Do you fancy a wee walk along a very beautiful river gorge followed up with a much steeper hike up a mountain on a forest path to go find a secret WW2 Partisan Hospital?

The gorge is called Iski Vintgar Gorge not to be confused with the Vintgar Gorge, which may well be the only gorge you have heard about in Green Slovenia to date, cos it is near to Lake Bled!

Actually there really are a lot of fantastic gorges here all over Slovenia in all shapes, locations & sizes and nothing much can beat the natural feeling of exploring along a river that has sliced a passage through the rock over millions of years to create yet another Green Slovenian wonder.

There are so many amazing gorges here that we even wrote a whole page about the ones we have found so far and came up with a brilliant name for it.. GORGES.

 

In the same DAYTRIPS section of our website you will also find a more mysterious section entitled SECRET WW2 HOSPITALS, which is full of secret Partisan hospitals, a WW2 printing press hidden on the side of a mountain and an entire preserved Forest Partisan base that we have taken great delight in discovering over the years and these are hidden all over Slovenia!

Green Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe and we noticed on our adventures that there are still some incredibly secret, surviving Partisan bases hidden away in the massive forests and preserved as living museums where the Slovenian resistance rescued & operated on injured soldiers, printed a free newspaper and generally evaded their Nazi occupiers!

Well in this particular neck of the woods near the village of Iška Vintgar, you can go find one of these secret hospitals AND explore a virtually unknown gorge into the bargain for a truley Green adventure!

We decided to include these two locations as ONE Secret Place to Visit as they are a great combination to do as a pair and actually share a history together, sitting almost in the same spot on a paper map, but the hospital is hidden way up a mountain path high above the gorge!

 

So where are they?

You are probubbly already a little surprised reading all this, but the next bit might be the biggest surprise of all, cos this gorge AND secret hospital are LITERALLY JUST OUTSIDE Ljubljana!!

Yep, just look a bit south of Ljubljana on a map and find the little dormitory town of IG, yes IG and then just below there you will find the Iska river, then all you need to do is find the Iška Vintgar Gorge car park next to the river and both the gorge and the secret hospital are two very different walks directly from there!

 

IG.. (This place has nothing to do with the joke that every British 7 yr old knows, "What do you call an Eskimo's house that does not have an inside toilet!!)..

Apart from having a bit of a comedy name, we were very interested in the pretty little town of IG cos we knew there were some Prehistoric Houses on the Ljubljana marshes somewhere around there, which we also managed to find, by the way and did a seperate Secret Places to Visit article for them..

 

Anyway, it is very easy to whizz along the motorway from the Lodge going under Ljubljana on the ring road to reach IG in about 50 mins, but there is a longer, much more beautiful way to get back from there using local roads direction Cerknica, not far from the Lodge, which has the biggest Disappearing Lake in Europe and so we really wanted to research & work out an epic road round trip, returning on some of the local forest roads we had not yet driven on in over a decade living here! And we were not disappointed..

It was while researching for this trip, we found a photo of the Iski gorge and knew immediately we just had to go see it AND also noticed in the middle of a large green empty section of map, so near to the gorge, the magic words PARTIZANSKA BOLNICA, which STILL ONLY appears in Slovenian on the English google map and means "Partisan Hospital".. BINGO, we realised with delight.. this was yet another secret WW2 Partisan hospital location!

 

One of the reasons we write these Secret Places articles is to help people out from all over the world discover the many Green Secrets in Slovenia and to decide which extra special ones might be for you.. IF you only knew about them.. Then you can go find and visit them as easily as all those other better known marketed places!

One thing is almost 100% for sure and we are talking from our own AND our guests experiences.. You WILL NOT simply pick out a few extra secret places on google maps to go see and easily combine them into a daytrip.. NO CHANCE!

In your country it would probably be easy, with lots of signs, straightforward roads & paths, reviews and info to use.. but not here in Green Slovenia!

 

The problem is, even if you are lucky enough to identify a few places here that might tickle your fancy, then the local roads, geography, lack of signs and/or Slovenian language itself will probably combine to complicate your day in some big or little way and something will inevitbly go wrong so you almost never get to see everything on your list, even worse, you might not even find some of the secret places at all!!

We really do know this from experience and whilst we have the time, passion and energy to go hunt down these special secret Green places and make all these mistakes.. You do not!

You might have just one day in your schedule to go see a secret gorge and a secret hospital together, maybe a disappearing lake and a prehistoric bog house too, so you just cannot waste it driving or biking or walking around looking for where a path starts or something frustrating like that!

 

Get your logistics right and SO MUCH IS POSSIBLE here in Green Slovenia, without running around like headless chickens!

And that is exactly why we write these articles, so you do not need to do the running around, just read up, note the tricky bits and go do it!

