13316

Slovenia: Hiking and Climbing to Brana

Weather forecast was great and the result was another hiking trip with Nada, again with events of climbing. Our chosen mountain was Brana and our climbing part was "Zgornji steber s šijo Brane", (IV-/II-III, 160m + 200m), an upper pillar on the eastern side of mountain Brana with the Šija ridge.

The access was quite long, since we had to ascend 1200 meters, but it was worth it. We had a nice and easy climb in the end, with a finish beer at the "Kamniška koča na Kamniškem sedlu mountain hut" and a night descent back to the valley.

Good morning

Brana from our hiking point of view

View back to the valley from Kamnik saddle

Brana on the left, with the hut and the saddle. Tuši is taking picture of Logar valley.

Logar valley

 

Reading the "climbing" map

Nada in action on Šija ridge

Peak and cross on Brana

Awesome view

Time to go back down to the hut and deserved beer

Waiting

Today's mountain

Neighbouring mountain, Planjava

Alpine ibex

Brana with the sunset

Return to the valley was done by night

Whole day of hiking with events of mountaineering

GeoCaches found (all caches received a visit by trackable item "P Wee the penguin", TB33C54):
- KAMNISKO SEDLO, GC3Q6AH, where I discovered trackable item "Hobby", TB6HDCW.
- JERMANOVA VRATA, FTF (First to find), Multi, GC64BV5
- Brana, GC5ACVT

13313

Slovenia: Breakfast on Jošt

My backpack has many things inside and one of them is a meat pate called Gavrilović. It has been with me for a very long time and has made many vertical meters, so today we decided to eat it. We gathered on a morning hike to Sveti Jošt nad Kranjem, 845 m and there we had a big breakfast. In the end, the pate was lucky, since we had so many things, that I just put it back in to my backpack.

Our goodies (pate, salami, Jošt chees, Belokranjska pogača (flatbread from Bela Krajina), tea, zaseka (bacon jam), ...)

Rok, Grega, Tuši and Nada

Rakovica - Jošt - Krokodil - Rakovica

GeoCache found:
- Krokodil, GC1F9GF, where I left trackable item "Travel Pirate Geocoin", TB5D2YM and made a visit with "P Wee the penguin", TB33C54.

13310

Slovenia: Hike with Mountaineering over Na možeh to Palec

For today, Nada and me decided to go in the mountains and try more adventurous thing, hiking with a taste of climbing, graded UIAA II-III) . Our main destination was Na Možeh mountain ridge with 4 like looking peaks (each is called Mož = Man), the highest being 1784 meters high. Relatively hard accessible peak has lovely view to middle Karawanks. The most beautiful are Palec, Vrtača and Begunjščica. To the north is Drava valley and to the east are Košutica and Košuta.

Start of the mountaineering

View to the North

Climbing on the "1st man"

Below the rock

"1st man" was behind us

Nada on the peak of "2nd man"

Abseiling from the "3rd man"

On our way to Palec

South

Our ridge and Begunjščica, 2060 m

Our GeoCaching friends

View to the Austrian side

Friend at the top of Palec, 2026 m

View to Vrtača, 2181 m and Zelenjak, 2024 m

4 men - Na možeh

Hiking and mountaineering trip with Nada was a total success.

GeoCaching action:
- re-visited "Suho rusevje - ZLEB", GC21B98, where I dropped off 2 trackable items "Edelweiss", TB4JGEB and "Idaho BLue Bird", TBEE41 and made a visit with 2 more trackables "P Wee the penguin", TB33C54 and "Travel Pirate Geocoin", TB5D2YM.

In the evening we watched a climbing movie Nordwand, based on a famous 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face, the film is about two German climbers (Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser)involved in a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps.

Nordwand - A great movie

13309

Slovenia: Climbing competition in Tržič

In the evening, Nada and me went to see the climbing competition, that took place in "Dvorana tržiških olimpijcev".

The Wall

Results:
Men:

Position	Name	Club	height kv.	height finale
1 .	Domen Škofic	ŠPO Radovljica	38.00 vrh	42.00 +
1 .	Urban Primožič	PK Škofja Loka	38.00 vrh	42.00 +
3 .	Jure Raztresen	PK Škofja Loka	31.00 +	39.00
4 .	Martin Bergant	PK Škofja Loka	30.00 +	35.00 +
5 .	Izidor Zupan	ŠPO Celje	27.00	34.00 +
6 .	Domen Švab	ŠPO Radovljica	26.00 +	32.00 +
7 .	Milan Preskar	PK Škofja Loka	29.00	30.00 +
8 .	Tim Unuk	PK Laško	28.00 +	30.00
9 .	Anže Peharc	AO Kranj	27.00	30.00
10 .	Klemen Kejžar	ŠPK Andreja Kokalja	26.00 +	30.00
11 .	Nejc Dvoršek	Šaleški AO	27.00	24.00
12 .	Matej Sova	ŠPO Tržič	26.00 +	14.00 +

Women:

Position	Name	Club	height kv.	height finale
1 .	Janja Garnbret	Šaleški AO	36.00 +	34.00
2 .	Mina Markovič	ŠPK Plus	36.00	28.00 +
3 .	Tjaša Kalan	AO Kranj	35.00 +	27.00
4 .	Julija Kruder	ŠPO Celje	32.00 +	25.00
5 .	Rebeka Kamin	ŠPO Domžale	32.00 +	23.00
6 .	Veronika Meke	PS DPČ Šmartno	32.00 +	14.00 +
7 .	Tjaša Slemenšek	Šaleški AO	32.00	14.00 +
8 .	Sara Lukič	Šaleški AO	31.00	14.00 +
9 .	Kaja Skvarč Božič	ŠD Proteus	28.00
10 .	Lucija Lampe Kastelic	PK Kamnik	13.00 +
10 .	Eva Petrič	AK Slov. Bistrica	13.00 +
12 .	Kristina Rus	PS DPČ Šmartno	13.00

