We are now staying in the small town of Stara Fužina, on the eastern shore of beautiful Lake Bohinj. At 2.5 miles long and 3/4 mile wide, Bohinj is the largest permanent lake in Slovenia. (There is another shallower lake that has more surface area but only after the rainy season, otherwise it is dry). This is a view of the lake from Mount Vogel -- you can see the beautiful green valley on the right where the farming community of Stara Fužina is located.
Bohinj sits at the foothills of Mount Triglav and is one of the gateways to Triglav National Park (Triglavski narodni park), Slovenia's only national park. The photo above shows the lake from a cable car but the photo below that I took as our plane landed in Ljubljana shows the topography of the National Park a lot more clearly. These are some serious mountains!
There are several "must do" hikes in this area. We started off with the hike through Mostnice Gorge on Saturday morning, since we could walk to the trailhead from our apartment in Stara Fužina. The crystal clear Mostnica river has cut a 2-kilometer gorge through the forest here.
The hike itself was long but not strenuous. Once we got past the gorge the forest opened up into a beautiful valley with green meadows and wildflowers.
We were originally just going to walk to the end of the gorge and back, but if we were willing to walk a little farther we knew there would be a 65-foot waterfall at the end as our reward. In all it was about 6.5 miles round trip and took us about 3 hours with a couple stops for coffees and lunch at the Planinska koča na Vojah mountain hut.
On Sunday we drove to the western side of the lake and did a short hike to the very popular Savica Waterfall. It wasn't a long hike, only about a mile, but it had about 500 steps up and down (trust me, I counted!). The waterfall is about 250 feet high and feeds the Savica river that flows downstream into Lake Bohinj. The water is almost unbelievably clear.
We drove back to the eastern side of the lake to check out the town of Ribčev Laz where we found the picturesque church of St. John the Baptist. This 700-year-old church is one of the most photographed in Slovenia, for good reason. The little stone bridge was built more recently in the 1920s and crosses the lake just as it pours out into the Sava River. The bridge is charming to photograph but a nightmare for traffic since it's the only bridge across the Sava and the only way to get directly from Stara Fužina to Ribčev Laz. As the day wears on, pedestrians and bicycles have to share the narrow bridge with cars trying to go across the bridge in both directions. We did our best to avoid driving over the bridge anytime between the hours of 10am-6pm due to the crowds.
A relaxing way to enjoy the lake is to hop on one of the electric ferry boats that go from Ribčev Laz to the large campground at Ukanc on the western shore. We had the bright idea to take the boat one-way from Ribčev Laz to the west end and walk back along the forested trail on the north side of the lake. What we didn't count on was the sweltering heat - it climbed well into the 90s before we finally finished walking the four miles back to the car. I'm so glad we didn't try to walk all the way around the lake like we did in Bled because by the end we were exhausted and drenched in sweat -- Bohinj is a big lake! Of course we hadn't thought ahead to bring our bathing suits so we couldn't jump in and cool off like everyone else was doing. Lesson learned!
Because of the recent heatwave and all the dry trees there is a huge risk of forest fire right now. There was a fire on the other side of Triglav at the Mangart saddle and all week we have been hearing planes flying overhead. The Slovenian Forestry department has 3 bright yellow air tractor planes that can swoop down and scoop up water from Lake Bohinj and carry it to where it is needed. Authorities in dinghy boats kept that part of the lake clear of swimmers and kayakers so that the planes could operate safely -- it was amazing to see them in action!
On Monday we headed back to the western side of the lake to take the Vogel Cable car up into the mountains on the south side of Lake Bohinj. We hiked part of the way to the Mount Sija summit but didn't push on because the trail was steep and covered in gravelly scree. We did have some excellent views across Lake Bohinj to Mount Triglav - the highest peak in Slovenia.
We had been either hiking or walking almost every day of the trip so far, so we took a much-needed rest day to just read, relax, and swim in Lake Bohinj. We still didn't have water shoes so getting in and out of the lake across the pebbled beach was like the most painful foot massage ever. But the water was extremely refreshing!
We had seen signs around town for the weekly Tuesday night market in Stara Fužina. They close off the main road in front of the Tourist Information Center and set up booths for vendors selling local food, honey, homemade cordials, and crafts.
They also had a live band playing very fun traditional music. We sat down at a shared table to eat dinner and met some of the nicest people who gave us so many great tips on where to hike and what to see on the rest of our trip.
From this side of Triglav National park, there is a very beautiful three-day hut-to-hut hike from Planina Blato all the way to the summit of Mount Triglav past seven alpine lakes. It is called the Seven Lakes Valley hike and requires you to be prepared for via ferrata and serious mountaineering. We started out from the same Planina Blato trailhead but had no plans to do such a long and taxing hike. We instead did a pretty strenuous (for me) five-mile hike up to the Bregar shelter on Viševnik mountain. It was an elevation gain of almost 1800 feet and just as we were nearing the end, an older gentleman maybe in his mid-70s came blazing past us on the trail. He gave us a wide smile and some words of encouragement that we were "almost there" (at least that's what I think -- he was speaking Slovenian, of course). Turned out once we got to the shelter and sat down with our cold drinks we saw him again. He had changed out of his hiking clothes and into some coveralls to do some work on his alpine farmstead. And here I was all proud that I'd managed to just get up the trail!
Even with the heat and the summer holiday traffic, we enjoyed our week in the Lake Bohinj area very much!
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