And so now maybe you will not be surprised to know that it actually took us TWO separate day trips here to IG to piece together this Green combo, which might only take you half a day in total to physically do them, now you know where to go, where to park, how long to walk, where to have lunch and how to have a really amazing, unique road trip into the bargain!

 

How to Get to Iski Vintgar Gorge..

So like we said, just jump on the motorway after brekkie and you actually skirt the edge of Ljubljana city from the ring road, going direction IG, which is great, cos then you get this wierd sensation of leaving the city again and in just 5 mins past the Ljubljana sign, you reach IG and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere again!

There are not many European capital cities like that around!

 

 

There is a roundabout on the other side of IG with a sign to the Iška Vintgar Gorge and then you go through a few picturesque little villages, still scratching your head and wondering where the city went!

Within a few shakes of a dragon's tale you will be following the ISKA river on your left and a big car park appears on your right.. 

DO NOT PARK IN THIS CAR PARK..

 

Despite there being a wonderful little walk along the now narrow road next to the river leading to another smaller car park outside the gorge restaurant, we STRONGLY advise you continue by car along this road, just 200 metres and park by the restaurant.

We still consider Slovenia to be one the safest, if not THE safest country in Europe, but the reason we are telling you this little bit of extra parking advice is we know this bigger car park is very isolated and exposed, but still so close to a small city, so there is, unfortunately a real danger of car crime here, until they invest the money WE are all  spending on the parking fees and put some cameras!

Taking EVERYTHING on view from your car with you is a very normal practice at home, but sadly you MUST also remember to do that here now, especially when parking in these more remote car parks.

 

So better to park by the restaurant, where there will be other cars and people around and take your valuables with you..

Having said that, this gorge might be unknown to visitors, but well known to the residents of Ljubljana, so it can get quite busy on weekends..

Every day is a weekend for you on holiday! So to avoid any crowds, come here during the week, but still park by the restaurant, which serves food on weekends and might just be a cafe during the week, depending on season.. 

 

Our photos are from the start and middle of Autumn.. We did not have time to try the hike to the hospital on our first visit, so Chris came back alone to give it a go after first doing a guided tour of the Ljubljana Bog Prehistoric Houses near Ig..

So now it is just a small formality to explain a little more about experiencing the Gorge and the Secret Hospital, so you can decide whether to combine them both or do just one and go see any other Green Place you like on the way or way back..

Starting point for both these adventures is the Iski Vintgar Restaurant Car Park..

 

The Iski Vintgar Gorge..

The path leads off along the river, next to the restaurant and it will take you less than half an hour to reach the end of the flat path and go explore the perfect pebble beach with crystal clear water.

There are plenty of secret spots all along the river with these little white beaches, where you could chill out, but the most beautiful spot is here at the end of the main path, with the water sliding over the white beach and the view up to the green mountains on either side..

It depends on how much water there is in the river as to whether you can continue along the river bed, squeezing along the side on the rocks above water, but the two times we went it was impassable this way..

 

So if you want to go explore further up the river, rejoin the main path, which now goes very steeply up to become a forest path on the vertical slopes the other side, overlooking the river.

You could edge carefully down the slopes to join the river again and maybe even further upriver using the forest tracks, but be careful if you do, this second bit of river was plenty for us!

 

The Iski Secret Partisan WW2 Hospital..

Just before you arrive at the restaurant car park there is a path leading off to the right with a red plastic mountain sign for "Krim" mountain 2 hours 15 mins and "Partizan Bolnišnica" 1 hour, which is our target the Partisan hospital for today..

This is the hike Chris did on his own and we have to tell you this is one of the steepest "regular" hikes you could do without any scrambling required, but the path goes relentlessly steeply up over stones, leaves and tree roots with MANY opportunities to slip, so seriously, this is NOT a hike to do if it has been raining, cos it would be almost inaccessible when wet!

 

Why are secret WW2 hospital locations just so fantastic?

By definition, Secret Forest Hospitals were hidden away by the Partisans in the safest possible hiding places, where the occupants could not be seen or heard..

Often this will be in the mountains & certainly under the cover of forests and almost always near a river..

Do not expect a grand hospital complex though, as these camps were built around 80 years ago now from wood and were built just to survive the war.. Most hospitals had to constantly move in case of being found.

 

Every surviving Partisan forest base you will find has different numbers of huts, (sometimes none), different defences and different levels of local information available to read and absorb when you get there..

But the two main things ALL these secret Hospitals have in common are the incredible history and shared stories of human bravery that will hang thick around you in the air when you arrive at the site AND the incredible nature you will have had to hike through to get there..

 

These two features alone mean that Green Slovenia has a really unique collection of very special hidden cultural Forest museums in different shapes & sizes & locations that pretty much NOBODY knows about!!

