Planina

We were awake at 7:30am listening to the rain beating down on Wanda. It had rained most of the night and we’d even had thunder and lightning. I thought it was great but apparently it had kept Ellie awake most of the night.
We weren’t in any particular hurry today as I’d pretty much written the day off and by 10am we’d put the bed away got dressed and we were already bored so I suggested a drive into the local town which was just a mile away.
I tried googling what was about in town and obviously most things came up in Slovenien so we didn’t understand them but it didn’t look like it was offering alot in the form of shops and to top it off today was a public holiday.
We found a free car park in Ziri that had space for a few hundred vehicles that had just 5 in it. Things didn’t look promising for anything being open. Then we locked Wanda up and walked up what looked to be the main road. We passed a shoe shop, a clothing store and then saw a couple of ski shops but everything was closed and it didn’t look like the kind of town you could just mooch around anyway so we turned around and headed the other way.
At the crossroads where we came into the town there was a large spar supermarket which was open but we didn’t bother going in and then Ellie saw a bank and drew some cash out for emergencies. Next to the bank was a bar called the stab bar. We wouldn’t be stopping there. Then we spotted an open bakery and a local bakery is one of the best places to try local food so we went in there and I brought a big slice of Burek which is a light pastry, this was filo pastry stuffed with meat or potatoes. It’s an Eastern European and Asian dish often served with coffee for breakfast. It was really tasty and really filling.
Ellie had a heart shaped savoury pastry with melted cheese and tomato and a piece of strudel.
Back at Wanda it was now 11am and the rain had stopped although it was still murky and very wet so we decided we would head to the nearest local city of Ljubljana to have a look at what real Slovinia was like.
I was abit dubious about finding a parking space although Patk4night said there was one just 10 minutes walk away from the city Center and just 2 miles into the journey the clouds broke and sunshine and blue skies shone through and we turned back around and headed back for our parking spot we had last night.
We decided to empty the toilet and top up with fresh water and then continue our original journey and head further down Slovinia and I programmed the sat nav for our next stop on route. The Alpine Wall Bunker.
It was just a 20 mile 45 minute journey to the area of Planina. Here there are a massive set of cave systems called the Planina Cave and various abandoned buildings. The Alpine Wall bunker where we were heading definatly isn’t on the tourist map. Infact it’s not on any map.
We drove through the village of Planina and out the other side and then turned onto gravel tracks and drove through some woods. This was a road only used by locals and also isn’t on the maps as a road.
We drove 1.5 miles on the gravel tracks taking a turn to the right and heading down and then we came to a space where we could park, so we turned Wanda off and I grabbed my phone and camera gear and we jumped out.
The Alpine Wall bunker was a series of forts strategically placed across the Alpine passes of what was Yugoslavia during the time of Mussolini and it stretched for over 1800 Kilometers. Most the forts were built between 1911-1914 before the First World War and at the beginning of WW1 were taken over and occupied by the Italians as this part of Slovinia was actually the Italian border at the time.
Most of the forts have since been destroyed and shut down. A few along the bottom of Slovinia on the Croatian border are open to the public as museums but this one in Planina has been forgotten and left and entry can be gained if you’re brave enough.
Leaving Wanda we joined a footpath and at the beginning of it I looked to my left and there was a huge crater and 400ft deep and running of the side of the footpath down into the crater there was a little trail. I told Ellie to wait while I went down first on my hands and butt and then I saw the entrance to the bunker in the side of the cliff. I called Ellie and she came down to and we both made our way down to a concrete platform jutting out from the side of the cliff 400ft from the floor. Here we found an open arched doorway about 5ft high. The entrance was flooded with all the rain but after that it was dry but it was pitch black.
We both put our head torches on and then used some old bricks to stand on to get past the flooded section and then we were in a tunnel that was shoulder width across and so long we couldn’t see the end.
We started walking and after about 100 meters deep into the mountain we came to a junction. Both left and right was just never ending blackness. We turned left and another 200 meters in we started coming across rooms that were probably the sleeping quarters of the soldiers. We carried on another hundred meters and found steps that went down leading to other rooms off the side. It was beyond dark and all we could hear was dripping water leaking through parts of the roof but Ellie thought she could hear footsteps following her. After another hundred meters the tunnel started heading down and the water that had been dripping through the ceiling was starting to collect so we turned around and headed back the way we came to the junction. It took us 25 minutes to get there walking at a normal pace.
Back at the junction we decided to continue into the darkness and this tunnel had more rooms leading off it and they were bigger and some even had steps going down leading to rooms that went under the main tunnel we were walking on. Then the tunnel started to go down at quite a steep rate, I was surprised there was no water collecting and we continued along in the dark for a good 200 meters until we came to a set of concrete steps that went up so high we couldn’t see the top. We climbed and climbed and I thought that we had found another way out but at the top the tunnels just went on and for hundreds more meters.
Eventually the tunnel got lower in height to about 4 foot and I could feel fresh air coming in and we came to an opening that overlooked the huge crater with a 400ft drop. There were no bars or barriers to stop us falling.
We turned around and headed back the way we came, down all the steps, past all the rooms and Ellie really didn’t like it. Eventually we came to another door way that led us out into the woods next to the gravel track we had driven in on.
We had been underground for well over an hour and walked over 2 kilometres, it was crazy.
It took us another 15 minutes to get back to Wanda and just as we did the rain started falling again. We’d had another lucky escape, although it wouldn’t have mattered that much as we were underground.
It was now 3pm and our final stop of the day was just around the corner and I set the Sat Nav again and we left the Alpine Wall Bunker.Read more