Here is a tip for a mini Green adventure to the very top of the Red Karst region, maybe for a spot of lunch with a hike and a bit of an explore around, but certainly for a glass of the local Teran red wine and a plate of farm cheese with some air dried Prust!

We are now gonna tell about a perfect example of one of so many unexpected, random, unique and secret Green adventures you can do around here..

There is no way in a million years you are gonna excitedley tell your friends you are going soon on your hollibobs to Green Slovenia to spend a day out in Stanjel, Lipa, Potato Cave, Komen and Dutovlje.. you are far more likely to be waxing lyrical about Bled, Ljubbyjana and the Postojna cave.. but read on a bit and see if we can help you to at least think about it!

Dutovlje is a perfect stopover when visiting the Red Karst for a coffee or a meal..

Where is the Red Karst?

The Mediterranean Red Karst is a narrow 40km long mini region that incorporates the Teran wine region and is beautifully squeezed in between the Vipava Wine Valley and Italy in the far west of Green Slovenia. 

It stretches south from the red vineyards towards the Slovenian Coast and the Green Karst where the Lodge is nestled and the closest part of the Red Karst to the Lodge is the stunning bit where you can see the home of the Lipizzaner horses at Lipica and the gigantic Skocjan Cave, just two of the better known Green wonders of Slovenia.. there are many more..

The capital of the Red Karst is the very cute little hill top village of Stanjel, which perches above avenues of vineyards growing the unique Teran grapes that is the only place in the world where they grow, in this tiny red patch of Green Slovenia!

Typical Red Karst scene with empty roads, wide open meadows and a cute little village with church and high steeple..

We have already mentioned just some sensational places that could easily be combined into a fab daytrip out from the Lodge to the Red Karst, but there are so many other possibilities that it really does depend on what YOU might prefer to do that day as to how the trip can unfold!

One last note, we have deliberately ONLY included photos from our little November adventure to the upper Red Karst, so the trees have started to lose their leaves for winter, but fall much later than the rest of Green Slovenia!

So how about a Red Karst Adventure..

We are almost always pleasantly surprised when we get the chance to peel back the layers of some of the many different mini regions, not so far from the Lodge.. to explore the lesser known roads, tracks and paths around them..

So with your permission, we would like to tell you all about one particular day out exploring the top of the Red Karst, in the hope that you will maybe head off there too, but also to show you how easy it is to construct a magical & unexpected day out in Green Slovenia.. and almost ALWAYS away from the crowds!

Leban farm on the edge of the pretty village of Lipa in the Red Karst..

So our mission for this late November day was simple.. Go visit a Red Karst farm for Osmica!

Late November in the south west of Slovenia is Osmica time, where farms and vineyards in the 4 different wine regions open their doors for just a week or so to celebrate the end of the wine making season and to offer their goodies to visitors..

It takes just 30 mins from the Lodge to get to the top of the Red Karst at Stanjel, but there are so many ways to get to this stunning hill top village with two castles and sensational views..

Red Karst farmhouse full of guests for the seasonal treat of Osmica..

You could whisk up the uber beautiful Vipava wine valley and then go up direct to Stanjel incorporating 2 of Green Slovenia's 7 wine regions in one lush day out!

Or you could go across to the base of the Red Karst at Divaca or Sezana and head up the wine roads through little Teran villages with terracotta roofs, white stone Karst walls and completely surrounded with vines..

Any daytrip into the Teran Kras wine region should include a pop stop in Stanjel with a good walk around this mini citadel with its funky lemon shaped church tower and a good look at the views from the top of the hill and the beautiful Ferrari gardens..

From up here on the hill, you can see right across the Vipava Valley to mt Nanos and get a good feeling how close everything is.. the Lodge is tucked away just on the other side of that mountain!

We were targeting pretty Komen today, right at the tip of the Red Karst..

If you look at a map, make sure you always go one way from Stanjel to Komen, then come the other way back, so you get to do a mini loop of the top, most remote section of the Red Karst.. you will enjoy it!

