Second home: Soča valley

May 2023 - April 2024

Yep, Julia and I do go to the Soča valley to often to keep starting a new "trip" every time. Still, it is just too beautiful to not share at least some of my memories every year. So this will be a dump for all upcoming Slovenia footprints. Read more

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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- Jun 21, 2022
- ☁️ 24 °C
- Altitude: 2,080 m
- Italy Friuli Venezia Giulia Tarvisio Casere 46.398248, 13.56517946°23’54” N 13°33’55” E
2
Jerebica - Cima del Lago
June 21, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
The two names given in the title - the first in Slovenian, the second in Italian - describe the peak of a mountain just above the village of Log Pod Mangartom. Our hike up there took a little over three hours, with some quite steep and balancy sections in between. Both Julia and I were surprised that she went all the way up, seeing as she has so far always refused to try a via ferrata (in my opinion, some of the sections up Jerebica were by far more sketchy). Maybe it was because Miha made it all look so easy that we called him mountain goat.
At the peak we met our friends Matej and Mare, who had first pretended to have other plans only to get up even earlier than us and surprise us when we got there (and yeah ok, the sunrise pictures they took also look pretty cool). We were really lucky to still get a good view of Predil lake and the surrounding mountains before everything was hidden in the clouds a few minutes later. Even so, we took our time, had a picnic, a little nap and only then started our way back down.Read more
Traveler sieht nach einer richtig, richtig geilen Wanderung aus
8/15/22Reply
annalovestraveling War es!
8/15/22Reply
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 13, 2023
- 🌧 14 °C
- Altitude: 447 m
- Slovenia Bovec 46.336827, 13.55208546°20’13” N 13°33’8” E
Day 1
Back in town
May 13, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 14 °C
We arrive to an almost empty village during heavy rainfall, creating a somewhat gloomy mood. Even wir the deep hanging clouds the valley looks simply beautiful. As a nice extra, the river finally has a little more water than during our last time here - which means more fun kayaking :)
The first day we don't do a lot. We need a little time to switch off our minds and get into vacation mood. The cold, rainy weather is another motivation to spend a lazy day at the hostel, except for the obligatory coffee at Kavarna and a little evening stroll.
We meet some old friends, but also a lot of new people. For instance there is a big group of kayaking and rafting guides, most of them from Patagonia. We'll end up spending most evenings with them, go paddling together and shuttling them to the harder river sections. We'll also learn that we're already known all over town, even by those we've never met. Apparently we "leave a little bit of chaos" every time we come to Bovec 🤷. We're even party of the gossip now.Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 17, 2023
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitude: 387 m
- Slovenia Občina Bovec Koritnica 46.329705, 13.57515646°19’47” N 13°34’31” E
Day 5
Kayak school with Tin
May 17, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
It's still rather cold and rainy, bit we are lucky and get the perfect mix of fine water levels (around 30 m^3/s) and not too much rain while we are on the water. This year we do our lessons with Tin, a local guide who has his own company (Emerald timeouts), and who we met last year through our friend Matej.Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 19, 2023
- ☁️ 9 °C
- Altitude: 1,795 m
- Slovenia Občina Kobarid Krn Krnčica 46.291991, 13.67135646°17’31” N 13°40’17” E
Day 7
Krnsko Jezero
May 19, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
Morning hike with our friend Miha up the snowy Krn mountain to Krn kake. Temperature at the lake: 5°C
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 21, 2023
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 810 m
- Slovenia Občina Bovec Log Čezsoški Slap Boka 46.321465, 13.48105846°19’17” N 13°28’52” E
Day 9
Source of Boka Waterfall
May 21, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
A really steep hike with even some easy climbing, but incredibly rewarding!
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 22, 2023
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 306 m
- Slovenia Občina Bovec Srpenica 46.290208, 13.51372646°17’25” N 13°30’49” E
Day 10
River crew
May 22, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Making friends with the Chilean (+) group of kayaking, rafting and canyoning guides gave us the chance for some more individual time on the river. For example, we were invited to join a training session for aspiring rafting guide Josh, which was especially fun because that way we got to go with a group of friends. On some other days, I went kayaking on the "commercial section " Srpenica I - Trnovo (WW III) with Bruno, Tarzan and Harry (Julia could unfortunately not join due to a back injury). They even helped me to practice the eskimo roll and gave me lots of useful advice for my technique. Great crew ❤Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 23, 2023
