Day 8: Hiking in the Julian Alps

Today was our last day of the G adventures tour! This week has gone by so fast!

At 8am we met our hiking guide at the office and then drove for 30 minutes into Triglav National Park. The forest was really dense and all looked quite similar so none of us wanted to get lost! The hike itself was very steep as we ascended 600m in altitude to the top of a mountain which was 2006 metres high. It was not as hard as the walk to the caves yesterday as it did have short patches of 'Slovenian flat' as our guide called it (i.e. hills compared to Canberra). The views were amazing as we got higher into the mountains. There was even large chunks of snow next to the path (but I wasn't actually cold because it was taking a lot of effort to get up

the mountain!). Halfway up the mountain we stopped briefly at a mountain hut for a break, which I imagine would be very isolated in winter.

When we reached the top it was the most spectacular view! You could see Mt Triglav (highest mountain in Slovenia) as well as the other snow capped mountains and right down into the valleys. We got up there just in time too as the clouds were rapidly darkening and moving over the mountain! After spending a little time there, we hastily retreated down the mountain, passing several abandoned huts (used both by shepherds and hunters) and many beautiful alpine flowers.

At the bottom of the mountain we had a celebratory drink of dessert wine and sweet biscuits before we headed back to Bled around 2pm. Back in Bled I went to get lunch by myself at the cafe we ate at on the first day. I had a very nice kebab except I discovered they don't cook their onion in Slovenia, you are meant to eat it raw which wasn't particularly nice!

The rest of the afternoon I lay on my bed and relaxed as well as packing up most of my stuff.

To celebrate our last night, we met up as a group and walked to an outdoor cafe that overlooked the lake. It was really good food and it was nice to talk about our week, as it seemed everybody had a really enjoyable time. Then halfway through the meal a massive storm hit and it poured down with rain (hence I said outdoor cafe above). We got quite wet finishing our meal and heading back to the hotel! Back at the hotel we said our goodbyes to Freddy and everyone who was leaving early before heading off to bed.