Triglav National Park

Before I go any further in this post, I would like to make something clear. You may have read in some other blogs of people's adventures in Triglav National Park recently. However, those people are copycats and you should not associate with them - it was SOOO our idea first ;-)

Triglav National Park is Slovenia's only national park, and contains Triglav - Slovenia's highest mountain at 2864 m. It is a beautiful place of trees, lakes, rivers and the mountains of the Julian Alps. We met our friend Marcel (who lives in Austria) and camped there for 3 days of walking and sightseeing.

One of the first things we did was to check out the local pizzeria/pasteria, where we found the biggest pizzas any of us had ever seen!

"Now I wish I hadn't got this stupid salad" (Photo: Marcel)

Marcel seemed to quite like his too.

The next day we went for a walk. We could have caught a cable car up 1000 m like everyone else but thought it would be much more fun to get lost instead.

(Photo: Marcel)

(Photo: Marcel)

Other folks were having fun up there too. This guy hung around for a while.


Lake Bohinj - we camped right next to it.



This is how the tracks are marked in this part of the world.



Ruined mountain hut with Triglav in the background

On the second day, Sylvia decided her knees weren't quite up to another long day so we parted company. Marcel and I headed on the 7 Lakes circuit and Sylvia headed off to the Slap Mostnice. With a name like that, who could resist?

Mark, overlooking Lake no. 2 (Photo: Marcel)

Lake no. 1 (Photo: Marcel)

We even had to walk on snow! (Photo: Marcel)

When Mhairi was here, she did a day trip from Lake Bohinj to climb Triglav (far distance). It only took her 12 hours versus our 11 for a much shorter circuit! So we take out hats off to her. (Photo: Marcel)

On the way back, we visited the source of the river Sava, the biggest river in Slovenia. It's not so big where it emerges from this cave...(Photo: Marcel)

...and immediately tumbles over this waterfall. That's the viewing platform you can see, tourists pay 5 Euros to walk up the gorge below. (Photo: Marcel)

Lake Bohinj again

A cool arch that Sylvia saw on her walk.

The Slap Mostnice. No it's not a gentle form of corporal punishment but a waterfall. Sylvia managed to get lost and thereby avoid paying 2 Euros to walk up the gorge by the normal route.

On our way out of the park on the third day, we spent some time in beautiful (and very touristy) Bled. There is a great castle on a steep crag overlooking the town and lake, and a monastery on an island. It used to be the custom to paddle out to the island and ring the monastery bell. Now they've locked it up and they charge tourists to ring it! It doesn't seem to stop them, as the bell was ringing almost constantly as we walked the 6 km around the lake.