We had found a Karst farm currently open for Osmica in a little village called Lipa on the outskirts of Komen and were excited to try the little country road out there for the very first time!

You could hike all day here on the Red Karst stone paths..

One of the most special things about Green Slovenia is how incredibly different all the mini regions are.. it is really true that you can see the whole of Europe in one tiny country.. so driving around in the Red Karst expect to see wide open meadows divided by those white rock Karst walls, little hills popping up, covered in thick green forest and small villages, always with a big white church and tall steeple sticking out of the middle of it all..

So it was a joy to drive from Komen to Lipa along these long, perfect winding roads, just dreaming about jumping on a bike in the summer and cycling all day around here..

another typical Red Karst village with white church near the farmhouse..

There are vast expanses of Green out here, dotted with forests and connected by a maze of quiet, empty roads..

We easily found Leban farm on the edge of Lipa and saw half the car park was already occupied by Italian plated cars, so knew we were in for a culinary treat and we totally enjoyed the whole Osmica experience of sitting at wooden benches and trying the various Proscuitto, meats and cheeses prepared by the farm, washed down with their home made apple juice and new wines!

simple, delicious, local Red Karst food & wine..

So it was a case of job done for this mission, but as we so often do and you can too when you are here.. we decided to go a different way back home and have a bit of an explore of the Red Karst!

Google maps is good for highlighting castles, caves & churches and stuff like that, but not so great for actually finding them, especially out in the sticks like here.. (You might not believe this, but will see when you are here)! 

Well, we had a stretch of the fingers and found a cave in the vicinity along another road back to Komen.. so off we went to find it!

Google will make it look like the cave is right next to a road, but often the secret places here are along another track that might not even be shown on googlemaps.

An added complication is there might also not be a road sign for some of these more secret places and then maybe only in Slovenian, so you need to keep your wits about you and be determined as you hunt these extra special secret places down!

The stuff you will find & see during these extra little mini Green adventures is another one of those golden nuggets that make Green Slovenia so special.. It is close to impossible to describe these little journeys into the Green unknown here.. just looking out the car window gives you so much extra eye candy and a real feel for living here in Green paradise..

For example, you just cannot describe the happy feeling of driving through these little Karst villages with the neat stone cottages, vines and mediterranean trees in the gardens, then descending into the greeness along lanes that look like they will only take one car width.

a Red Karst village even we had never heard of with an old castle hill top, viewpoint, 6 vineyards to potentially visit and 2 places to buy local honey..

It's really different & great and up here you need to pinch yourself to remember you are not in Italy..

And of course first time we drove straight past the track to the cave.. no road sign, just guess work.. but we know not to give up easily and turned around to go back up the stone path we suspected to find a ridiculously big empty car park with a handy info sign for the cave!

Potato Cave..

Wow, what a find! There was just enough info on the sign to read the incredible history of this cave and find out it was part of a network of other secret caves and bunkers used by the Austrian army during WW1 to shield and house their soldiers!

We descended the most fantastic stone stairway straight down into the bosom of the forest to reach a metal gate barring the entrance to Potato cave..

the steps down to Potato cave, home to over 500 soldiers just over 100 years ago..

It was totally fascinating to discover this cave that was originally used for storing potatoes and other foods, hence the name..

It was converted into a bunker by the Austrian army in 1916 to house an incredible 500 soldiers and 8 officers with different etages of bunk beds, wooden cabins, a kitchen, toilets, water buff and ammo depot!

It is almost unbelievable that 500 soldiers were crammed into this cave, but this is how they did it..

What a history! This part of the Red Karst was near the front line of the brutal Izonzo Front that caused horiffic casulaties for the Italian and Austrian armies during WW1, so any cave like this one that offered a sanctuary for the soldiers must have felt very homely indeed..

Well folks, we are just desperte to get inside that cave a have a look, so we will phone the local TIC or tourist association and get a man with a key to meet us there next time and show us around.. We will let you know how we get on!

Cannot wait to book a tour and see inside Potato Cave..

