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Slovenia
Slovenia
In all silence
The charm of Slovenia is only revealed on side roads, the smallest streets and gravel roads. And the best thing about it: Hardly anyone is around here.
Josef Seitz
09/14/2000
Gravel friends will be annoyed. The cul-de-sac up to the Mangart summit, once Slovenia’s wildest gravel road, has disappeared under an asphalt surface. Where recently a notice announced the exclusion of liability, but allowed you to drive at your own risk, there is now a toll booth the size of a toilet. A young man collects Wegzoll with a friendly smile. For seven kilometers, the former military road winds its way up the rocky slope in a daring route, crosses a couple of gloomy tunnels and winds through treeless terrain from the Mangart hut. Almost every half a minute the mood changes up here. The fog clouds quickly float up from the valley, swallowing whole mountain peaks, and then shortly afterwards releasing jagged rock peaks as stone islands in the sea of clouds. I get a cup of coffee at the Mangart Hut and warm my hands with it. It’s already late afternoon when I’m back at the Predil Pass. Past seemingly deserted mountain villages, the route leads in wide sweeps down to Kluze, a defensive bulwark from the 15th century. Shortly before the fortress, I cross an inconspicuous bridge. What is hidden underneath cannot be seen immediately. The structure is only a few meters long, but spans the deepest gorge in Slovenia. The Koritnica has carved its way into the rock like a circular saw for almost 70 meters. In some places the gap is only a meter wide, and shortly afterwards Bovec appears. Since the Soca was discovered as a white water river, there has been quite a bit going on in the village. Young people in particular try to earn a few marks with rafting and kayaking tours. In the spring of 1998 it would almost have been over with the small town. An earthquake shook the whole region. At Bovec, the road branches off into the Trenta Valley and winds its way up to the Vr ?? ic pass. And the remaining ten kilometers to Kranjska Gora are really fun. But caution is advised. The bends of the north ramp are pieced together from smooth cobblestones, and the morning dew creates a chronic lack of liability. Slovenia wants to be discovered on back roads – like the slope through the Radovna Valley. Loose gravel turns the trip into an egg dance, but the quiet side valley has something almost meditative about it. At the end of the valley I stop the Honda in a parking lot at the entrance to the Vintgar Gorge. The bare walls of a narrow crevice rise straight out of the water, slippery wooden walkways, daring constructions, an adventurous walk. A few kilometers further I reach the town of Bled on Lake Bled. The region is known as the Lugano of Slovenia and is one of the country’s tourist centers. West of the lake, via Gorje to Zatrnik, a great motorcycle route winds up to the Pokljuka plateau, from which a single-lane road branches off to Gorju ?? e. Here you can still see the typical old wooden houses, where the roofs have been made rainproof by nailing boards on top of each other. Some of them still housed alpine dairies until recently. A little further south I come across Slovenia’s second large lake, Bohinjsko Jezero. Although its location between the mountains of the Triglav National Park is far more spectacular than that of Lake Bled, it is quiet. The water is protected from any building frenzy. I swap the motorcycle seat for a standing room in the gondola that floats up to the 1535 meter high “bird”. Only from up here can the full beauty of the landscape be grasped. A little to the north, the summit of Triglav rises into the sky. At 2,864 meters, it is the highest mountain in the Slovenian Alpine country. To the east, the Julian Alps run out into a tangled hilly country, and deep below me the mountain panorama clones in the water level of Bohinjsko Jezero. At Bohinjska Bistrica, according to the map, there are two ways to get to Skofja Loka, one of the oldest cities in Slovenia. I choose the longer route over the Sedlo Pass. Once again there are a few kilometers to be mastered on soft gravel. After the top of the pass, an asphalt road curls into the valley. Farmers, who have a hard time on the steep meadows, are just hanging the hay on the “Kozolci”, the hay harp, to let the wind dry it. A few kilometers further in Zeleznika I am standing in front of a stone blast furnace ?? a relic from the times of the iron industry. An elderly gentleman tries to tell me something with extravagant hand movements. But I only understand so much that the workers fetched the iron ore directly from the hills near the village and boiled it into steel here. And that there should be a forge museum in Kropa, behind the hills in the north. Did he also know about the fantastic motorcycle route? The hillsides over to Kropa are so steep that the road builders had to create a bustle of curves. Kropa actually stands for blacksmithing. Today only a small company produces, but the ornate courtyard lamps and window grilles all over the place testify to the high art of this forge. In the small village museum, those interested learn that forged iron nails were the big bestsellers. From Kropa tons of nails were even delivered by horse-drawn cart to Trieste and Venice. Along the Kamnik Alps northeast of Skofja Loka, a few tiny streets sneak east. Sometimes the tires claw into grippy tar, sometimes they stir up the dust of gravelly