Velika Planina
I think that you left us wandering through the verdant wonder of the Vintgar Gorge?
The following day was amazing so let me tell you about it. I have mentioned Trip Your Day a couple of times - Petra is one of the two directors of this tourist company and she agreed to come to Bled to meet us to take us up Velika Planina. Planina is a plain, and velika means 'big'.
She gathered us up at midday to make sure that the storm fro the gorge visit had well and truely passed - it was a serious storm - this part of the world does do extreme weather!
By mid morning the sky was blue but the temperature had only inched slightly upwards - it was cold enough to make me wander shivering into Tom Tailor and buy a coat. By midday the temperature had risen sufficiently to give me buyers remorse (what on earth would I do with a big coat when I got back to Croatia in two days time... and how on earth will I take it home...)
We piled into the van (kiss kiss to Petra) and travelled back towards Ljubljana and then headed up, climbing and climbing into the mountains. This area is a ski resort in the winter and a criss-cross of hiking and mountain biking trails in the summer - but more importantly, this is one of the areas where cows are summered - they are taken there at the beginning of summer and pastured up on the mountain with the 'cowherders' for three months. They wander freely eating grass, are milked twice a day - the 'alpha' cow wears a bell for identification, and the farmer knows the specific sound of the bell on his (or her) cows to enable the cows to be located on the planina.
To reach this wonderland (the fog was drifting and lifting as we arrived in the carpark), we firstly layered up clotheswise - (yuss! the new red coat-10 degrees and dropping) and eyed the gondola up...
This is one of the longest single cable gondolas in this part of the world - it was bought second hand from Italy and unfortunately the windows are a bit scruffy for photos) - apparently it takes 35 in the gondola, but felt crowded and heavy enough with 10 of us - and at the top we then doubled up into chairlifts for the rest of the journey - a total of about 4.8 kilometres - swinging in the fog with the most incredible vista! Jenny and I belted out a delightful rendition of 'high on the hills lived a lonely goatherd' and yodelled. Why wouldn't you..
Clinging to our tickets for the return journey, we then hiked to the highest point of 1666 m - and as we stood there looking out at the cow-herders summer houses, they disappeared in the fog, and the cold wind blew.
We hiked down towards the huts, taking copious photos of this magical place.
The houses are designed with the living in the centre and then the cows surrounding the house - under it and sheltered by it, with a fence securing the cows at night - from wandering and from wolves.
The whole place was a photographer's dream - and given that the photography with this group is fairly competitive, I can add some incredible photos.
After an hour or so of wandering, we found a house selling food - this was the home of a woman (whose name I cannot for the life of me remember) but she is now doing the farming as her husband has died. She lives on the planina for 100 days each year - many of the houses have solar panels, but mainly heating (for bathing etc) is done on a wood stove. She milks the cows twice a day.
She showed us inside her house, and then provided a spread on her outside table of fresh cheese, bread, pickles, salami, rakia and sour milk - all domaci (home made) - and explained that the first few weeks back in the mountains transitioning from home comforts were the hardest - but that the peace and tranquility were worth every moment. Showers are a matter of heating water on the stove...
It was one of those moments which sums travelling up for me - it's nothing to do with ticking off countries or destinations, but it is the precious vignettes that you have, the moments interacting with others and experiencing other people's lives that would normally be out of reach. This is not the sort of thing that you see on luxury tours with all of the shiny things which go with it - it was raw, basic - and worth every moment!
We loved it and I'm going to say the day was the highlight, and summed up what I want to show people when I'm travelling.
The following day was amazing so let me tell you about it. I have mentioned Trip Your Day a couple of times - Petra is one of the two directors of this tourist company and she agreed to come to Bled to meet us to take us up Velika Planina. Planina is a plain, and velika means 'big'.
She gathered us up at midday to make sure that the storm fro the gorge visit had well and truely passed - it was a serious storm - this part of the world does do extreme weather!
By mid morning the sky was blue but the temperature had only inched slightly upwards - it was cold enough to make me wander shivering into Tom Tailor and buy a coat. By midday the temperature had risen sufficiently to give me buyers remorse (what on earth would I do with a big coat when I got back to Croatia in two days time... and how on earth will I take it home...)
We piled into the van (kiss kiss to Petra) and travelled back towards Ljubljana and then headed up, climbing and climbing into the mountains. This area is a ski resort in the winter and a criss-cross of hiking and mountain biking trails in the summer - but more importantly, this is one of the areas where cows are summered - they are taken there at the beginning of summer and pastured up on the mountain with the 'cowherders' for three months. They wander freely eating grass, are milked twice a day - the 'alpha' cow wears a bell for identification, and the farmer knows the specific sound of the bell on his (or her) cows to enable the cows to be located on the planina.
To reach this wonderland (the fog was drifting and lifting as we arrived in the carpark), we firstly layered up clotheswise - (yuss! the new red coat-10 degrees and dropping) and eyed the gondola up...
This is one of the longest single cable gondolas in this part of the world - it was bought second hand from Italy and unfortunately the windows are a bit scruffy for photos) - apparently it takes 35 in the gondola, but felt crowded and heavy enough with 10 of us - and at the top we then doubled up into chairlifts for the rest of the journey - a total of about 4.8 kilometres - swinging in the fog with the most incredible vista! Jenny and I belted out a delightful rendition of 'high on the hills lived a lonely goatherd' and yodelled. Why wouldn't you..
Clinging to our tickets for the return journey, we then hiked to the highest point of 1666 m - and as we stood there looking out at the cow-herders summer houses, they disappeared in the fog, and the cold wind blew.
We hiked down towards the huts, taking copious photos of this magical place.
The houses are designed with the living in the centre and then the cows surrounding the house - under it and sheltered by it, with a fence securing the cows at night - from wandering and from wolves.
The whole place was a photographer's dream - and given that the photography with this group is fairly competitive, I can add some incredible photos.
After an hour or so of wandering, we found a house selling food - this was the home of a woman (whose name I cannot for the life of me remember) but she is now doing the farming as her husband has died. She lives on the planina for 100 days each year - many of the houses have solar panels, but mainly heating (for bathing etc) is done on a wood stove. She milks the cows twice a day.
She showed us inside her house, and then provided a spread on her outside table of fresh cheese, bread, pickles, salami, rakia and sour milk - all domaci (home made) - and explained that the first few weeks back in the mountains transitioning from home comforts were the hardest - but that the peace and tranquility were worth every moment. Showers are a matter of heating water on the stove...
It was one of those moments which sums travelling up for me - it's nothing to do with ticking off countries or destinations, but it is the precious vignettes that you have, the moments interacting with others and experiencing other people's lives that would normally be out of reach. This is not the sort of thing that you see on luxury tours with all of the shiny things which go with it - it was raw, basic - and worth every moment!
We loved it and I'm going to say the day was the highlight, and summed up what I want to show people when I'm travelling.
I totally agree! And I love your red coat!
ReplyDeleteYour tour looks amazing. Still in shock that you took the chairlift rather than hiking straight up!
The chairlift was exciting - you would have loved it, singing 'high on the hills sat a lonely goatherd' and yodelling at the top of our voices...
Delete