Author Archives: marimbathepangolin

This morning was the hardest few hours’ walking I can ever remember. And I’ve done hundreds of walks over the last twenty five years in all sorts of terrain. It wasn’t that it was technically difficult, but simply that it was so hot, and so steep. And the really difficult part went on for atContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 27”

If you’ve been reading the blog of this trip from the start you may remember I said there were five days on the trail classed as difficult by my guide book. The first, Day 5, was certainly difficult for me, as I can’t forget arriving at the hotel throughly exhausted at 7 pm in theContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 26”

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 theContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 25”

It’s difficult to write a daily blog without drifting into clichés and repetition. But today’s walk really was superlative. I was following the Soca valley all day long, which lies within Slovenia’s Triglav National Park. Unlike the majority of the days hikes so far, this wasn’t a big climb or descent. Nor was it aContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 24”

Well amazingly, someone found my phone. And thank you Benjamin, the chef at Postarski Dom na Vrsicu, for reuniting me with it. It’s always a horrible feeling when you lose something important and really reassuring when kind people make that extra effort. Thanks too, to my wife Jeni for finding this out. And to whoeverContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 23”

Today’s walk was truly magnificent. One of the very best half day hikes I know, and I’ve done most of it twice now. And it’s not in any way a hard walk either, despite about 1000 metres of ascent. Yesterday, as I explained before, I decided not to walk stage 22 of the trail, crossingContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 22”

Today’s walk was graded as easy to moderate, and the only reason it had much ascent at all was because I’d decided to extend it from Faak am See to an isolated hotel called the Baumgartnerhof, so as to save time and effort the following day. The irony of this is that since booking theContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 21”

Today was just right. A peaceful straightforward walk with all the difficult work in the first two hours, while it was still cool. No massive ascents or descents, some pretty lakes, more forest walks, a couple of villages and a hazy view of the mountains marking the border with Slovenia. After the pain I hadContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 20”

Opening the curtains of my hotel room this morning this is the scene which greeted me. I guess it is to be expected, when you’re staying in a hotel at the top of a chair lift, 1900 metres above sea level, that you might get some low cloud. But it wasn’t something I’d thought aboutContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 19”

With rain and then severe thunderstorms threatened for today, I was anxious to make an early start again, especially as I was heading for Gerlitzen Alpe, at the top of a chair lift, nearly 2000 metres up, and likely to be just a little exposed. As it turned out, the thunderstorms didn’t materialise where IContinue reading “Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 18”