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June 29th 2009

Published: June 30th 2009

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Ribcev Lav on Lake Bohinj

I've wanted to visit Slovenia for years.
It lived up to my dreams and more.
I only had a few days to spare between Venice and meeting up with Brent and Shona in Milan so I decided to bypass the cities and just go straight to the Julian Alps.
I caught the train to Gorizia on the border and then a bus across to the station at Nova Gorica where I caught another train up to Bohinjska Bistrica in the Bohinj valley. It's a longer but far cheaper way than catching a train direct from Venice to Ljubljana then up to the National Park.

I opted to stay in the Bohinj valley, wilder and a bit more remote than Bled, and a lot less touristed.
I camped at the far end of Lake Bohinj, in Ukanc, 11km from Bohinjska Bistrica. My campsite was part of an official camp ground but I'd chosen a discounted area and put my tent well back in the woods, but still within sight of the water. It was beautiful and quiet and I had the use of the showers and a dry place to sit at the cafe there; useful, as it rained every day

Julian Alps

I was there.

But the dampness of my time there didn't dampen my enthusiasm. I walked alot, around the lake in the rain, on the mountains above the lake in the brief morning of sun I had on the third day (I caught a gondola up a vertical kilometer and then walked a couple of hours up to the summit of Mt Sija where I watched storm clouds rolling in over the mountain tops... I walked, quickly, back down again with thunder at my heels but in the sunshine all the way). I went to Lake Bled for a day which was as pretty as I'd imagined. I walked through Vintgar gorge which was spectacularly green and lush and the rain didn't matter at all.

I drank a lot of green tea.

When the time came to head back to Italy I didn't feel deprived, just completely relaxed and peaceful.
It was perfect.

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