Wednesday 5th September
Today’s plan was to head to Tromeja, the border of Slovenia, Austria and Italy. I had a few possible routes planned. Route one was through Italy but not on recognised paths. The other two routes stayed in Slovenia just north of Rateče.
Not knowing how good the paths on the Italian side would be, I decided to stay in Slovenia.
Tree management was taking place along the route and I concluded it would be easier to get past the workers on the wider track rather than the narrow path through the trees. Besides, I had taken the route through the woods last year, albeit in thick snow.
Today was another lovely warm, sunny day and I was soon down to t-shirt and shorts. It was a pleasant, easy walk up to the peak.
At the top, it seemed a number of people had taken chair lift up from Austria and strolled to the border. Needless to say they were fully kitted up; “all the gear but no idea”. One of my gripes climbing Snowdon is reaching the summit to find people swarming around after getting off the train, but I digress.
I managed to find a quiet spot off the footpaths. I dug out the lunch I acquired at breakfast and sat a while with a fantastic, endless view over Austria.
I returned to the border, a place where, if you had three legs, you can stand in three different countries at the same time. From there, I retraced my route for a while before taking a track to my right heading south. I clambered over a stack of logs before heading south through a clearing in the trees. I hit another ‘fence of logs’ and carried on.
Hmmm, I seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. A quick check on my GPS and yes, I was heading down a dead end although, there are worse places to be ‘lost’. I was in a lovely dense pine forest. The smell was fantastic.
I went back to the log fence where I saw a group of English people sliding the top rows of logs across. Ah, so that’s how it works!
I pointed out to them that the track they were following was unlikely to be the one they wanted but they pressed on regardless. I do wonder what happened them.
The actual path was hard to find. It is a track to the left close to pylons. Once on the right route, I continued though a field of cows who were very reluctant to get out of my way!
The rest of the walk was far easier to follow and brought me out in the village of Podkoren. The path to Kranjska Gora is at the east side of the village, just before the main road and passing over a stream.
The path enters woodland just after passing a field containing ostriches. There are a few routes back to Kranjska Gora. One, lower walk, follows the river, I climbed to a higher path.
This route is available as a GPX file.
After dinner I took a stroll to the edge of town towards the petrol station for some bat spotting.
Thursday 6th September
I wanted an early start to day and woke at around 06.30. I got my bag packed and clothes ready and wandered down to breakfast which started at 7, it was already busy.
I filed myself with eggy bread, bacon, omelette and croquettes.
After initially thinking, “tea and coffee making facilities, that’s a novelty”, I found myself getting peeved that my supplies hadn’t been replenished. I hid the last of the teabags in a drawer in the hope that would prompt housekeeping to leave me some more.
I decided I’d walk the first half of the route today. 21 miles should be do-able, I’d already proved that earlier in the week, besides, I didn’t want to try and pronounce Mojstrana to the bus driver!
Two hours twenty minutes later, I reached the start to get to start of walk, by the Alpine Museum in Mojstrana.
The Triglavska Bistrica Trail runs along the Triglavska Bistrica River along roads and paths to the Vrata Valley and the north face of Triglav.
Once again I passed the Peričnik Fall. Further along the route was the Galerije, an impressive collection of overhanging rocks.
After stopping at Aljažev dom to use their facilities, I continued on to the majestic north face of Triglav.
I decided that it was just a little too much to walk back so I took the bus back from Mojstrana to Kranjska Gora. The bus arrived at 15:30. I couldn’t decide if this was the bus I planned to get running very late or the next bus running early. Either way, it was a comfortable and quick way back to the hotel.
The website https://www.alpetour.si/en/public-transport/bus-schedule-browser great for finding the times of buses, length of journey and cost.
I was knackered, but resisted temptation to go to room, instead, went to Pri Jezersk, a little bar near the lake.
It was well worth the 2 mile round trip. I sat with a nice drink and a beautiful view of lake.
I had timed my day perfectly, getting to my room just as the thunder and torrential rain started. In the room, my coffee supply had been replenished but only decaff….must think I need calming down!
Fri 7th September
Just went for the cereal for breakfast today, wasn’t planning strenuous day…but what’s the saying about best laid plans?
Again, it was a nice warm day, albeit a bit cloudier. Took D2 as far as the Zelenci nature reserve. After wandering around for a short while, I rejoined D2 and walked to Ratece before taking the road to Planica. Work was under way on a new cycle and footpath from Ratece.
