Julian Alps and the Soca Front

Wow have we ever had a busy 2 days since leaving Lake Bled. We have managed to travel to 4 countries during that time including Slovenia, Austria, Italy and Croatia. The drive through the Julian Alps starts about an hour outside of Lake Bled in Kranjska Gora, a ski resort town. Rather than following Rick Steves primitive map in his guide book, I entered the town's name in google maps and the shortest way was through Austria passing through the 8 km long Karawanks tunnel. Of course we didn't realize we had entered Austria until our data plans on our phones went dead and we noticed Agipe gas stations which I hadn't previously seen in the Balkans. Fortunately Andrew who was navigating was able to remember the way and we successfully made it back into Slovenia. The Julian alps are known for their spectacular scenery and also becaus during WW1 this area represented the Soca Front where Italy and the Austrian Hungarians fought trench warfare but on the tops of mountains in horrendous conditions. There are still evidence of fortifications dotting the landscape and the road. The road itself had been built by Russian POWs during WW1 to supply the front. A Russain Orthodox chapel marked one of the early switchbacks to commemorate the several hundred Russains who had died from avalanches, exposure or illness building the road. Our route took us up 24 switch backs to the Vrsic pass at about 1300 metres. The little MG SUV really had to strain to make it up all of the switchbacks. We stopped at a few lookout spots along the way to admire the spectacular views. At the top there were further ruins of a ancient gondola tower used during WW1 and some pill boxes that we wandered around as well as heading up to some overlooks into the surrounding valley. We then headed down the 26 switch backs down to the Soca River for which the battlefront was named. We visited Kluze fortress, an Italian fortress on the west side of the river aand an open air museum where they had refurbished some trenches and bunkers and caves to look as they had during the war. Just down the road there was a massive Austrian cemetary containing thousands of buried Austrian soldiers. We finished our day in Kobarid. Kobarid's claim to fame was that Ernest Hemingway while working as an ambulance driver for the red cross supporting the Italian army had been wounded here and subsequently went on to write about it in a Farewell to Arms. They had a very good museum depicting the Soca Front and demonstrating just how brutal the warfare was. Essentially after Italy invaded in 1915 the battlefield remained static for 2 years until October 24 when the Germans supported the Austrians and used phosgene gas for which the Italian's gasmasks did not work and were able to push the Italians all the way back into Italy and finishing the Soca Battle. After another pizzeria and pasta supper we walked up to a large Mausoleum over looking the town where the bodies of all the killed Italian soldiers had been buried. It was very touching.

We got an early start today leaving at 8:15. This is the earliest that we have got going early. We wanted to hit the Kolovrat Outdoor Museum half an hour southwest of Karbarid very high up in the mountains. An Italian artillery regiment had been stationed here during the war and it also consisted of trenches, tunnels caves and bunkers. Andrew is very enthusiastic to look at this stuff. I am a little worried that I will slip in a cave or bunker so I am taking things slowly. What was interesting about this outdoor museum was that it was located along a mountain ridge and the Italian-Slovenian border ran immediately through the park. The border was marked with white concrete markers and I hopped back and forth across the border before hiking to a peak on the Italian side. No ICE agents. The museum was not staffed and there was no one there. No one cared.

After wandering around the trenches and fortifications for an hour we headed off to our last destination in Slovenia, the Skocjan caves which were 1 1/2 hour drive away . My colleague Ninid who is from Serbia put me on to these caves. I had bought tickets for 1 pm but we were there just at 12 so they let us go on the noon tour. We ended up doing several km of hiking including a 2 km hike to the cave entrance. The first hour we walked through the cave system with a guide but we had problems hearing her as the group was so large. The impressive thing about this cave system is how large it is. It is massive, cavernous, huge. If you ever imagined what the caves were like in Lord of the rings, one only has to visit these caves. I was just waiting for some orcs and dwarves to show up and start fighting. Formed over hundreds of thousands of years by an underground river. After the guided cave tour we continued tromping through a deep gorge with waterfalls and smaller caves. Truly impressive. By 3 pm were were finished with the caves and drove 1.5 hours to Rovinj on the Croatian Adriatic sea.Read more