dirt roads. A quick look into the gorge of the Kamni ?? ka Bistrica, then I drive up the Crnivec pass to turn into a gravel path just before the pass. This leads over the green high pastures of the Velika Planina and ends in the valley of the Logarska Dolina. Logarska Dolina is a cul-de-sac, at the end of which I put on hiking boots and climb up to the Rinka waterfall. The trickle plunges ninety meters into a washed-out hollow and creates eternal spray. When I come back it is already getting dark and it looks like rain. I put the sleeping bag under the canopy of a lonely hut in the forest that seems to be uninhabited. In the dark, my thoughts turn more and more to the shaggy brown bears that are supposed to still exist in Slovenia. The next morning the shutter suddenly opens over me. As if it were perfectly normal for a stranger to be lying in a sleeping bag under his window, the hut owner wishes me a good morning and invites me to have coffee for breakfast. The invitation is not inconvenient, because a nightly cold snap had covered the mountains all around with a layer of sugary snow. Via Velenje I reach Maribor and then let myself drift further east along the Drava, the main river of the north. Again on the smallest paths and lanes – and every turn becomes a guessing game. But the river is always used for orientation. It has swelled up a lot in the past two days. It rained incessantly. More sun should shine here than anywhere else. Because east of Ptuj begins one of the best wine-growing regions in the country. At Ljutomer, the hills, which are artfully covered with graphic patterns by the rows of vines, involuntarily remind me of Tuscany. Well, at least in a small format. Suddenly I am shocked. Loud drum beats drown out the Honda engine. The hitting gets louder and faster, flattens out briefly and starts again. I switch off the engine, frightened. The noise is caused by a kind of wooden wind turbine that rotates directly above me. Using a simple mechanism, wooden sticks generate the noise. This is a »Klopotec«, explains the landlord in the »Gostisce Jeruzalem«. It should keep birds away from the grapes. The blow of the “Klopotec” also accompanies me through the hills of the Haloze Mountains, a sea of steep humps with small farms perched on their tops. Forests and corn fields alternate. The harvest is laborious manual labor for the farmers. They often mow the grass with a scythe, the ears of corn are torn off by hand and driven home in a wheelbarrow. They hang on wooden frames to dry in the sun – whole barn walls glow in bright yellow. The ridge to the left of the valley forms the border with Croatia. The watchtowers there are unoccupied. The new frontier, which has only existed for a few years, is probably not given much importance. That’s a good thing, because the path along the Macelj Mountains, from Kozminsci to Rogatec, is one of the most beautiful areas in the country. Taking the right turns, however, is again a game of chance. After some detour I reach Brezice and finally Kostanjevica na Krki. Kostanjevica na Krki stands for art. On the edge of this small place there is a sculpture park – in the middle of the green meadow. I drive a bit along the Krka and then turn west to get across the hill country to the Cerknisko Lake. In Rob, the tar cover is over, the gravel road climbs steeply and disappears deeper and deeper into dense deciduous forests. Here I am definitely getting lost. Finally a clearing appears and after a steep descent I am in a small village. A couple of farmhouses, a couple of huts, two dogs and a farmer’s wife with a truly impressive size. I landed in Krvava Pec. And because directions fail due to a lack of language skills, she calls her son. He gets his grass-green, homemade-looking fifties out of the hut and instructs me to follow him. I have a hard time keeping up, after wild kilometers criss-crossing the forest we come across a slightly wider path. When I want to give my pilot something for his help, he firmly refuses, lets his fifties scrape in the gravel and disappears at full throttle between the trees. The odyssey wasn’t as wrong as I first thought. There are only a few kilometers left to Lake Cerknisko. It is a periodic lake, has neither a permanent inflow nor an outflow. Its water seeps into the karst soil. It is only filled when more rain falls than disappears through the seepage. In some places, agriculture is even practiced on the dry lake bed in summer. The fact that the subsoil in many parts of the country is so porous has made Slovenia one of the most cave-rich countries on earth. The largest of these stalactite caves, the Postojnska, is very close by. But far more spectacular is the ?? kocjanske, located further south, a crevasse cave up to a hundred meters high in places one hundred and seventy meters below the ground. Inside, a narrow bridge spans the crevice at a height of forty-five meters. And deep down a river rushes, which from here flows underground for the next forty kilometers, only to come to the surface again in Trieste, Italy. On the way south, the landscape changes fundamentally again. The karst becomes more rugged, is criss-crossed by precipices, and only thorny scrub grows. A few kilometers from the coast, the Mediterranean atmosphere that lies over the region is becoming more and more familiar and attractive. Then I’ll be in Piran. I park the Honda at the boat harbor, sit in front of a cafe and concentrate on the rumble of the waves crashing violently against the harbor fortifications.
