Here are 13 images from Iški vintgar, or the Iška River Gorge, which is located about 21 kilometers south of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital.
Set near the southeastern corner of the Ljubljana Moors, Europe’s southernmost wetlands, the gorge is a popular summertime weekend retreat for Ljubljana-ites yet it generally remains quiet and uncrowded during the spring and autumn months. Even on some summer weekdays I’ve found it practically empty. It’s a 15-20min trip from the city by car; I generally bike it in about an hour.
These were all taken on Saturday afternoon (12-April); I’ve visited several times during each season over the past six years and don’t recall it ever being so saturated in shades of green in the first half of April.
It reaches between 300 and 400 meters at its deepest where it marks the strongest natural border between Slovenia’s Dolenjska (Lower Carniola) and Notranjska (Inner Carniola) regions. It’s a popular hiking spot, with numerous trails heading in several directions, both through the gorge and up hillsides. I hope to cover all of those in the next few months.
It’s also on the E6 European Long Distance Path, a 6,283km (3,904mi) trans-continental hiking trail that begins at in the northwestern tip of Finland at Kilpisjärvi and concludes in Alexandroupolis, Greece. (For the record, the first section of the trail ends on Slovenia’s Adriatic coast in Strunjan. There is then a gap until Greece which needs to be bridged by ferry to Igoumenitsa from either Koper, Slovenia or Trieste or Venice in Italy.)
I haven’t yet identified the wildflowers pictured below; I’ll get to it but would appreciate any guidance in the meantime.
Below, a couple info signs to help refresh your command of the Slovenian language:
And finally, the view at the start of my 21km bike ride home. Yup, I got drenched after about 20 minutes, and stung by a bee too.
And lastly a downloadable routemap via bikmap.net:
A few related links:
- The European Ramblers Association
- Info about European Walking Paths on Traildino.com
- Basic data on the E6 (daily start/end destinations, distances, suggestion lodgings)
All images © Bob Ramsak 2014. All rights reserved.
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