Where will the path take me this week, I asked myself. I wanted to go to Upper Carniola and Soča valley wasn’t off the list also. The weather for Sunday was showing us a clearer picture than on Saturday but the four of us still hoped that we would avoid bad weather also on Saturday.
When I visited Mrežce this winter, which is above Bled cottage on mountain Lipanca (1630 m) I got an idea to do a hike in this area and walk the ridge path from Debela peč to Viševnik.
We started our hike on Saturday morning on Rudno polje on Pokljuka and walked towards Planinca mountain. The path was leading us through the forest, past the ski run and continued through the forest again. Path wasn’t steep or hard as we had only 320 metres of level difference to overcome. Bled cottage and pastures were alone in the quiet. After we rested a bit, we started going uphill and started rising to Debela peč, which is 2014 metres above the sea level.
The peak is rising above Krma valley and on the other side to Pokljuka’s forests. We congratulated ourselves for conquering another mountain but were a little scared to look at our next goal, Rjavina mountain, which was hiding in dark clouds. But we didn’t lose our optimism and believed that the weather will be on our side.
The next conquered mountain was Okroglež (1965 m), which lies between Debela peč and Brda. After a five-minute-walk we came to a peak, which offers a view to the south – to Pokljuka, Bled and Karavanke. The wind was blowing hard, but when we started the hike to another mountain, the sun was warming us. Brda is another mountain, 2008 metres high, which lies between Pokljuka and Krma.
From there one could see Triglav, peaks above Krma valley, west and middle Karavanke, Grintovec and other beautiful mountains in Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Pokljuka, Jelovica and Lower Bohinj Mountain chain. But this time we didn’t have the luck with the weather. A rain shower came from Mojstrana but we still believed in a good ending. We continued our path to Lipanski vrh, 1974 metres high. The path was badly marked so we searched for the path on some points. But we always found it.
On the way to Lipanski vrh we tried ourselves in wire ropes and happily stepped on the fourth peak and from there to the neighbouring peak, 9 metres lower Mrežce. When you watch the view from Lipanski vrh to Mrežce you get a smile on your face because you realize that you will be on the fifth peak in a few minutes. But it wasn’t so easy. We had to go down and then climb to Mrežce with help of wire ropes. Again, we congratulated ourselves, photographed ourselves and admire the views to the south and the clouds on the north.
We looked at our next goal, Viševnik, but also at the dark clouds. We didn’t escape them this time and luckily, the rain shower lasted only a short time so we didn’t think about going to the valley. On the path to Srenjski preval, we climbed Debeli vrh, which also offered some beautiful views with its 1962 metres.
The weather got kinder and the sun started to peak out of the clouds and Viševnik was closer with every step. We came to Srenjski preval on the right side and from there, we only had a few steps to the third mountain, over 2000 metres high. I got a smile on my face when the clouds disappeared and the mountains started showing their peaks. Očak with Planika cottage under us, to the right Kredarica cottage, in front of us Mali Draški Vrh, behind it Veliki Draški Vrh, Ablanca, Tosc... Everything was inviting us to conquer and they will have to wait for another time. We had Viševnik’s peak to ourselves, we enjoyed the silence, which surrounded us, and in clear views that rewarded us. I kept looking to the back of our path. To Debela Peč and to the whole ridge we just hiked. So proud! We got down to Rudno polje and drove to Kranjska Gora.
After 10 hours we were tired and happily drank our cold drink in the hostel Barovc near Jasnalake and talked about Sunday. We wanted to climb to Dovška Baba.
It is a border mountain 1891 metres high, which lies between Slovenia and Austria. We started our path in Dovje. Marked path was pretty steep and we conquered quite a few metres of altitude to the first pasture. The peak started showing itself on the mountain Dovška Rožca and it only took us half an hour to get to Dovška Baba from there. From the top we were able to admire Wörthersee, which stood out with its turquoise colour and we also admired the view on Rožca and Hruški vrh, which were our plan to conquer next. Beautiful things in our country still take my breath away. We stopped, photographed the peaks, the nature and the valley below us. From Rožca mountain pass we got down to Rožca farm and moved on to Hruščanska planina. We craved some true alpine lunch but since they didn’t have sour milk, we moved on to Dovje.
We spent an active weekend and discovered new beautiful places. You always discover something, which surprises you. The beauty is all around us, we just have to see it...
