Day 9 – at Šenkova Domačija, Jezersko

And the first, hopefully of many.. ‘highway of diamonds with nobody on it.’

Whereas yesterday I had been on north facing slopes, today was on south facing, and therefore with much less snow. It was a circuit that ascended on a path away from the road up to the pass I had driven over from Austria.

These former major borders have always fascinated me. The path went through the land and former barracks of the Yugoslavian border guard. It was constructed in 1948, when Tito broke away from Stalin’s Soviet Union, and was active until Slovenia became a county in its own right in 1991. The border post though was used until Slovenia became a member of the EU in 2004.

A lady was tending the garden of the former barracks. We got chatting. She was extremely proud of purchasing it a year ago, along with her husband. Their children had grown, and they left Ljubljana for this project. It has great views, and will eventually be a tourism business for them. For now, they had made two rooms liveable, and had spent the winter renovating. Can be seen from Photo 2.

From here the mayor’s route follows a ridge that basically forms the border between Slovenia and Austria for about 6 kilometres, at 1300 metres. Throughout, the views of the Kamniško-Savinjske Alps are spectacular. It really is ‘a highway of diamonds with nobody on it’… except that is for a German couple, who enquired where I was going at the road border, and followed me, a few hundred metres behind..

After a couple of kilometres is another former-Yugoslav border barracks. Photos 4, 5 and 6. This one has incredible views, and is still abandoned. Though a bit more difficult to get to, it would make a wonderful guest house, a project just waiting, but in the meantime with the shutters knocking in the wind, quite haunting.

The descent was long and curly, and used by logging trucks, though it was quiet today. All in all, a splendid excursion.

Back at the van I put a sponge over the van, now the snowy roads are done with. The mayor brought the eggs, and Roja enjoyed the company of his father and son St Bernard / German Shepherd cross dogs. Photo 10.

I wrote a review for a 5 star book I had finished in the morning, Belgian Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men, and mused on just what to do with those eggs..

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