The Slovenia Party

FLY FISHING OPTIONS Walking is the theme of the week but there will be fly fishing opportunities for those keen. The Socha river is one of the most beautiful of Europe. It tumbles through the Julian Alps before exiting into the Adriatic in Italy. This beautiful emerald, jade, turquoise river is teeming with fish: grayling, marbled trout and of course rainbow trout. There will be fly fishing options this week. Fly fishing will be an extra cost and involve the help of a local ghillie. It is very classy fishing they offer in Slovenia so we will be able to offer up to three afternoons on different rivers. For more fishing we need to discuss!

The waterfalls cascading down the mountain walls are numerous. They are less easy to get under than in Georgia but they are wonderful to listen to and wonder at.

Here is an attempt to give you the extraordinary colour of the beautiful Soca river. Definitely some wild swimming opportunities for the brave!

We visit St John the Baptist church at the beginning of the week. Richly saturated in brightly coloured C16th frescoes it is a fascinating church to visit before we walk along Bohinj lake.

Skocjan caves remind me of Doug McClure wandering into the core of the Earth on the silver screen years ago. We cross this little bridge well under the crust and watch the roaring river below cascade through the cavern. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph the sacred river ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to the sunless sea ... And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail

The beauty of the Julian Alps was also the scene of horrors of the First World War. A part of the war we know little about but we shall discuss this as it is yet another example of the horrors of mankind. Here is the mighty facade of the mountain Krn.

Mushrooms in early October are prevalent. Here we have some saffron milk caps. I have also found blewits and hedgehog fungi. I will have my skillet for those that trust me!

Not many people know that the extraordinary Lipizanner horses, that one knows of as Spanish or belonging to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, originate from Slovenia. The stud at Lipica has around two hundred or more Lipizanner horses and you will hear of the extraordinary story of how they were saved from almost certain death in the Second World War. Again ... when will we stop?

It is a sunny feeling to think we end with a full day taking it easy in the pretty port of Piran. It really is very small here and the Hotel Piran sits right on the sea so plenty of time to swim or just wander through the little streets.