July 2022 - Kranjska Gora - Thomas (France)

On July 16, Vicky, Grace, and I decided to go to Kranjska Gora to enjoy the lake and then go on a hike to the top of a mountain to sleep there in our hammocks. The beginning of the trip was complicated as we missed the bus in Ljubljana because the train from Maribor to Ljubljana was late. So after 6 hours, we finally made it to Kranjska Gora. I have to say we were amazed by the natural beauty of that place: blue lake, crystal clear river, all surrounded by mountains, couldn’t be any better.

After a quick bath in the river's freezing cold water, we decided to hit the trail to reach a summit close by. It was a 2 to 3-hour-long hike, mostly going uphill through the trees on a really agreeable trail where we only met a few people hiking down to the lake. It wasn’t long before we saw the first sign indicating a hut 1 hour ahead of us on one side and 1 hour and a half on the other side. It was around 5:30 pm at that time and we realized that the weather was changing pretty fast and not for the better. So after a short discussion, we agreed on keeping hiking up to the hut, which we hoped would be our refuge in case the weather turned bad.

20 minutes before succeeding to reach the hut, the rain started to fall down, not a lot though but just enough to start worrying about what was coming next as the clouds were getting darker. And 5 minutes before getting to the hut, it was pouring down rain, so much that even our tee-shirts, pants, and underwear were soaking wet.

Once we reached the hut, which was obviously closed because it was actually only a restaurant, we changed our clothes, discussed with two locals that were running up the mountain and reached the hut at the same time as we did, drank a beer, and waited for the rain to stop. After an hour or so, we understood that the rain was not going to stop for a long time so we had to figure out where we were going to spend the night because we were stuck there. It was only after dinner that we got to go around the little restaurant and discovered that we had the possibility to set up our hammocks outside an abandoned building in which we would be safe from the rain.

And that’s how our day ended, in the hammocks outside an abandoned building that smelt like sheep poo. The next morning, we had breakfast at the restaurant and hiked down the trail to go back to the lake, have a bath there, and finally come back home to the farm.

See you on our next adventure!