These secret camps are like electric when you recah them and the hairs on the back of your neck will stand on end when you find a single hut or collection of huts, read the stories and imagine what it was like to be here during the war, fighting for your very existence in a place so fantastically beautiful..

 

OK, back to the HIKE!!

As always, we phoned ahead to find someone local who had hiked to this secret hospital before and we were put in no doubt this route up could be a bit tricky and slippery, but it had not rained for a week and the autumn leaves had mostly fallen, so there were also extra special views through the empty trees to the surrounding mountains.

You cannot go wrong on this hike for directions as there are red circle mountain signs on trees and rocks where you need them, with plenty of long winding zig zag paths leading up the steep mountain slopes directly above the Iška river .

KRIM is the highest peak in this local region at 1,107m and there are lots of paths coming from many directions for locals to hike up to the top..

 

You use this same mountain path to Krim with a side turn after 45 mins hiking up from the car park that looks like it goes off the edge of the mountain to the Secret Hospital, sign posted for another 15 mins..

Try to also imagine when hiking to these hospitals is how two Partisans managed to carry an injured soldier on a board or stretcher to these secret locations.

It was difficult enough to hike up here to the final signpost, but imagine carrying a blindfolded injured soldier too!

 

But this was as far as this particular adventure went for today! Several looks at where the path led off now for the final 15 mins to the hospital was not something Chris wanted to attempt alone!

There were no visible drops, but the path dropped down a steep slope, with trees around to break any fall, but sometimes you just have to be sensible and this last 15 mins to find the hospital will be much better done with two people on our next visit here!

 

So folks, we can get you to this point, but you will have to do the rest if you want to get to see this particular secret hospital location.

Without doubt this is the most difficult hospital to reach we have encountered so far, but we will return and tell you all about it, some dry, sunny day!

Many vistors will really enjoy the challenges of this hike, with the reward of the hardly visited secret hospital at the end AND maybe a swim in the Iska river afterwards and maybe some food or a drink at the restaurant too.

 

Returning from IG to the Lodge..

Whether you do this hospital hike and the gorge together or decide to go see the IG Prehistoric Bog Houses too, we found a really fantastic route home to the Lodge that can best be described as cross country!

We knew the end of this route pops out in a pretty little vilage above Cerknica called Begunje pri Cerknici and then it is a simple 25 min drive back to the Lodge..

But we didnt even know if parts of the road from IG to Begunje even have proper road surfaces and are not just stone roads!

 

As it happens we can now happily tell you this route has a perfect road surface the whole way and whilst it is twisty & curly wurly, it is one of those drives that will reveal a lot more of secret Slovenia to you, being mostly through the forest, but with stunning panoramas popping up through the trees, pretty little villages and a man made lake where you could have a swim along the way!

OK so the route takes about an hour from IG to Begunje Pri Cerknici, go via.. Brest, Podkraj, Podpeč, Preserje, Gorenje Bresovica, Rakitna to Begunje Pri Cerknici, (direction Cerknica) and there will be more twists & turns than a 1960's disco!

 

But what fun!

Maybe have a look at a map to be sure of the route and please note several of the villages in the middle of this route have the same name as other villages elsewhwere in Slovenia, so do NOT drive blind, but enjoy the ride!

We took a detour en route not far outside IG when we saw a really beautiful double steepled church nestled into the hillside in Sebrelje village, called Sv Ivana, which is St John's church.

 

We really recommend doing these little mini explorations and following your nose in the middle of larger Green adventures to go see or find what you can.. Otherwise we would not have seen that pretty little village with haystacks and the steep steps up to the church.

We also noticed one of those red plastic mountain signs marking a trail leading off into the steep hills, right next to the church, for guess where.. KRIM!

It seems all routes around here lead up to Krim, not Rome!!

By driving these kinda roads you will discover another level of the magic of Slovenia, which is one of the few countries in Europe with more people living in villages than towns and you will see a lot of tiny, cute villages, as well as trees on this secret route!

 

A last thought might be to stop off in Rakitnik, before the really curvy forest road begins from there to Begunje Pri Cerknici, maybe to have a swim or a walk around the artificial lake there.. We also noticed there is also a hotel serving food next to the lake and a big easy to see car park.

Suffice to say arriving in Cerknica will bring you back in close range of the Lodge and so many other possible places to still go see if you have time left in your day or fab local restaurants to go eat at.. 

There is one final unanswered question that may be burning your lips as to why the Iška river turns into the Iški Vintgar Gorge or why Cerkinica becomes Cerknici on the end of Begunje Pri.. 

Well it might be that life is found on Mars before we can answer that one, so please just accept that words change inexplicably in the Slovenian language and sometimes the locals don't even know themselves what ending to put on a word, so what chance do we visitors have!