Tuši's blog: May 2021

Slovenia: MTB - Around Snežnik

Our days in Mašun were coming to an end and for today we planned a trip around the Snežnik mountain. We started riding a little past 8 and once more we enjoyed the good gravel roads. On the way we stopped by some of the remains of the military buildings of the Rapallo boarder, that was decided between Kingdom of Italy and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after World War 1 in 1920. One of the stops was also made back in civilization, in Sviščaki, where we took care of the body hydration process. Once we returned back to Mašun, we had another great portion of food and then we headed back home and the weekend was finished.

Mašun, a great place to stay.

The remains of a hunting mansion owned by the Waldenburgs.

Sunday crew.

Nice gravel roads without traffic.

Defensive barracks Kalvarija at the saddle of the same name above the valley Leskova dolina between Javorniki and Snežnik.

Entering the bunker system.

We were equipped with a map.

Obviously built by Italians.

Back on the light. Janez told us a few more things about the Treaty of Rapallo.

Returning back to the point of entry, this time on the land surface.

Fresh bear footprints.

We continued with the riding.

Admiring the karst shapes.

The remnant of the Italian financial watchtower between 1922 and 1943, when it existed there because of the Rapallo border. The chapel can be found in the immediate vicinity of the well, and in between stood a watchtower that "disappeared" from looting and arson in 1945. The area of the former watchtower is called Jarmovec by the locals, and the Italians named it after the nearby peak of Cifra (1390 m).

We were riding at the boarder with Croatia.

The baptism of the chapel took place on September 8, 1933, about which an extensive and photo-rich newspaper article was written. One of the photos also shows the blessing of the fountain, and it also shows three jets of water - the fountain was a real fountain. Wolf Schönburg-Waldenburg (1902–1983), nephew of Herman Schönburg-Waldenburg, then owner of the Snežnik estate, was also present at the blessing. A good article about it in Slovene can be found here.

Monument dedicated to Josip Križaj - A hero above the clouds. Križaj was born in Kopriva on the Karst Plateau, then part of the Austro-Hungarian county of Gorizia and Gradisca. After World War I, the region became part of the Kingdom of Italy and Križaj became an Italian citizen. Already at a young age he showed a passion for flight, which led him to pursue a pilot's course at the royal officer school in Capua near Naples. Due to his Slovene ethnic origins, he was not allowed into the regular Italian Royal Air Force, but he was nevertheless granted a place in the reserves. Because of the physical hardships endured during the training and his pro-Slovenian and pro-Yugoslav national political stance, he flew a Fiat AS.1 airplane on 25 June 1932 from Udine to Ljubljana, crossing the border of Yugoslavia, which led to much media interest. In 1934, he became a Yugoslav citizen. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he joined the Yugoslav volunteers that fought on the side of the Spanish Republic. He was a member of the Squadron España, and was shot down once and captured during the war. After his return to Yugoslavia, he moved to Serbia, where he lived during World War II. After the war, he became a SFR Yugoslav Air Force military pilot. His life ended on 8 October 1948, when his aircraft, a Yakovlev Yak-3, crashed into Mount Snežnik in southwestern Slovenia because of poor visibility in dense fog.

After the sightseeing, we were back on our bikes.

Stops for navigational purposes and food.

Made by google.

Final kilometres.

AO Tržič MTB ride - Garmin Connect.

Once more, awesome food.

On our way back we visited the small church above village Koritnice, that is dedicated to Saint Jerome (around 347 - 420). According to popular believe the church was built in the middle of 15th century, at a place where some shepherd found Jerome's relic.

Geocache at the location, and a photo of Angie with Jeromen.

Geocaches found:

- Lovski dvorec / The Hunting Mansion, GC27CEB

- E6_SLO_33, GC3JFFM

- Sviščaki, GC8TP8V

- Jeromen, GC925QX

#MTB #mountains #sneznikplateau #geocaching

Slovenia: MTB - Sveta Trojica

We woke up in a village Mašun, a small hamlet on the northwestern part of the Snežnik mountain plateau at 1025 meters above sea level. After the breakfast we were ready for our mountain bike ride to Sveta Trojica. As it is usual on this trips, Janez was our guide and as always, we were not 100 percent sure if we were on the right track, still were were definitely certain, we will have a lot of fun. We were riding on very nice gravel roads, not too steep and what was the best, they were almost without any traffic. After a little more than 2 hours we were at our destination, taking a break, admiring the view and taking photos. Soon we moved on, and at this point we changed our plans a little, since we wanted to go back to civilization for half an hour, or better said, for a beer. We visited Tourist Farm Pri Cunarju and after the hydration we continued back to Mašun, nevertheless, visiting a "beer" cost us another 20 kilometres and a few hundred vertical meters.