A selection of snaps from an Exodus Holiday tour (Julian Alps Traverse) in Slovenia.



ja 1This was the warm up day. Asked for a Cockta at the hut and lady produced a Coke, not a Cockta! Cockta is the local brew that tastes a bit like flat Coke but is good all the same. ja 2Plenty of character about this hut and we had a refreshment stop at the tables outside. ja 3You could almost be forgiven that it was Switzerland! The coos (Scottish accent there) looked healthy enough. ja 4Ahh, a fork in the path - decided to check the maps. One member upset that there was no stop for lunch today and water was non-existant. ja 5The routes were fairly well marked albeit some of the place names required a good look at the map to locate. ja 6Painted indicators were used along with regular signs depending on how many rocks were available. ja 7Very nice hut by a lake Dvojno Jezero - had some food here, spaghetti I think and water was available at a trough out back. ja 8 ja 9Progressing up the valley in typical terrain - the dwarf pine and vegetation giving way to the rocky terrain further up. Ibex were seen further up the valley. ja 10 ja 11 ja 12 ja 13Made it to the pass. The next hut was down on the Via Alpina behind the rock outcrop (Dolic) with Triglav directly behind. Triglav is the highest mountain in Slovenia (2864m). ja 14 ja 15A view of the Zadnjica. The Via Alpina drops down into that valley quite precipitously, fortunately we went the other way to Triglav. ja 16 ja 17Most of the huts are filled with character inside and are well setup for providing good hearty food and drink. Plenty of bottled water is available since not a lot exists on the hills. ja 18Initial approaches to Triglav - cue to start thinking of Hillary steps and suchlike - yeah right! ja 19Dom Planika - one of the two huts at the base of Triglav. From here we went north to gain the ridge then beat west to the summit. ja 20The webslave all decked out in the full harness. The route to the summit is not difficult and is protected by cable in the tricky parts so full harness is maybe a bit of overkill but hey the trip was an organised one. ja 21Lower approach to the ridge showing the typical cable protection. The two guides (Tadej and Marko) were very competent alpinists so no worries there. ja 22The summit of Triglav. It is apparently quite important for Slovenians to get to the top of 'their mountain' at least once in their lives and the wee stamper in the foreground provides the proof. ja 23 ja 24The ridge is quite safe to negotiate but there is quite a lot of exposure on either side for the nervous folk although I can't remember it getting to the scary narrow point at all. ja 25Apparently a Slovenian custom (or a guides windup?) - one must bend over into the emergency shelter and be 'spanked' with the guides rope. Yes I confess that I submitted to this custom as a mark of respect of course! ja 26 ja 27A close look at the stamper with my Cockta drink bottle as a scale. ja 28 ja 29 ja 30The end of the day saw us at the Triglavski Dom on the north side of the ridge. Note the windmills - made in Scotland in Kilmarnock not far from Ayr. This is actually the chapel. ja 31The Triglavski Dom itself - unfortunately we were a night too early as some entertainers were flown in for a big party the next night. The Slovenian Prime Minister was due to climb Triglav. ja 32 ja 33 ja 34Tadej assisting one of the group. Odd bits of the routes that are tricky will have protection provided typically cables or just steel/iron stepping bars. ja 35 ja 36 ja 37 ja 38Lunchstop at Debeli vrh. Right next to massive sheer drops into Krma. Triglav can be seen in the background. ja 39 ja 40 ja 41 ja 42 ja 43A quiet nights stay at this hut but very good - Radlers were a specialty (Shandy) and some schnapps went down well. ja 44Not a good idea to take large denomination notes into hills. 5000 SIT (Slovenian Tolars) notes were considered large (c. £14). ja 45 ja 46 ja 47 ja 48The end of the trek and onto Bled for way too many cocktails at Pub Bled - just remember being poleaxed by the final zombie and being last out of the place with the local plods in attendance. ja 49Lake Bled is wonderfully relaxing and can be walked around in an hour or two. ja 50 ja 51 ja 52These boats tend to take folk over to the island to see the church, etc. ja 53Why waste time holding a fishing rod when you can bolt three rods onto a wee stand and retreat to a seat for sausage and beer. Imagine if a big fish took a bite! ja 54A snap behind my hotel in Ljubljana - a recycling yard, a vicious guard dog kennel and a cheap takeaway pizza joint (and the pizza was truly awful). ja 55 ja 56Some of the architecture in Ljubljana was quite good. They had made an effort to make this carpark fit into the surroundings a bit better. ja 57 ja 58The guy who was selling Dell's here was obviously unaware of the pyrotechics occurring elsewhere in the world with dud batteries. The board was done by InterFlash no less! ja 59 ja 60 ja 61 ja 62 ja 63The plaza was popular in the evenings and musicians were playing outdoors in the local cafes. The central city is very safe to walk around at night. ja 64This guy gets top marks for persistence, trying to reverse out with a trailer whilst holding up half the city for twenty minutes or so. ja 65 ja 66The fruit and vege appeared nice and fresh here. They still understand the concept of seasonal produce. Better than the gas stored,ripen at home garbage that our supermarkets have (NZ and Scotland). ja 67 ja 68That's all folks! - as he slurps on the cold beer at the train station.





expander -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- expander