We were staying two nights in Stara Fuzina to complete our last side trip which should have been a 20km round trip around Lake Bohinji with a hike up to see a waterfall. Unfortunately we awoke to torrential rain and low lying clouds and didn’t even set foot out of the apartment until lunch when there was a slight break in the weather.
In this break we managed to walk to the edge of the lake and then into another village for some lunch with the potential of maybe walking around part of the lake but unfortunately the sky opened up again and that scuppered our plans.
Fortunately our stage the next day was only 11kms so when we awoke on the second day and it wasn’t raining we hatched a new plan which involved dropping off our bags at the tourist information centre, hiring bikes and biking around the lake to the waterfall.
We didn’t really pay much attention when planning this side expedition as to the elevation of the waterfall but it soon became apparent when we started to climb and I discovered that I didn’t have my two highest gears. Needless to say thighs were burning by the time we made it to the waterfall car park and we then had to climb a further 500 steps. (It should be mentioned that Tim swapped bikes halfway)
The waterfall was lovely but very very busy and we have both decided that the best waterfalls are ones that you get to yourself. The magic is lost a little when you are queueing in a line to get to the viewpoint to take a picture. This is regardless of how tall or big or beautiful they are. But it was still a nice sight.
The ride back to town was a lot easier going downhill and we were soon back at the tourist office. What is really refreshing about Slovenia is that when you hire things such as boats or bikes they don’t make you give up a security deposit or hand over passports or ids etc. We got the bikes without even paying our hire fee and they just said pay when you get back. I know I said I didn’t have two gears but the bikes were nice Scott mountain bikes that would have cost a bit but clearly they don’t have issues with people stealing. Also when we got back and jokingly mentioned that the hill was quite difficult without those two gears they insisted on not charging us for that bike. I hope it always stays like this and tourism doesn’t ruin it.
We soon had our backpacks back on and were headed off on the next stage of the hike. It was relatively flat and along small roads through little villages with a bit of forest trails thrown in.
When we arrived in Bohinjska Bistrica and went to our guest house we were greeted by our host Franka who was a very cheery and large Slovenian woman who insisted we sit and have a shot of snaps with her. Not exactly what you want after a hike but there was no way we were saying no to her. Turns out it was home made 51% proof apple and pear snaps that put hairs on your chest. We got given ours in shots glasses and she drank hers out of a water glass which she already had beside her but we had assumed was water. After insisting we had another (we did) we were luckily saved by some people coming to visit and were shown to our apartment. According to Franka you can have 5 double shots before you start forgetting things. 😂 S