This is a fantastic loop bursting out of our Green Karst region for a ride in the very different nearby Teran Kras mini region and an epic forest ride in the Mediterranean side of Nanos mountain, before cruisin home!

HIGHLIGHTS..

• Unbelievably secret tracks to the edge of the Teran Kras mini wine region..
• Lots of forest tracks, quiet country roads & sleepy villages..
• You can visibly SEE & FEEL the point when you pop out of the Green Karst INTO the Teran Kras..
• Several Teran Kras restaurant possibilities along the way, serving local Teran wine..

Churches protected by medieval towers are a unique feature of the Slovenian countryside and there is one on this route!

• Medieval Fortress Church with tower in the village of Dolenje Vas.. and a duck pond!
• Really sensational views of the "other" side of Nanos, looking down the Vipava valley..
• Most of this route you will be completely alone in Green paradise..
• You will be in 3 different Green Slovenian mini regions, our Green Karst, the Teran Kras AND you will see the start of the Vipava wine valley, touching wheels there for just a few minutes!

final forest section before Nanos..

DURATION..

Biking time about 3 to 4 hours, better to follow this route..

You could do this ride in half a day, but better to start in the morning and make a day of it, maybe stopping for lunch and really enjoying this special access that you CANNOT get with a car.. you will need an E Bike for this one!

our route goes UP to meet Mt Nanos.. or you can go DOWN here to the Vipava Valley..

DESCRIPTION..

this is a LODGE LOOP.. so you leave from the Lodge and come back to the Lodge..

This ride will really surprise you and we will describe it now, indeed we need to explain where you will be a little more to help you appreciate how special it is!

A great deal of the time you might feel a little lost in the forest, but stick with Komoot and enjoy the feeling of solitude in green paradise!

OK, so we leave the Lodge to bike up getting close and personal to Mt Nanos, riding alongside the green mountain on the old Roman road stone track..

The aim is to sneak past Nanos by avoiding the main road and motorway, so this is how we do it!

Biking out to the edge of Nanos mountain..

We bike past a field that usually hosts donkeys under the motorway and follow a fab uphill track into the thick forest , with a little bit of this track turning slightly wild, so we have to duck under a few branches.

Soon we pop out into the full Mediterranean part of Slovenia on the side of a huge quarry, using a road that looks abandoned or from the series, "the Last of Us", with grass and weeds growing out of the tarmac!

Stop for fresh water from a well in the tiny village of Laze and from here the landscape changes in front of your very eyes like a green magic trick!

You have now entered the bottow of the Teran Kras wine region, which stretches from the Skocjan cave and the Lipizzaner horses at Lipica up to the hill top town of Stanjel and the blood red vineyards of Slovenia's unique Teran wine region..

this is just outside Laze village where the scenery changes in front of your eyes..

We progress on stone tracks with noticeable white Karst rock walls dividiing the neat green fields in total contrast the wide open fields of the Green Karst, where you have left from the Lodge!

The sloping mountain you can see in the distance is Vremsica, 1,027m (Weather mountain) which also marks the start of Slovenia's Mediterranean hinterland and we take a really fab quiet route down to the town of Senozece, where there is a restaurant and a supermarket if now is time for some lunch, but just hold on a bit, follow the bike path through the town and take a sharp right to join another quiet country road.

This road leads out into sun drenched open farmland, popping under the coastal motorway again to reach the very pretty village of Dolenje Vas..

Here is one of the Lodge's recommended resturants, called Mlin, "the Mill" and open Fri, Sat and Sun only and you could eat here and taste their Karst delights.. if you have booked!

outside the Mlin restaurant in Dolenje Vas.. make sure you book ahead on Fri, Sat or Sun..

Pop to the edge of the village to see a special feature of Medieval Europe architecture, so prevalent in Slovenia due to its central European location and this is the "Fortress Church", where churches were protected by towers, walls and even castles built around them to keep the Turkish invaders out!

We leave the stunning tower protecting Dolenja Vas church and now head up into the thick Karst forest, using the power of the E bike to whisk you up for sensational views of the other side Nanos mountain and down into the Vipava valley, another of Slovenia's 7 wine regions!

A secret forest track will bring you sharply down from next to the motorway to the base of Nanos at Razdrto to rejoin the Green Karst and follow parts of the St James Pilgrim Path back to the Lodge!

the Green adventure concludes with typical Nanos mountain forest tracks, lined with huge Dragon's teeth Karst rocks..

The route takes us up into the Nanos forests for great views across the Postojna valley and the Dinaric Alps connecting the villages of Strane, with the oldest Yew tree in Slovenia and St Michel, for a final downhill to the Lodge.

Wow, what an epic adventure.. ONLY possible with an E Bike

THINK ABOUT..

This route has been so carefully crafted to see so much, we recommend you keep to the Komoot directions..

Sometimes farmers fence off tracks for their cows, but there is always a way around, so this is why Komoot is so useful..

we bike down this steep track into a thick forest.. take it easy here..

If you can do this adventure on a Fri, Sat or Sun, then it makes huge sense to get us to book the restaurant in Dolenje Vas for you.. it is just so good, full of Italians, with Teran wine and local delicacies.

There are another couple of restaurants along this route too, so ask us about them if you do want to eat.

This route is designed as an "all dayer", you can do an extra loop after Dolenje Vas, which can take you a little further into the forest down to the Vipava valley, to really stretch the limits of these amazing E Bikes..

A lot to think about! (But you don't have to think at all if you just jump on the E bIke and follow the ap)!

it is so relaxing biking alone in green forests like these on tracks that feel they were made just for you..

PLEASE NOTE: EVERYONE is different, so EVERY Lodge E Bike route can be as long or as short as you like.. we can help you choose the best route for your time available, interests and group dynamics.

Maybe you have just half a day, maybe you want to eat along the way, maybe you have never heard of a Disappearing lake.. it doesn't matter.. ALL you need to know to start with is you can have a REALLY fantastic experience on an E Bike along any one of our Lodge routes and this is exactly why we got the E Bikes in the first place!