- ☁️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 273 m
- Slovenia Občina Kobarid Trnovo ob Soči 46.279835, 13.55953846°16’47” N 13°33’34” E
Day 11
Being groupies
May 23, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Our kayaking might be improving, but we're still far from paddling WW class V or VI. Luckily, by now we know lots of people who have those skills. So why not be a groupie once in a while and watch them paddle the famous Katarakt section? In total we hiked down there three times, once helping the guys out and shuttling their cars to their exit point at Camp Korin. Just look at those moves!Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 24, 2023
- 🌧 17 °C
- Altitude: 732 m
- Slovenia Občina Bovec Trenta 46.397058, 13.74451646°23’49” N 13°44’40” E
Day 12
Source of Soča + Velika Korita
May 24, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ 🌧 17 °C
The downside to relying on your (guide) friends to join you for activities is: when they work, you lose. And: they usually work just at times when the water level is best and the rock is dry. For Julia and me that means there will be no kayaking nor climbing today.
Good thing that the Soča valley offers an incredible amount of beautiful things to see and that look different every time depending on the conditions. Together with our dorm mates Joseph and Janna, as well as our new friend "Bonney" (Andrew - he is a kayaking icon and Harry's mentor, who introduced us the evening before at dinner) we head out to visit the spring of our favorite river. Close to the village of Trenta we hike up just about 20 minutes before climbing down to the water. We can only see a hint of the spring from the sides, as the water level is too high to go any closer.
On our way back to Bovec we stop at the "Great Gorge" (Velika Gorita), an incredibly peaceful place to just sit and enjoy our penultimate day in Slovenia.Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- May 25, 2023
- ⛅ 19 °C
- Altitude: 984 m
- Italy Friuli Venezia Giulia Tarvisio Cave del Predil Lago del Predil 46.420669, 13.56554446°25’14” N 13°33’56” E
Day 13
Ending with SUP tryouts
May 25, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
And again, our time in the valley is coming to an end. As Julia is still struggling with lower back pain, Bonney suggests for her to try stand up paddling to relax her back muscles. He even takes us to lake Predil in Italy right after visiting the Soca source and the Great Gorge (see last footprint).
Having two SUPs in his van, he lends us one to share and accompanies us on the lake in the second one. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of that outing, but it sure was a lot of fun, especially being complete beginners and wobbling our way across Predil, which especially after the rain offered stunning views. However, it was also damn cold and even with our wetsuits we were freezing when we got back to the van.
The next day (our last one 😥) Bonney offered us to paddle with him once more, this time on white water. I left the paddle board to Julia and borrowed Bonneys fun half-slice 😍 kayak (according to him "the best kayak ever built"), having myself a nice little training session for technique and eskimo roll.
In the evening, we invited everyone to join us for a farewell party. Although our plan to have this party with a bonfire at the river bank was a little too ambitious, we at least got to see our friends one last time in our typical watering holes before leaving. The final stargazing session down in Čezsoča was reserved to just a few people.Read more
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annalovestraveling Second home: Soča valley
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- Sep 23, 2023
- ☁️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 387 m
- Slovenia Občina Bovec Koritnica 46.329666, 13.57523346°19’47” N 13°34’31” E
Day 134
High water
September 23, 2023 in Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
The last days' heavy rains that led us to push this falls visit to Bovec have created the highest water level Julia and I have seen so far in the valley (though by far not the highest that are usual for late fall to early spring). See for example the comparison between the Virje waterfall (just a few drips) last spring vs. now (you can't even walk towards the pond without getting soaked).
Since it's not allowed to kayak with this water level, we take the next best option - rafting. This time we get to do the upper section, starting from Camp Kovač, which is not usually possible with rafts. However, we will of course also go kayaking in the following days.Read more
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