Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 25

Undoubtably this was the hottest day of my trek so far, with temperatures climbing into the upper 20s and lower 30s rapidly. After the exceptional scenery of the last two or three days, it was a bit less dramatic, and in some ways a little disappointing, as I had hoped for another day alongside the Soca as nice as yesterday’s. That was probably expecting too much. While today the route did follow the river for much of the day, a lot of the time the Soca was tantalisingly hidden behind shrubbery even when it was close.

From the start in Bovec the trail led me through farmland and then woodland, providing welcome shade, but some slippery footings where the sun hadn’t yet had the opportunity to dry out the ground under the trees. There were options slightly off route to visit a couple of waterfalls, Slap Virje and a little later, Slap Boka, and had it not been so hot already, and the detours not involved additional hills, I probably would have visited at least one of them. But I was keen not to have another really long day, especially in this heat, so instead stuck to the basic route.

A reservoir provided perfect reflections of the mountains, and then I followed the route down to the Soca, for the first time today, also following part of the Narnjia trail, which takes in some locations used in the shooting of the Narnia movie ‘Prince Caspian’, back in 2008.

Alongside the river was a vast spread of white rocky ground, some of it no doubt, normally underwater. This white rock, as I found out throughout the day, reflected the heat and, away from any shade, made it particularly hot and dry to walk amongst.

I should take back what I said in a previous post about trail signage in Slovenia, because on this stage of the route there were clear yellow signs at almost every path junction. The only real confusion came around the turn off for the Boka waterfall, where the signage, which I followed, seemed not to have been updated to reflect the route on the app. I followed the signs and stayed on the north side of the river, following the Juliana Trail, whereas the revised version, on the app, would have taken me across to the other bank. Whether it would have been any better I’m not sure.

The route I took led me through the little village of Log Cezsoski, and along a farm track with views of the mountains around. It was pleasant at first, but then as it approached the Soca, it started followed a long stretch of unshaded white rocky trail, which because it was shielded by undergrowth didn’t actually allow you to see hardly any of the river itself. For the next couple of kilometres all you could see were the bushes either side of the path, and they didn’t even seem to provide any of the much needed shade.

Luckily a bit later along, the path did go back into woodland, which gave some welcome relief from the unrelenting sun, although the surface underfoot then became so rocky and uneven it was like walking on railway ballast.

Just as I emerged from the woodland, a familiar figure approached. It turned out to be Thomas, the guy from Hamburg I had met a couple of days before shortly after the Vrsic Pass. He’d managed to find a spot at a camp site last night even though they’d told him initially they were full. He was still planning to go the Tolmin punk rock festival, but had decided to spend a couple of days in Ljubljana beforehand meeting friends.

To be honest, I’m a bit envious of people like Thomas’ ability to be so spontaneous. I sometimes wish I was able to do that sort of thing rather than all the pre planning months ahead that I always feel is necessary. Unfortunately I think you just need to be a different sort of person and a bit more relaxed about the risk of things going wrong than I am for it to work for me.

Thomas was continuing on the Juliana trail, along the Soca, and we parted ways when the AAT sign to Dreznica pointed uphill. My route then started to climb modestly for the rest of the afternoon.

By this point, the heat was really starting to get to me and I was conscious that the two litres of water I had brought today wouldn’t last much longer. So I tried to walk a bit faster as the route turned to road and became easier underfoot.

And then, just at the point I was almost out of water, in the village of Magozd, when I had probably at least another half an hour before the end of the days’ walking, I saw this enticing sign pointing down the hill saying, in English, ‘Fresh drinks, 100 metres’. This I couldn’t resist, so I followed it, thinking it would lead to a bar or cafe.

But there was no evidence of any such place, only another wooden arrow with ‘Fresh drinks ‘ which appeared to point to a house. I rang the doorbell, and a young woman answered and pointed me to a tree and a bench in the garden, by the second sign. She said ‘help yourself’.

By the tree, in an open tank of cold water were dozens of coke cans and a few bottles of water. Unfortunately, though, swarming around the drinks were also twenty or thirty wasps. Having made the effort so far and being so thirsty, I didn’t want to give up now. So, improvising, I delicately used my walking poles like chopsticks to pick a bottle of water out of the tank without getting stung. After two or three attempts I amazed myself by actually managing it and whisked the bottle quickly away from the wasps, before pouring the contents into my own water bottle. I could have easily drunk another, but I didn’t want to push my luck a second time. There was an honesty box in which to put some money, so that was the least I could do.

Actually after that I wasn’t far away from my destination, the village of Dreznica. But that extra half litre of water really did help. Tomorrow I think if the temperature stays this high I may have to carry three litres with me, just in case. It’s probably not likely that I will find another kindly local leaving out drinks for passing hikers like I did today.