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Journal: |
I started walking just before 8am, first crossing the valley in
which Thorn-Maglern was situated, including the freeway, railway and
river, before starting the steady climb through forest to
Dreilandereck (1509m), the hill on top of which is the point where
the borders of Austria, Italy and Slovenia meet. The early
climbing was very pleasant, relatively gradual and along sun-dappled
forest roads. In fact, it was so pleasant, I realised that
somewhere along the way I had missed a turn-off. After
consulting the map and my GPS, I couldn't work out how far I had
gone past the turn-off, but I could see that rather than being on
the side of the mountain, I should be on the top. Rather than
retracing my steps, I decided it would be easier to bush-bash my way
directly up through the pine forest to the ridge to pick up the
trail. The slope was very steep, with a thick cover of pine
needles and decaying trees, but there was no undergrowth and it was
failry easy to see where I needed to go. Progress was very
hard and very slow. Several times I wondered whether I had
made the right decision, but there was no turning back. After
about an hour, I finally reached the top and found the track I
should be on. Half an hour later, I reached Dreilandereck,
pretty much on schedule, despite my detour.
The place was
busy with many walkers who had taken the chair-lift up from
Arnoldstein to walk on the grassy summit and visit the border
intersection on the beautiful sunny day. There were excellent
views into Austria and into Slovenia where the precipitous Julian
Alps were my next destination. After a break to admire the
views and people-watch, I descended to the Wurzen Pass where I
turned south through the old border crossing between Austria and
Slovenia (formerly part of Communist Yugoslavia). The border
control buildings were all intact, but there was nobody manning the
crossing as Slovenia is now part of the EU. There was a sort
of duty-free store that specialised in beauty products, tobacco and
alcohol, but they also sold ice-creams and Coke and I stopped for
another break.
The Via Alpina followed a road and then a farm
track through pleasant pastures down to the village of Podkoren.
My schedule would have let me stop here, even though it was still
early afternoon, and there were a couple of hotels, but I felt
fresh, the weather was good, and I decided to push on to the
mountain lodge, Planinska Dom Tamar, which was the original goal.
Podkoren was an old farming village and there were some interesting
old farm-houses and barns, and a pretty town square. Through
the village my route led to a newly sealed rail-trail at the old
Podkoren railway station. The rail-trail was clearly a good
decision, because it was very busy with cyclists on a Wednesday
afternoon. I found a shady spot and had a late lunch watching
the cyclists go by.
After lunch, I left the rail trail and
followed a farm track and then forest path that crossed some lovely
grassy meadows, many covered in wildflowers, with hay racks and,
incongruously, ski lifts and ski tows. It is obviously a big
winter sports area, because I later passed a winter Olympics
training camp and a huge new ski jump under construction.
The
last part of the day, involved a gentle climb into Triglav National
Park along a broad path through a lovely deciduous forest dotted
with huge mossy boulders, remnants from the glacier that had carved
the valley. On both sides and straight ahead were massive
sheer rocky peaks, through which I will be finding my way tomorrow.
Around 4pm I reached the historic (some might say decrepit) old
lodge and was given a room, on request, rather than a place in the
dormitory, and had a nice warm shower to end a very nice day.
According to the Via Alpina guide, tomorrow's leg is supposed to be
spectacular, so I hope the weather holds.
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