I know it’s only week 1 of 4 but waking up in a bed with a short walk to a coffee machine and a cooked breakfast means the challenging walks seem easily manageable. Yes you wake up tired and with sore body parts but it doesn’t seem tough. I can remember parts of the Larapinta being very tough and having to almost psyche myself up in the morning to get up.
After a hearty breakfast we went for……. You guessed it right – a hike. Though without the backpacks it was so nice and easy. We warmed up with a path straight up the side of a hill out the back of the village to a view point which to be fair had glorious views back down the valley where we came from yesterday. The top of the hill had ruins from as late back as the Copper Age.
From there we hiked down the other side, crossed the Soca and headed to the Kodak waterfalls. We hardly saw a sole on the trek up the hill to the ruins but once we crossed the river we were back within a flock of tourists. But the waterfalls were definitely worth it.
Kobarid is also sadly known for the Twelth Battle of the Isonzo (Battle of Kobarid) during WW1 where the Italians and the Austro-Hungarian and German forces fought a horrible battle where infiltration and poisonous gas was used which resulted in a massive Italian retreat. We walked through some of the trenches and it was hard to believe how a battle could have been fought in such steep and unforgiving terrain. Atop of a hill near the trenches is the Italian Charnel House which houses the remains of 7014 Italian soldiers. Since Nova Gorica we have walked the front line and passed cemeteries that have been emptied with plaques saying that the remains had been moved to this resting spot so it almost felt like a little bit of a pilgrimage to finally see and walk around the Charnel House. We then walked back into town and went to the Kobarid Museum which provides information about the war and it made for a somber experience. It’s hard to believe that as a race we seem to forget pretty quickly the horrors of war.
The town of Kobarid itself was very picturesque with cute little streets around a main square where most of the restaurants were. It also has the Napoleon bridge which spans the Soca river and the bridge we walked over to get into the town. A form of the bridge has been around for centuries as a key crossing over the gorge but the stone bridge was originally built in 1750 though it’s been destroyed and rebuilt a few times like most things in the area. It was definitely a sight to see. S
