Day 23 – at Camping Klin, Soča gorge

The plan was to take the Zagreb Old Military Road over the pass at 1200 metres, and descend to the Lepena waterfalls at the head of the Lepenjica valley.

There’s a lot of First World War history here. The campsite boss has accumulated a pile of artefacts that have been unearthed over the years; weaponry, helmets, and survival gear used for living up the high altitudes. This was the Italian front in 1915.

However, my plan was foiled. It’s a rough track at the best of times, and about 5 kilometres along it, I lost it all together, with two different maps, and a gps; lost amongst rubble of fallen stones and descended trees. I weaved my way down into the valley and in chatting with the farmer understood that the valley sides regularly get landslides, but for three years now, they haven’t been cleared, and few people, if any, have taken the path. It is an option to get to higher ground, but mountaineers have ascended from the refuge at the end of the valley, on a much easier route.

The route was still challenging and rewarding.

Up at the refuge I met a Slovenian family. Their young son had been running the the forest, 30 metres or so from the path. He had disturbed a pair of deer, and got something of a shock. Roja saw it, and came to his rescue, his parents were ahead. It turned out they were from Wokingham, visiting relatives in the area.

They were the only people I saw all day. Another good day for outdoor activity, though it is unseasonably cool, with a maximum or about 10C, and mainly cloudy skies.

The only other van on the site was about 80 metres away, and they came over for a chat mid-afternoon. They were English, and had rented their Indie Campervan from Brussels as it was so much cheaper. On a 10 week break they were covering a lot of miles, off to Hungary via Ljubljana tomorrow. They were very envious of my van. It was good to chat for a while.

Photos.. an interesting seat and shelter overlooking the valley in pic 2, the mountain sheep stay inside in the winter in pic 5, the clear green water of the Lepena falls pic 6, Roja always suspicious of any man-made structure such as a bridge in 7, 8 and 9.

Any of these pics that are portrait as opposed to landscape style, need clicking on to expand to view best..