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Journal: |
I slept well in the wind-buffeted hut and left with the good
wishes of the elderly (probably my age!) hut staff at 7:30am after a
basic breakfast. The storms of yesterday seemed to have
cleared the humidity and the views (from 1835m) extended for scores
of kilometres, particularly to the massifs of the Julian Alps in the
Triglav National Park to the north. It was still very cold in
the gale-force wind, but not too bad for walking with my rain-jacket
on. Surrounded by great views and after a good night's sleep,
I was suddenly possessed with a great sense of sadness that I would
only be doing this for four more days after today. Each day
brings a sense of anticipation because you never really know what
the trail and scenery will be like, or what experiences lie in
store.
Anyway, it made me savour even more the early
kilometres as I followed the range to the east, sometimes on top of
the grassy ridge, and sometimes in the mossy boulder-strewn forests
just below. To add some spice, I encountered a trail runner
early on, nearing the top of his early-morning climb, and saw
permanent signs at junctions pointing the way for the Gorskih
Maraton. I saw more signs for the "Maraton" most of the day on
some great trail with great views, and would think it's a very
popular event. I'll have to look it up on the web. I
made good time all the way to the hamlet of Petrovo Brdo in a saddle
where I crossed a main road before beginning my ascent to the peak
of Porezen (1630m). I stopped for an early lunch in a sunny
clearing around 11am before continuing the steady, but quite easy,
ascent through the forest to the grassy peak where I arrived around
1pm. More great views of mountains, forests, farmland and
toy-like villages.
The afternoon didn't go quite so well as
the morning! It started out fine as I descended along the top
of the long ridge leading to the village of Dolenji Novaki, three
hours walk away, where I hoped to find a hotel for the night.
It was still clear and breezy and the first hour went quickly,
although the trail-marking and signage was often confusing or
absent. Sure enough, I took a wrong turn at a fork and didn't
wake up until I had walked another couple of kilometres, mostly
downhill. Rather than bush-bash my way down a very steep and
overgrown slope, I retraced my steps to be on the safe side and lost
about an hour and with it my hopes of a 4pm finish.
A bit
later on the trail went through some scraggly forest, criss-crossed
by many trails, and became very hard to follow. It also
descended very steeply and, despite travelling very carefully, I
still had one heavy fall, though no harm done. I remembered
how the female French Via Alpina hiker I breakfasted with two days
ago had complained about the difficulties of following the trail in
Slovenia, so maybe I'm in for a few more days of this, now I'm out
of Triglav National Park.
Finally I reached Dolenji Novaki
around 5pm. It was small and spread out on the side of a steep
hill. Without describing all the gory details, to save
embarrassment, I ended up making a laborious 3km circuit around the
village without finding any sign of a hotel and eventually found my
way to what was supposed to be a bed & breakfast apartment, where I
arrived about 6:20pm. The owners were in the middle of
cleaning the only free apartment and invited me to sit outside while
they finished. It wasn't that cheap, although it is a full
apartment, and the owners were keen to look after me. Sadly,
there's nowhere to get dinner or breakfast in the village, so I'm
glad I restocked on snacks yesterday. I should have enough to
see me through until tomorrow afternoon when I reach another
village. On the plus side, I can get some English-language
movies on the TV, and the owner gave me the password to his wi-fi.
I can see that the mountains are getting lower and less
precipitous now as I move south towards the coast of the Adriatic,
but the rural scenery, interspersed with forest, is very pretty, and
I anticipate some nice hiking in the last few days.
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