Day 221: Kamnik and Solcava

Time for another day trip, this time to the north! In the car around 9:30 and drove off to the north, stopping firstly at the town of Kamnik. This is kind of the gateway to the mountains of northern Slovenia, and it's at the start of a long skinny mountain valley. Unfortunately for us, it was very foggy and we couldn't see anything! The town itself was nice, though very quiet and hardly anyone was around since it was Saturday morning.

Gradually the fog began to lift and suddenly we saw all the mountains in the distance! Great views from the old ruined castle in the centre of town. Had a quick coffee and snack here before pressing on northwards into the mountains.

It's a beautiful part of the countryside here, with some snow-capped mountains as well as narrow river gorges, swiftly flowing clear streams, and lots of pine forest. We noticed that right on cue, some of the trees had started to turn orange (today is the first day of autumn).

Drove up a long and windy road to Kamniska Bistrica, where the road basically becomes a hiking trail! We couldn't get any further so parked in a small carpark and had a look around. There was a really nice river pool here at the bottom of a small waterfall, and another fall at the other end of it, but it looked absolutely frosty so neither of us went in!

Decided to grab some lunch at the guesthouse on the trailhead, so I had a plate of goulash while Shandos had sausages. Very hearty food, but it's to be expected since we're basically in central Europe now. Sat and enjoyed the sunshine for a while before driving back down the road we'd come up.

Stopped halfway at a place called Velika Planina, where you got a cable car up to a high plateau where some traditional huts and a village huddle against the wind and cold. They're replica buildings, sort of like an outdoor museum I guess. The cable car was fairly expensive and Schnitzel wasn't allowed, so we decided to skip. It looked quite touristy as well, lots of billboards advertising it scattered around the place!

Headed back south down this valley, drove east and then north again heading to a waterfall we'd heard good things about. It was quite a long drive over some twisty roads, up and down a mountain pass, but definitely worth it! We ended up in a long narrow valley known as Logarska Dolina, which was quite large and wide but towered over by enormous mountains.

Right down the far end of the valley at the end of the road (which we drove down while following a brand new Lamborghini), we had a 20-minute trek uphill to a waterfall, Slap Savica (slap is the Slovenian word for waterfall). It was fantastic, a good hundred metre plunge straight down over a cliff, and with towering snow-flecked mountains on two other sides. Lots of green and orange pine trees around the place as well, making it look absolutely beautiful in the sun. Fantastic spot, though we decided not to stop for a beer at the hut like everyone else!

Ironically, we were only about 5km in a straight line from where we'd had lunch, but it was a 90 minute drive between the two points, just because you had to drive around in a huge loop! But we got back in the car and headed back to Ljubljana, satisfied but very tired.Read more