the Ljubjana airport. Johannes had an early flight, which meant that we still had the whole day ahead of us. After stocking up for the next couple of days we headed to Lake Bohinj where we would be spending a couple of days.
A beautiful drive trough the mountains brought us there and on the first day we already hiked to the Savica waterfall. At first we were a bit misguided and thought a lousy rapid was the waterfall, but just before we wanted to head back we found out the actual waterfall was still some more hiking and a steep climb further.
The hike to the Savica waterfall gave us the confidence we could achieve a more challenging hike, thus the next day we hiked the alpine trail along the Komarca wall. It was a tough climb up and at some points metal stairs and cables were mounted to hold on to. We reached our destination, lake Črno Jezero, on the top of the mountainous plateau. There was still quite some snow and in our shorts and shirts this got a bit chilly. At least the hiking kept us warm.
The plan was to hike back to the camp site via a different route. We lost about an hour finding the right path. Because of the snow the markings were not visible and apparently not many people had hiked this trail before us this year. It already became later in the afternoon, thus eventually we decided to climb back down the same way we came.
After this tough hike we decided to take it a bit easier the next day and hike around Lake Bohinj. Even though this is the largest lake in Slovenia hiking around it takes only a couple of hours. Johannes even dared to go for a swim in the cold lake.
During our stay on the camp site we were approached by some folks from an advertising agency. They were about to shoot a commercial on the camp site the next day and my Gordigear roof top tent caught their attention. If I was interested in renting it out to them for two days. We negotiated a price and the deal was made.
While they were shooting the commercial we went hiking again. This time to a mountain hut with the long name Koča na Planini pri Jezeru. The hike was relatively easy as we took the car to get to a nearby parking. The trail again brought us to snow levels and the mountain hut at a picturesque location.
After the commercial was shot we installed the tent back on the car and everything was like before. We also bumped into Erik, a fellow Dutchie who’s hiking the Via Alpina. We would meet him a couple of times more in the upcoming days.
After four nights at lake Bohinj it was time to move on and see more of the Julian Alps. We moved our camp to Kobarid, along the Soča river. Kobarid is the centre of adventurous and adrenalinous activities in the Julian alps and we spend some days cycling and rafting.
After al this fun we moved on back into a more mountainous area up the Soča river. We visited the appealing Virje waterfall along the way and found a nice place in Trenta.
Our first day there we hiked a part of the Soča trail southwards. It was an easy hike slowly descending in the valley along the river and with beautiful views. We hitchhiked back to the camp site and picked up some trouts at a fish farm along the way which we prepared on the barbecue that evening.
On the second day we hiked the same Soča trail but now northwards to the source of the river. The hike was a bit shorter than the day before, but also a bit tougher. After getting to the source we had some lunch at the mountain hut nearby where we bump into Erik again. After sharing food and beers we continued our way back and visited a botanic garden dedicated to the flora and fauna of the area. Unfortunately the garden was a bit overgrown thus not all plant could easily be identified.
The visit of Johannes was coming to an end and we had to head on to catch a plane. From Trenta we drove the Vršič pass, the highest mountain pass of Slovenia. It was built during the first world war by Russion prisoners of war. And who did we find there on the top of the pass? This guy Erik again!
We made our last stop at Lake Bled, hiked around it and spend the night there on the local camp site. The next morning I dropped off Johannes at the airport and moved on to Kamnik myself. A nice town 20 kilometres north of Ljubljana.