Info
Little Slovenia on the eastern edge of the Alps attracts with many great, non-asphalt stretches, all of which are easy to drive. A tour through a wonderful mountain landscape, which is very untouched in many places.
Getting to Slovenia from Germany is quick and easy. The easiest way is to drive from Munich on the A 8 to Salzburg and finally on the Austrian A 10 to Villach. Entry into Slovenia takes place either via the Wurzenpass or, after a short drive to Tarvisio, Italy, via the Predil-Pass. The Austrian motorway vignette, which is valid for two months, currently costs 13 marks. Another 15 marks are due for the Tauern and Katschberg tunnels. These can be saved by driving over the Tauern Pass and Katschberg Pass from Radstadt. Overnight accommodation There are plenty of overnight accommodations in the Alpine regions and in western Slovenia in particular. The sign “Sobe” indicates private rooms. There and in pensions you can sleep well including breakfast from 30 marks per person. A good private address in eastern Slovenia, in Ptuj, a few hundred meters outside the village: Druzina Krapsa, Maistrova 19, 2250 Ptuj, phone 00386/62/773985, double room with breakfast around 30 marks per person. You can stay in mountain huts very cheaply. You have to forego comfort there, however, an overnight stay here only costs twelve marks. Occasionally double rooms are also available, which cost around 25 marks. The Ticarjev Dom mountain hut on the Vr ?? ic pass crossing, phone 00386/609634 571, offers a great view and direct access. Hotel Tartini in Piran is recommended by the sea: Hotel Giuseppe Tartini, Tartinijev trg 15, 6330 Piran, phone 00386/66746221 , Fax 00386/66746324, double room with breakfast during the high season from 61 marks per person. Mountain huts and campsites are usually open from mid-April to early October. Further information: Slovenian Tourist Office, Maximiliansplatz 12a, 80333 Munich, phone, 089/29161202, fax 089/29161273. The season lasts from April to mid-October. Tours can be booked on site at short notice every day. There are good hiking and climbing opportunities in the Julian Alps and in the Triglav National Park. The area around Bohinjsko Jezero (Wocheiner See) is an ideal starting point. and many of the stalactite caves can be visited. The largest is the Postojnska Jama (Adelsberg Grottoes), the most spectacular the ?? kocjanske Jame. Of the numerous castles, Predjamski Grad is the most interesting. It was built into the huge entrance of a cave. Horse lovers must go to Lipica. The stud there is the origin of the famous Lipizzaner horses. Demonstrations take place in summer on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 3 p.m. LiteratureMost of the very good travel guide “Slovenia / Istria” from Michael Muller Verlag is dedicated to Slovenia. Price: 36.80 marks. The handy polyglot travel guide to Slovenia is space-saving and cheapest for 12.80 marks. Egmont Strigl’s travel guide is very detailed: “Discover Slovenia, on the way between the Alps and the Adriatic”. Published in the Trescher series Reisen, price 26.80 marks. In the new motorcycle travel guide “Eastern Europe” from the UNTERWEGS edition, there are six more travel stories about Bulgaria, Poland, the Giant Mountains, Slovakia, Hungary and a trip along the Elbe to its source. For 29.80 Marks in well-stocked bookshops (ISBN 3-613-02030-0) or to order from Motor-Presse Spezialverkauf, phone 0711 / 182-1229. With the RV Euro regional map »Dalmatian Adriatic Coast«, scale 1: 300,000, for 14.90 marks, are also easy to find back roads. # Driven distance: approx. 1250 km. Time required: one week
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