This is our first zero day (rest day with zero kilometres walked) on the Via Alpina. Six days after leaving Muggia in Italy, we find ourselves in Podbrdo, Slovenia!

I would say (dicating this to a blog so excuse the grammar) that we are a third of the way to getting proper trail legs. That’s when you can hike like a monster because your body has adapted. Your feet have thicker skin, your muscles in your legs are accustomed to long days, and your core has fired up to naturally support the backpack. 

For me, getting trail legs means more fun, as mentally I can put the concerns about whether something like this is possible behind me, and focus on getting it done.

Yesterday we topped out on Porezen, a 1,300m grind to a beautiful grassy summit. And our first experience of an alpine hut at the top, with cool drinks and sausages with bread. I really hope this hike doesn’t ruin me, forming expectations of cafés or huts at the top of all mountains!

We have walked a lot of gentle roads passing through the karst landscape that forms a lot of Southwest Slovenia. On our first day we had an espresso, as Muggia is in Italy, and there were a couple more consumed this week. Caffeine is pretty incredible for hiking and we chatted a lot about random stuff. 

We were wondering why the map on Caltopo had all these little divets on it, kind of like the moon. Then we realized they are all limestone depressions!

Slovenia is ridiculously beautiful, and if you love to cycle (road or mountain bike) it looks like a pretty epic place. We have learned a lot about the country and enjoyed reading about its history, which is messy and complicated, but I think explains the pride that people take in their land. This pride is obvious through how clean it is here and they are also proud of their water, which they should be because it’s delicious! Not always abundantly available, so we had to plan our water for the first six days, and maybe that’s a reason for their care – they know what life can be like without abundant water.

We also put together a list of random things we’ve learned about Slovenia that we thought were interesting enough to share…

• Water is a constitutional right here. Slovenia was one of the first countries in the world to enshrine access to clean drinking water in its constitution back in 2016, basically saying tap water beats bottled water forever. Read more
• Bees are basically national celebrities. Slovenia has more beekeepers per capita than almost anywhere on Earth, and it even pushed the UN to create World Bee Day, celebrated every May 20th. Read more
• The olm is Slovenia’s real life dragon baby. This pale, blind, cave dwelling salamander lives in the karst caves of the Postojna region and can survive without food for over a decade, so locals used to think it was a baby dragon. Read more
• The oldest musical instrument in the world might be Slovenian. The Divje Babe flute, carved from a cave bear femur roughly 60,000 years ago, was found in a Slovenian cave and is argued by some archaeologists to be the oldest known instrument made by Neanderthals. Read more
• The Ten Day War was Europe’s shortest independence war. When Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991, the fighting lasted just ten days before Slovenia secured its independence, making it one of the quickest wars of the 20th century. Read more
• The Reka River just disappears underground. This river flows along the surface until it hits Škocjan Caves, where it plunges underground and carves out one of the most dramatic cave systems in Europe, also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Read more
• Idrija was once a mercury mining powerhouse. The town of Idrija is home to what was the second largest mercury mine in the world, operating for almost 500 years and shaping the local economy and culture. Read more
• Slovenia’s only national park is on the flag. Triglav National Park, named after Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s tallest peak, is the country’s sole national park, and that same mountain is proudly featured on the national flag. Read more
• Gramatik, a musician/DJ we enjoy, is Slovenian. Denis Jašarević, better known as Gramatik, was born in Slovenia before moving around Europe and eventually building a massive following in the U.S. electronic music scene. Listen to a track

There has been a heat wave so temperatures have been anywhere from 6 to 12° above average. This means we have had 30° days which is not ideal through hiking weather. Thankfully we’ve been in a lot of forests with shade, yet we dread coming into villages where the paved road without trees is like an oven. No joke you can really feel a difference as the heat wafts up on your legs and under your chin. 

We’ve had dripping with sweat ascents, but the humidity is nothing like Nepal’s valleys, so we have no excuses to complain (yet!)

It’s hay-making season too, so we have passed farmers and their wives and sons and daughters working in the fields. Sometimes hand-raking and sometimes machine windrowing, and gathering the good stuff while it’s warm and dry. We are yet to see an unhappy cow. 

The language is tricky, but the locals are patient. It took me about 5 days to pronounce “thanks” properly. Dikko picks this stuff up more easily. We learned the accent above a č, š or ž means a “h” sound. So that’s helped too.

If you love limestone and you love caves then you would love this place. There is a circuit of 6 to 7 huge caves that you can visit comfortably. Dikko spotted a few holes, including one that looked like a squeeze. When he googled it later it was about 7m deep.

I also enjoyed gathering a small gallery of tractor photos. My dad has some tractors he has restored over the years, so I enjoy capturing other examples around the place. Some of them could do with a bit of restoration! Some of them were brand new. A highlight was a Lamborghini tractor, which I find more alluring than their cars.

We have somehow managed to dodge the thunderstorms which have had warnings on the forecast every day. But this afternoon it let rip here in Podbrdo and we will get a wriggle on tomorrow to reach a bivouac site where there is a shelter. 5am start here we come…