13307

Slovenia / Austria : Hike to Lokovnikov Grintovec

We have been doing hikes in the morning for quite some time, but we never made an international one, so it was time to do that too. Rok, Grega and me decided to conquer Lokovnikov Grintovec, 1809 m. We started at 2 a.m. from Slovenian side, below the peak we missed the trail a bit and we also enjoyed on the first snow this season. We came back at 6 a.m. and went straight to work.

The Three Musketeers: Tuši, Rok and Grega

Morning hike: Curve below Ljubelj - Korošica - Lokovnikov Grintovec - Stari Ljubelj - Curve below Ljubelj

GeoCaching action:
- re-visited "no borders - brez meja - grenzenlos", GC181GR, where I discovered trackable item "Travel Bug Dog Tag", TB58607 and took with me "P Wee the penguin", TB33C54

13303

Slovenia / Italy / Croatia: Porečanka - Parenzana: Day 2

Our cycling story continued for the 2nd day (read 1st one in 13302) and our cycling group extended for one person, Maja. After the morning tour of the medevial Motovun city we continued towards Poreč. After almost 40 km and only one flat we arrived to our destination, just before it started to rain.

The last part of the trip was to get Nada back to Schengen area. We didn't have any issues so we all came back home with many new nice memories.

View from Motovun before our start

Motovun is a medieval town that grew up on the site of an ancient city called Kastelijer.

Viewpoint: Top - Uroš, Nada, Borut and Boštjan, Bottom: Maja, tadej and Tuši

Sorry, can't go with us

Peaceful cycling

Quick maintenance few kilometres before the end

Finish line in Poreč, where some of us also went swimming

Motovun - Vižinada - Višnjan - Poreč

GeoCaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "Edelweiss", TB4JGEB, "Idaho BLue Bird", TBEE41 and "Travel Pirate Geocoin", TB5D2YM:
- Motovun, GC319Q1
- PARENZANA km 94, GC5XGJR
- PARENZANA Viadukt Sabadin, GC5XGKJ

13302

Slovenia / Italy / Croatia: Porečanka - Parenzana: Day 1

The Parenzana or Porečanka (also in Croatian: Porečka; also in Slovene: Poreška; Italian: Parenzana) is one of the nicknames of a defunct narrow gauge railway (operating between 1902 and 1935) between Trst and Poreč (at that time Parenzo, whence the name Parenzana), in present-day Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

Since Porečanka operated only from 1. April 1902 – 31. August 1935, it has now become a popular cycling route, 123 kilometres long and Nada, Boštjan, Uroš, Tadej, Borut and me decided to do it.

We started in Kozina with a huge delay, since Nada couldn't find her documents. In the end she left without them, since we rely on a fact, that we will be crossing the borders with bicycles, so they won't check us at all. We descended to Trst over Glinščica valley to the start of the railway. In Trst we got a bit lost, but we soon found the right way to exit the city and then we just followed the marked ex-railway. 2 border crossings were behind us, but they were easy ones, since there was no control on them (Schengen area), although there could be some, due to immigrants issue in Europe.

Our track led us to Lucija, where we stopped for a drink and some food. Later we passed by the Sečovlje Salina Landscape Park to the real border crossing, but as we expected, they didn't check us. We continued to Croatian side and the nicest part began, the asphalt changed to gravel, no traffic and nice scenery. We enjoyed all the way to Motovun, where we already rented an apartment for an overnight stay and 3 more girl, Meta, Tanja and Maja joined us.

Start in Kozina: Tuši (with yellow helmet from previous millennium, Tadej, Nada, Uroš, Borut and Boštjan.

Through one of the many tunnels today

Dolina Glinščice

Trst

Back to motherland

Cockpit

GeoCaching on the way

Seaside

Sečovlje Salina Landscape Park

Sun was getting down

One of 6 viaducts

Technical data of the Porečanka:

• total length: 123 km
• track gauge: 760 mm (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in)
• total number of railway stations and stops: 35
• the lowest point: 2 m above sea level (in Trieste and Koper)
• the highest point: 293 m above sea level (near Grožnjan)
• number of curves: 604
• the shortest bend radius: 60 m
• the steepest inclination: 28‰
• number of tunnels: 8, total length 1530 m
• number of bridges: 11 (the most important rivers to cross: the Osp, the Rižana, the Dragonja and the Mirna)
• number of viaducts: 6
• average speed: 25 km/h
• the highest speed: 31 km/h

Kozina - Trst - Milje - Dekani - Koper - Izola - Strunjan - Portorož - Lucija- Sečovlje - Buje - Grožnjan - Motovun

GeoCaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "Edelweiss", TB4JGEB, "Idaho BLue Bird", TBEE41 and "Travel Pirate Geocoin", TB5D2YM:
- Porecanka I, GC2DM45
- Porecanka II, GC2DJA0
- Porecanka III, GC2DJA9
- Parenzana View, GC1EE3Y
- STATION@Triban, GC4M29K
- PARENZANA Zavrsje, GC5XGHC
- Freski Tunnel, GC3JE83