MY HIKES

SLOVENIAN MOUNTAIN HIKING TRAIL (TRANSVERZALA)

I love nature and walking, so I have wanted for quite some time to experience Slovenska planinska pot  (Slovenian mountain hiking trail). Transverzala, as it is also called, is a  route from Maribor to Ankaran. It covers most of the Slovenian mountain areas including Pohorje, Julian Alps, Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Karavanke and the southwestern part of Slovenia. It is the oldest hiking track in Europe. The idea of connecting the most beautiful, hilly, and mountainous area in Slovenija came from Ivan Šumljak in 1950. It mostly included existing hiking trails, but on some shorter parts it was necessary to make new demarcations to connect them together. The trail opened on August 1, 1953, with 80 control points. Since then, the trail has only changed slightly. These are the trail's current features: Control points: 75; Length: 599 km; Total ascent: 45.2 km; Total descent: 45.5 km (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenian_Mountain_Hiking_Trail). If you want you can get a little book in which you collect stamps that are located on mountain tops or huts along the way. There are a lot of information about the trail on this site: http://www.pespoti.si/spp-trasa.php?id=23.

As I had enough time, energy and a strong wish to finally do it on 15.9.2015 I started my Transverzala. As my hiking depended on the weather, I decided on one Sunday afternoon to  start my track the next day. I had short time to pack my bags, become a member of Alpine association of Slovenia and came to Maribor. As I was walking towards my transportation to Maribor, I was feeling simply happy ☺. Finally I was about to experience one of my dreams. As there was no one else at that time who shared the same dream, I decided to do it alone, as the dream was too strong to let my fears interfere ☺. I have been to many mountain hikes, but only a few times alone. I would be happy if somebody would join me, but as I learnt later, doing it alone was even better! This way I could really enjoy the nature, walk just the way as I wanted to and learn a lot about myself. 

The drive to Maribor was an adventure itself. I got a transport through www.prevozi.org, a site that connects strangers that need and offer transportation to the same destination. There were 4 of us in the car, all strangers, but at the end of the drive we knew about each others eye colour ☺. The driver and one girl were so interested in my hike that they wanted to join me, but they didn't have the time. The driver offered me a place to sleep and the next day both of them contacted me and wanted to know how it was, it was so sweet ☺. I didn't need a place to sleep as one friend from college, Mojca, kindly offered me a bed at her place. Mojca, Blaž and little Vid welcomed me with warm, opened arms and the reunion happened so spontanously, it was really sweet.

 

My cousin Živa had done the whole trail by parts, so she was a navigator and an encourager for me. She represented the trail as it was an easy thing to do and like I will have no problems doing it ☺. Maybe because of this I managed to walk more than I ever imagined I was capable of ☺! I started in Maribor and the first thing to do was climb to Mariborska koča which meant I had to ascend 820 metres high. As I love fresh fruit and vegetables my backpack was quite heavy at the beginning, but it was well worth it when I had lunch with fresh avocado, home grown tomatoes and pumpkin, paprika, cucumbers and delicious cheese ☺. As I realised for me eating fresh fruit and vegetables brought me a lot of power to do the hikes! Pohorje is beautiful and I was really enjoying it. All of my focus was on finding the markations and this was very nice as I was focusing on the present moment and (almost) nothing else, very refreshing ☺. A little red and white colour on the trees brought me so much joy as it meant that I was on the right path ☺. The first part was really well marked and I didn't have much problems following the path. My second stamp was at Ruška Koča and before ariving at my home for the first night I also visited the Šumik waterfall. The biggest problem during hiking for me were not my legs nor my mind, these were really pretty amazing, they kept me going longer than I could imagine ☺. But my back hurt a lot because of the burden. I didn't carry a lot of things, but still it is more than I usually carry on my back. I was very happy when I arrived at Koča na Klopnem vrhu where I was about to spend my first night. As I realised during this hike people who marked the time to a destination (a peak or a hut) had a different time in mind. I have a pretty good timing usually, but here it wasn't so rare that it was writen only 1 hour to a destination, and then after I had been walking for a while it was still written the same time to reach the destination, or sometimes even more  ☺! Yeah, that was a bit frustrating at times, when I was already tired and without much energy, but in time I just accept this and smiled ☺! The lady that owns the hut was very nice and she explained the history a bit, it was a very nice place to sleep!

