Adjective.. in the Vipava Valley

If you are lucky enough to drive through the stunning green Vipava wine valley, but mistakingly take the motorway instead of the beautiful local roads, then you will probably feel you have had a lucky escape as you drive straight past the largest town in the valley, Ajdovscina.. (I still had to check 3 times if I spelt it correctly)!

The feeling of relief will probably firstly be that you didn't have to attempt saying the name of the town and secondly, let's face it, compared to the rest of stunningly beautiful Green Slovenia, this town is not exactly an oil painting from the outside!

Also when you consider that you have also most probably completely underestimated the amount of time you need to spend in the most beautiful country in Europe.. then realised when you get here that there are so many amazing, beautiful places to see, then there is very little chance that you would stop in Ajdosvcina at all, particularly when the stunning little town of Vipava is just down the road!

But don't worry, help is at hand with the name problem.. we call it Adjective and you can see the look of relief on our guests faces when we establish this pronounceabubble name for this place with them! So from now on we will call it Adjective!

We have spent our first 10 years in Slovenia pretty much enjoying the rest of the amazing Vipava valley and ignoring Adjective.. maybe popping in to buy some floor tiles or electrical supplies, but certainly not to actually visit there!

But then last year at the end of a lovely day out in the Vipava valley, a guest family happened to ask a local wine producer where was a good place to swim. When they came back from their day's adventures they told us all about it.

We are used to not being surprised how many amazing secret places there are around this beautiful little country, but we were shocked to find out there was another place so close to the Lodge where you could swim that we didn't know about!

So we took the next opportunity to visit the town we know as Adjective and followed the directions given to us by our guests and wow, we found even more than just a place to swim, we found a stunning river spring, a nature walk, a river with crystal clear water flowing down the mountain, a series of small waterfalls and an ancient Roman town wall with towers everywhere!!

We were absolutley gobsmacked! Entering Adjective, we drove past the ugly factory and commercial buildings and the modern, but bland interior, as usual, but then we found the Hubelj river just off the town centre and explored by going up the mountain, about 4km to the source or spring, where water comes gushing out of the side of the thick rock.

This view is slightly spoiled by there being some sort of water treatment station there, but even then it is a very special place and very photogenic. So this is where the Hubelj starts it journey and it help explained a bit why we had seen so may local people walking or cycling up as we drove here.

there is a lovely secret path from the river spring all the way to the bottom..
there is a lovely secret path from the river spring all the way to the bottom..

 

There are a few small car parks up here and people seem to go off walking further up the mountain and to where the water spills out of the rocks. There are walks going off in every direction and it is very green and rocky.. add the water to this and you have a very beautiful secret place.

We also saw a nature trail going down into the forest at the side of the river and realised this was the top of the trail that our lovely family had tipped us to walk up, but from the bottom. So we explored the trail and found it went all the way alongside the river and there were exercise stations all along for the locals.

There are lots of little side paths through the forest to the river side and one lead to that magical place that had been described to us where a couple of waterfalls spilled icy cold crystal clear water into a small lagoon area where you could swim, (on a hot day).

You can see from the photos on this page that it is a very beautiful place and so quiet and peaceful. Slovenians are generally very fit and like to go out in nature, so this whole mounatain side area is absolutely perfect for the towns people of Adjective.

So that was an impressive discovery and then we went down below to the old town of Adjective where we also found a crumbling Roman wall protecting a fortress and several really well preserved Roman towers all over the place! You really get the feeling this place is ready to embrace a few more visitors now and when the central square is proprly renovated to show it's Roman heritage, then a trip out to Adjective should truly be on your secret places to visit map of Green Slovenia!

We would recommend you either park at the top of the river by the source and walk down, or better to park at a free car park behind the youth hostel and then walk up the trail.. this way you can visit the lagoon on the way up and if you want to walk further up the mountain after reaching the springs you have that flexibility.

And it is also very possible to continue walking up from here to another one of Slovenia's secret places, the amazing Okno, which is a 7m high stone window, 1,000m up with amazing views over Adjective and the rest of the Vipava valley!

So Adjective is an unexpected bonus destination for you to put on your bulging list of secret places to visit in the Vipava valley! We have long been telling people this valley is Slovenia's biggest secret place, so you could easily combine a visit to the Hubelj springs and river with elec biking, kayaking, wine tasting, hiking or trying the really excellent restaurants in the valley.

Oh yes and just one last thing.. did you know that they also make an ancient beer in the Vipava valley and its main resource is the crystal clear water that flows down the Hubelj river.. the beer is called Pelicon and you can also do a tour of the brewery if you can fit it in!

Email: info@lipizzanerlodge.com

Address: Landol 17, Postojna 6230, Slovenia

Phone: +386 5620 3443
Mobile: +386 40 47 0239 or +386 40 37 8037

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