June 10th: Vintgar Gorge

The gorge is 4 miles from the campsite. It was discovered in 1891 by the local mayor and his surveyor friend. By 1893 they had organised a trail through the gorge, which was no mean feat as you can see from the photo. These wooden walkways cover practically the whole mile length of the canyon as the rock walls are too sheer for conventional paths.

The river drops quite quickly so there are many rapids, as can be seen from the photo above. The walls almost touch at a few points, with the wooden walkway edging around, faithfully attached to the rock face. Let’s hope they’ve used plenty of creosote on the wood.

It’s full of fish and birds, which generally move too fast to be photographed. But here’s one who posed for us. It’s a dipper. These bob up and down under the water looking for food, and are to be found only in this sort of fast flowing river. It’s looking a bit cheesed off, but then maybe we would be too, if we had to eat our roast beef or big Mac with our heads under the water.

The gorge finishes with a lovely, tumbling waterfall. Those are people on the bridge above the falls, so as you can see it’s a good size. They obviously sorted out their problems as they didn’t jump.

The return route was either retracing one’s steps, or a footpath through the woods. We went the footpath way; it turned out to be a muddy track, having been churned up by forestry machinery. But onwards and upwards, literally, passing this interesting refreshment arrangement on the way. Some kind soul had placed a glass tankard on the branch (upper right) for use at the spring. Clean water maybe, but not so sure about the tankard!

Finally we surfaced from the forest by a small church, St Catherine’s, in the middle of nowhere but apparently a venue for pilgrims and certainly a venue for walkers.

From the church back to our starting point, where we had left the car, was an easy stroll on a meadow footpath with super open views down to Bled and into the mountains.