Tuši's blog: 12483

Slovenia: Weekend trip with motorbike to Soča river valley: Day 2

Wind and rain stopped over the night and the sun came out. While Mare, Polona, Tjaša and me had breakfast, our tent was drying. After the breakfast, Polona and Mare went riding the bicycles and Tjaša and me continued with a motorbike to Robidišče, Slovenia's westernmost settlement.

Breakfast time in Camp Liza

Arrived to the westernmost Slovenian settlement, famous for cheeses, so we bought some goat and sheep cheese.

Stone Napoleon’s bridge across the River Nadiža dates to around 1812 and stands mute testament to the routes crossing the area since at least the time of Ancient Rome. Click on pdf, to learn more about the area.

People swimming in Nadiža river

We continued towards Tolmin, where we decided to check the area called Tolminska korita (Tolmin Gorges).

Entrance fee: 4€ per adult person. Publication about the area can be viewed in pdf.

First we crossed The Devil's Bridge. Devil’s Bridge (Hudičev most) and the road leading to the village of Zadlaz-Čadrg were commissioned in 1907 by the Tolmin mayor’s office. The road was built by locals, together with workers from the Bohinj Railway at the beginning of the twentieth century. The bridge was originally made of wood, and was later, under the Italian government, replaced with iron. At that time the bridge was given its name that is still used today.

Our second destination was Zadlaška jama (Dante’s cave). The cave is named by the village Zadlaz and is one of the many caves, by which were flowing off the waters of the Soča glacier. In the cave are three chamber rooms, the cave interlacement is 1140 metres long and 41 metres deep. In the beginning of the 14th century the patriarch Pagano della Torre in Tolmin hosted the poet Dante Alighieri, which had at that time visited the cave and find in it the inspiration for the Pekel (Hell) in his poem Božanska komedija (Divine Comedy). After that poet the cave got the second name.

Medvedova glava (The Bear’s head) is the name of a natural bridge – a large rock which got stuck, who knows when, between the walls of the Zadlaščica canyon.

Since the water of the Zadlaščica literally jumps from one pool to another, it creates picturesque cascades flowing through the gorge which is why the locals started calling it Skakalce or in English The Jumps.

Devil's bridge from the bottom of the Tolminka gorge

Thermal spring with an average temperature of between 18.8 and 20.8 °C (the temperature of the Tolminka River is 5 to 9 °C).

Our tour of this area was finished, therefore we continued up to the village Čadrg, where we took a short walk to one of the sightseeing point and on our way back we bought some cheese, known as Tolminec, one of Slovenian indigenous cheeses (in the time of writining besides Nanos cheese (Nanoški sir), Bovec cheese (Bovški sir) and Mohant).

The remains of lime kiln (frnaža) (use your imagination to see it on the photo) is a testament to a once immensely important, but now almost extinct, lime burning industry. Up to the second half of the 20th century, lime was in very high demand as it was the most common mortar binder used in construction. In remote villages and Alps, lime burning continued until the construction of roads. The first thing that had to be done before the construction of any new building could start was to light the fire and start the lime kiln.

View from Žlejžn view point #1

View from Žlejžn view point #2

Receipt for the Tolminec cheese

Our host for today, Grega, was already waiting for us, so after a quick stop for a beer we joined him and his friend Janez in Prapetno. We decided to do some shopping and then go to the Soča river for a swim.