Whilst riding along small roads in Slovenia’s forested areas I had come across warning signs for bears, not really surprising as Slovenia is one of the few countries that continues to enjoy a successful wild population. This morning I came across this warning sign, and later on one with an image that looked like an otter!
Once again my attempts to ride Slovenia’s famed mountain passes were thwarted as the ones I wanted to see were all closed due to snow. So I plotted an alternative route though the Triglav National Park and surrounding areas before heading over towards Maribor for my next stop.
Slovenia is full of picture perfect villages like this one, there is just something about the way they are laid out amongst the rolling hills that appeals to me. The higher ground tends to be more forested and provides some exciting riding opportunities on pretty decent small roads.
Climbing or descending is punctuated by multiple hairpin corners, usually well signposted but occasionally not, so its important to keep close attention to the landscape and anticipate the next bend.
Back down in the valleys there were many of these structures, I believe they are a kind of Hayloft where the bales are stacked against either side of the horizontal poles, protected from the rain (vertically at least) by the small pitched roof. They were all empty on this trip so I cannot say for sure. They look very attractive through.
I headed off up into the hills following a sign to something I though I recognised from prior reading. The tarmac stopped not long after and the way continued as a stone track, a lot more loose and uneven than it looks on the photos, generating quite a bit of wheel-slip at times, but the Michelin Anakee Adventure tyres I had put on for this trip kept things reasonably stable.
The track carried on for several miles up and down the wooded hillside ....
.... without apparently getting anywhere particular ...
.... and then finally petered out into just a forest trail, at which point I decided to turn around and go back, having spent the best part of an hour getting to this point.
Lower down, the picturesque villages continued to appear with comforting regularity.
Usually accompanied by one of the pretty little chapels.
The final leg of todays journey involved a climb up to the Pohorju region where I had booked a B&B near the top of one of the mountains.
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