Slovenia: Triglav (13/28)
Our visit to Slovenia was ever so slightly premature. We’d been planning to drive from Hungary to Austria and then down into Slovenia (to avoid paying for an expensive Slovenian vignette). However we arrived at a border crossing only to discover it was the Slovenian rather than Austrian border! We’re not really sure where we went wrong but obviously at some point we’d taken a wrong turn. Keen to avoid paying €30 for the vignette we cut across the corner of Slovenia, avoiding the motorways, and back onto our original route in Austria.
Crossing back into Slovenia, for the second time, we parked for the night at an excellent little camper van car park provided by the town which offered free water & electricity. The next morning we sorted out some supplies and headed to Triglav National Park. We’d previously climbed Triglav in 2017, and so decided to use a different route this time. We parked the van at the end of the tarmac, thinking we weren’t allowed to drive on the gravel tracks, and then promptly walked past two car parks where we could have left the van much closer to the start of the footpath.
Taking the path, we traversed the hillside climbing consistently but not too steeply. The sodden ground from yesterday’s rain making the air thick and humid, as it was heated by the midday sun. A short, steep section took as to a saddle where we stopped for some lunch.
After our break we continued on to the hut, admiring the dramatic scenery, even if it was slightly obscured by swirling cloud.
That evening, over a hearty serving of goulash, we chatted to a couple of Dutch lads who were driving to Croatia in their van. They hadn’t had any time to do any conversion on theirs so when they wanted to sit outside, they were unbolting the back seats and taking them outside.
The next morning we were up early, keen to make full use of the clear morning air and have a cloud-free summit.
We took the path, and then climbed steeply up to a second hut, perched on the edge of a plateau 400m below the main summit. A helicopter, which had been buzzing overhead, then proceeded to skilfully land and drop off two people. This was for the resupply of the hut. As we continued on our route, we watched it a couple more times, hover overhead with the people on the ground guiding the cargo net down and un-hooking it, before they were picked up again after the final drop.
We’d reached the via ferrata and climbed up onto the summit ridge. We then joined the other path coming from a different hut, and followed the crowds to the top.
After a spot of lunch with a panoramic view, we headed back along the ridge, taking a slightly different route back down to the hut we’d stayed at the night before.
We’d originally booked a second night here, but as we were feeling fit we decided to carry on down and save the money. So now retracing our steps from the previous day we headed back to the van.
With limited camping locations around the national park we headed back to where we’d stayed two nights previously. Feeling sweaty from our two day excursion we rushed to the public swimming pool, 20 minutes before closing, for a quick shower. Famished from our walk we treated ourselves to two gigantic pizza’s and cold beers for dinner.
The next day we visited some lakes. The first, Lake Bohinj in Triglav National Park. A beautiful, clear lake with steep sided mountains in the background. We took a couple of swims to cool off.
The second we visited was Lake Jasna. After paddling across the freezing, glacial stream to get to the beach we both decided we definitely weren’t going in this one. Instead we sat and read our books in the shade by the cool water before continuing our journey to Austria.