Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 31

The wind rattled through the window during the night, but by morning the air was still and the sun was beaming strongly, heralding another hot, dry day. It was forecast to be at least as hot as yesterday, in the low to mid 30s, and was already baking hot when I left Smartno around 9:00 am.

After first following a misleading sign down a rocky path, I made my way back up to the road to take me though a succession of Slovenian villages, including Travnik, Kozana and Medana. The road had a steady flow of traffic, and there wasn’t a pavement, so it was a relief when the route finally led off the road for a little while- down to a dry river bed and through vineyards. Again vineyards were all around, dominating the landscape.

It wasn’t flat, but the inclines weren’t too sustained and generally after climbing a bit, I’d drop down again. Soon I was back on the road though, and all along it were a succession of hotels and restaurants promoting the local wine. As I’d seen before at intervals there were a number of unusual seats designed also to promote a particular variety or vineyard and encourage you to stop for a glass or two.

The road crossed back into Italy, this time marked by border signs, and what looked like a former customs post, with smashed-in windows. Unsurprisingly, once the border was crossed, the landscape didn’t look much different though, and I soon passed the village of Plessiva, with another restaurant promoting local wine.

After about three hours’ walking I was beginning to think that I was in for a third consecutive day of nothing but vineyards, vineyards and yet more vineyards. Now I know I welcomed the change on Monday, but to be honest, walking though agricultural land of any sort is not really what I enjoy. At home, I don’t mind a little walking across fields or field edges, as part of a walk, but I’ve always preferred woodland, riverside, forest, heathland, mountain and moor.

Soon after crossing into Italy, and passing Plessiva village the route took a turn to the right, signed as Bosco Plessiva- Plessiva wood. I spotted a shady picnic bench by an empty childrens’ playground where I could have my lunch. I can tell you the first bit of sustained shade for about three hours was hugely welcome, and when I came to resume my walk afterwards, I was delighted to find that the next hour and a half carried on within the woods, making a welcome change from the endless vineyards and direct heat of the sun.

The woodland path was interesting too. It wound around, up and down, performing a u shape in the route before finally emerging at yet another vineyard. As this trail frequently does thought it reserved a little ‘treat’ for the end – the biggest climb of the day, and then as my destination, Cormons, opened out before me, the biggest descent. The route followed a steep cobbled path that eventually came out at another road near my hotel.

What I’d noticed today is for the first time during my trip that my knees were starting to ache, and as the day progressed this became more evident. It’s not surprising really after all that my body has been through over the last five weeks, and knees were always bound to be one of the parts of the body taking the brunt of these unusual levels of activity. At least they are no longer bruised like they were initially after a few days. I think all of the hiking, ascents and descents have begun to take their toll, and walking on a lot of asphalt roads today probably hasn’t helped either. I just hope they don’t get more painful over the next few days. Today I was using the walking poles more than ever to try and relieve some of the pressure on them.

But at least today brought back a bit more variety to the walk, at last, and I hope that continues. It shouldn’t be long either before I get my first sight of the Adriatic, where my end destination lies.