The second day was suppost to be very good weather and it was, just not on Pohorje ☺. I passed Koča na Pesku and Lovreniška jezera (lakes) as it was becoming more clowdy and windy. I was lucky that I met a couple that was doing the same path as it felt much more relaxed and encouraging than doing it alone. We walked together during some parts and I was really happy to see them when I thought that the wind will blow me away as I was hiding behind a monument just a little before Ribniška koča ☺. We got separate ways and again I was so happy to see them in front of Grmoškov dom pod Veliko Kopo, because the fog was so heavy that I could see only a few metres in front of me - I was searching for the mountain hut just as I saw them and still didn't see the hut although it was just behind them  ☺. It also rained a bit, but we were very lucky that it didn't rain more. The wind was blowing like crazy, I love the wind in my hair and I was following it during my hike ☺. When I was almost at my destination for that day, the sun began to shine and it was getting warmer and so beautiful. I was already very tired, so during the last part I was taking it really easy and anjoying the scenery. I arrived at Koča pod Kremžarjevim vrhom just before the night and ordered a beer and a casserole for the reward ☺. The view overlooking Slovenj Gradec was wonderful and the owner was very amusing and it was a great place to spend the night.

The next day the plan was to reach Dom na Smrekovcu, so I started early in the morning and had quite a good speed. I passed Slovenj Gradec and reached Poštarski dom pod Plešivcem, where I realised that I have no time for rest and after refilling water headed on. I had been walking about 20 minutes uphill as I realised I had left my hiking poles at the hut, so I returned for them, luckily it made me smile and not angry. I realised that in a hurry you can miss some important things ☺. Climbing Uršlja gora wasn't as easy as I had imagined. I walked 7 hours to reach it that day. I didn't stop much, just when I was too tired or hungry. The last half an hour was very steep and my motivation was down, so that part of the path was the hardest for me. When I finally reached the top I was so happy that a beer to celebrate my succes was an absolute must ☺. But soon I realised that reaching Dom na Smrekovcu was not gonna happen that day. After realising that it is the path that matters, not reaching the destination, I decided to enjoy the hike more as before when I was burdened by the time. And I think that for the last 1,5 hours it took me almost 3 hours as I had the time  ☺! Sleeping at Andrejev dom na Slemenu was interesting, but it is much nicer to sleep in the mountains.

My last day didn't start very optimistic, I was tired and didn't drink my morning black tea, so the path to Dom na Smrekavcu was pretty long. There I got my tea which immediatelly brought me energy and  headed on. The weather was still not looking very good, but luckily it didn't rain. On the path I spent quite some time collecting blueberries and they were really refreshing. I loved the scenery around Koča na Travniku and all I had to do at the end was to pass a path with a lot of cows, bulls, sheep and horses, it was pretty scary when a bull was telling me something in his language that I couldn't understand ☺. And there it was, Koča na Loki pod Raduha, my final destination. First it was planned to reach also Velika Raduha and Koča na Grohatu pod Raduho, but I would need 3 more hours and too much energy to do that, so I decided to visti it next time  ☺. I hitched a ride to the valley where one interesting guy gave me a ride to Celje. He did the same trail so our talk was very interesting. As he was showing me the peaks which we were passing by during our drive I realised how much I had walked in the last 4 days and realised it was an amazing adventure  ☺!

I really recommend doing it, but it would be better to take it easy and do the same path in at least 5 days . this way you can easily climb Raduha, too!

 

 

to be continued  ☺ ...