Ski jumping was taking place in Planica, nothing new there, however, there was no snow! The centre also has an indoor real snow cross country course, complete with snowman!
Continuing south from Planica, I started a circular walk to the waterfall Slap Nadiža. Passing the church and Tamar mountain hut, I went to see the memorial for a B24 bomber which had crashed in the area during World War 2.
I then headed towards the waterfall.
The path soon became a more of a hands on scramble than a walk.
I gained height quickly over the rocky terrain and the views back down to the valley below were lovely.
Personally, I think Mojstrana is the more impressive waterfall of the two but Nadiža is well worth a visit!
I took the other path back towards Planica to make this part of the walk circular.
After dinner I popped out to see Harley Davidson events. Sporty bar had stage set up and Harley Village near the village centre. A great AC-DC tribute band were playing and the roads were filled with motorcycles.
A great way to spend the last night!!
Friday 8th September
My last day 😢
Chips on the menu at breakfast so had to have one for novelty value!
This was likely to be my only hot meal of the day so I filled my boots. Pancake with lemon to start, bacon (which is fantastic), two types of sausage, hard boiled egg, veg and a cheesy bread roll.
For the large part of my holiday, the football team
NK Olimpija were staying at my hotel. I noticed a signed shirt at breakfast. I suspect it’ll be auctioned off.
The team were busy doing touristy things today, some in cafes, a couple on the Vitranc cable car, saw some more on a coach trip.
It didn’t take long to pack then I wandered downstairs, paid my €15 for the week’s drinks, left my luggage in a cupboard near reception and went for a final walk.
The weather was glorious. Such a shame to be leaving. I circled Lake Jasna before zigzagging around the village and took the D2 cycle way to Zelenci.
Everywhere was quite busy today, especially with the Harley Davidson European Bike Week event which was taking place. The main venue seems to be in Austria but it makes sense to extend it across the border over some great mountain passes.
All too soon and 10 miles later it was pick up time.
We rook road over Karavanke mountains stopping at the same services we did coming out. Had my 50 cents ready for the toilet I was realising Austria is an expensive place especially compared to Slovenia!
I sat out on the grass outside, eating my breakfast banana and chatting to a couple who sat next to me on the minibus coming out . I think most of us could have done without the long wait at the services. 
We arrived at the airport nice and early, before check in. While the others follows the rep, I glanced at the screen and made my way to the front of the check in queue.
After checking in, I went for a wander to the control tower and for a peek at the apron. As I walked back I noticed an open roof top terrace. That’ll do!
There’s definitely more to see and do in this airport before you pass through security. As the flight has been delayed 20 minutes and there was no queue at all for security, I hung around a while. Not that there was much going on on the tarmac. It is a very quiet airport.
Needless to say there are no screens on the terrace so, just in case the inbound flight made up some time, I wandered to security 20 minutes before we were due to board.
Straight through security, I wish all were so quick and easy.
Given the time of the flight (19.35) I thought I’d grab some food to take on the flight. Ideally I’d have got a nice, cheap sandwich from the Mercator but, a baguette can be a dangerous thing to take through airport security so I bought a salami and cheese baguette at the airport for the extortionate price of €7.
Top tip, of flying with Flybe, just buy a sandwich on board. Luckily I’d noticed that rather than pay silly prices for a drink in the cafe, I could get a water for a Euro
This ‘snack’ was getting close to what I’d spent all week in Slovenia!
It always amuses me that people rush to board when its obvious that there is a bus transfer to the aircraft and you have allocated seating. I hung back and charged my phone. Paying that much for a sandwich I was going to use some of their electricity!
And so after almost 150 miles of walking, fantastic views, lovely people and an unexpected concert, I was heading back to England……. thinking about my next and 10th trip to Slovenia.
I ended up passing between two houses and working my way up to where the path should be. I was very glad of my GPS at this point!
I spent a little bit of time looking around this part of Styal which was built in the late 1700s by Samuel Greg for those working at his mill.
The next path was almost directly over the road. Crossing over a river, I continued to where a spring joined the river and plonked myself down on a large piece of concrete jutting in to the water.
Taking a left when I reached the road, I took the next footpath on the right, walking South West to the track. At the crossroads, I took a right towards the houses and continued West to the A494, crossing the road and taking the narrow road almost opposite through Llanferres.
Black Pudding Gaiters 