The Idea
So how and why did I end up planning to walk the Slovenia Mountain Trail. Well, it's fairly long story surrounded by poor mental and physical health, coinciding with some personal circumstances and my departure from the Global Convoy at the start of 2018. I therefore decided that in October; 'I am going to do a long distance walk'. It has to be a month long and be in mountains, proper mountains that are going to test me.
Finding the route:
I wanted to head out of the UK for this trek, the first place I looked was, Romania. My initial idea was to circumnavigate the country by walking and kayaking. However, plotting a potential route out, it quickly became apparent to me that while certainly doable, 3,000km was a little of a stretch to do in a month especially at the time where, I really wasn't that fit or healthy.
Okay, that idea was for another time, how about Montenegro? There is a 7 day walking route around country, this was a little bit too short for what I was looking for although the mountainous there look great. Looking in the same area, how about making my own walk between Sarajevo, Bosnia and Tirana, Albania this looked again like a pretty great route, however, after more research I discovered that the Bosnian countryside in some parts is still littered with landmines, not something I fancied having a run in with.
I finally stubbled across the Slovenian Mountain Trail. This was the first description I found and I was pretty hooked.
"It begins in Maribor and crosses the plateaus of the Pohorje Hills, from where you already have a glimpse of the tallest Alpine summits in the distance. The trail first enters the Alps in the Kamnik and Savinja Alpine range, as it runs across its highest peaks, and then the trail continues along the long Karavanke range, which separates Slovenia from Austria. From there, it again descends into the valley and soon rises into the heart of the Julian Alps, to Mount Triglav and the steepest peaks, with breathtaking views following one after another as the trail approaches the Adriatic Sea. Each of these peaks offers a wonderful view and experience, and each step takes you closer to the sea. However, before you reach it, you must still climb many higher and lower mountains in the pre-Alpine foothills, the inspiring Karst Region, and then, suddenly, a sea breeze cools your tired body." - Slovenia-outdoors.com
Finding the route:
I wanted to head out of the UK for this trek, the first place I looked was, Romania. My initial idea was to circumnavigate the country by walking and kayaking. However, plotting a potential route out, it quickly became apparent to me that while certainly doable, 3,000km was a little of a stretch to do in a month especially at the time where, I really wasn't that fit or healthy.
Okay, that idea was for another time, how about Montenegro? There is a 7 day walking route around country, this was a little bit too short for what I was looking for although the mountainous there look great. Looking in the same area, how about making my own walk between Sarajevo, Bosnia and Tirana, Albania this looked again like a pretty great route, however, after more research I discovered that the Bosnian countryside in some parts is still littered with landmines, not something I fancied having a run in with.
I finally stubbled across the Slovenian Mountain Trail. This was the first description I found and I was pretty hooked.
"It begins in Maribor and crosses the plateaus of the Pohorje Hills, from where you already have a glimpse of the tallest Alpine summits in the distance. The trail first enters the Alps in the Kamnik and Savinja Alpine range, as it runs across its highest peaks, and then the trail continues along the long Karavanke range, which separates Slovenia from Austria. From there, it again descends into the valley and soon rises into the heart of the Julian Alps, to Mount Triglav and the steepest peaks, with breathtaking views following one after another as the trail approaches the Adriatic Sea. Each of these peaks offers a wonderful view and experience, and each step takes you closer to the sea. However, before you reach it, you must still climb many higher and lower mountains in the pre-Alpine foothills, the inspiring Karst Region, and then, suddenly, a sea breeze cools your tired body." - Slovenia-outdoors.com
The Route
When planning the route I used the Cicerone Guide Book which broke the route down into 57 days. A brilliant book to buy if you are planning on walking this route. Going in October was a big gamble, looking at the forecast before flying out. Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia was expecting around half a metre of snow two days before I left. Fortunately luck was on my side, with the snow falling a month later and 2 days after I had summited the mountain.
The route across, is the exact route that I took along the trail. While this is the route I took it is not the route of the trail for the whole length. I missed out several sections of the trail due to many of the high alpine huts being shut, thus making water incredible difficult to obtain. The other reason is from a bit of breakdown around half way, where loneliness got the better of me. From there I changed the route to make it as quick as possible and unfortunately missing large sections of the of later part of the route. Since completing the route in 2018, I have started to head back to the trail and complete the sections that I previously missed. |
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"The mountains let us see ourselves in our truest form”