Instead we had a bit of a poke around up top and found a top hatch, maybe the ventilation or the old ladder entrance down into the cave, but seriously.. this cave is James Bond stuff.. totally fascinating.

If you add the history, stunning sceneray, magical cave and complete isolation into the bargain, then the Potato Cave is well worth finding and having in your life even foe just half an hour..

We found this shaft on top of the cave, so maybe this was where the ladder went in or was for ventilation..

We found some stone paths leading out into the forest that completely surrounded this Green nugget so explored a bit more and for next time we are very confident of having a longer walk and discovering some more abandoned relics, fortifications, even binkers close to here.

the Sinkhole..

We also found a beautiful little Karst formation that kinda draws you in and makes you explore.. It was a perefectly circular sinkhole, who knows how long ago when it was formed, but a long time ago..

It was like a perfect round green lawn, say 10 metres below the level of the rest of the Karst ground and the road around it..

This Karst sinkhole was absolutely fascinating, almost a perfect circle making a field hidden from the road..

You see these little & large sinkholes all over the Karst and whilst not as dramatic as the caves, disappearing lakes and rivers of the Karst, they are worth looking out for, none the less!

You have to buy a ticket to win the lottery, so if you are not exploring the Karst you will not find one of these sinkholes!

Komen..

It was just a short hop along the deserted Karst road into Komen and the view outside the main town in this neck of the woods was so beautiful we literally ditched the car to take this photo below.. 

pretty Komen is the main village at the top of the Red Karst, typically surrounded by vineyards..

Imagine what that looks like in the spring, summer or autumn..

We know a very nice restaurant in Komen too, but we had eaten today, so continued along as many back roads as we could to reach another of our favourite little Red Karst villages, called Dutovlje..

Coffee at Dutovlje..

This village is at the start of the Teran wine region and absolutely surrounded by vines growing in every single plot of spare red Teran soil going.

No need to mention the signature white Karst church with tall steeple and for us, a fantastic local restaurant in the centre of the village with massive old trees in front terrace and also a great place to stop for a final coffee.

one of our fave local restaurants in the Red Karst..

Two of our partner vineyards are within a stone's throw from here, (and there are a lot of Karst stones here).. One produces ecological Teran sparkling wine and the other has a fantastic cellar filled with Teran and another very rare wine called Vitovska Grganja.. a white Teran.. which you won't be surprised to know ONLY grows around here..

We know Dutovlje so well cos it was one of our genuine places to search for a location for Lipizzaner Lodge.. It ticked a lot of boxes, but not all of them, so you will probably agree with us we found a pretty decent final location for the Lodge with access to ALL the Green Nuggets.. 

Fantastic Karst staircase down to Potato Cave..

Maybe on your day out you might decide to try a spot of Teran wine tasting round here..

The really fab thing is Dutovlje and the Red Karst are such an easy day or half day trip..

We had a coffee and cake in the fading autum sunshine and started the final short section home.. By the way Gostilna Ukmar in Dutovlje is a great place to stop off and try some Teran Tapas..

There is a very picturesque road now back to Sezana with more white churches, vineyards and villages to enjoy, but we usually like to cut left directly across the Teran Karst, going direction Senozece, which is in the far corner of the Red Karst and just around the corner from the Lodge!

big open car park at Potato Cave..

This way you get to go down remote little leafy lanes and through littler Teran villages with some very scary tight roads lined with those white Karst rock walls and all of this will be a final little Karst treat for your eyes..

Yet again, we had to do an emergency stop in the car when we saw this photo below.. our final photo of a most unexpected journey into the Red Karst..

the Lodge is behind Mt Nanos, here at the edge of the Teran Kras wine region..

How about some other Red Karst Combos..

You could, but there is no need to stay exclusively in the Red Karst for your daytrip, you could combine a half day there and whizz off to a whole variety of other secret places, cos Green Slovenia is so tiddly small and easy peasy to get around..

Why not have a look at our Secret Places to Visit Treasure Map to see which Secret Green Places you might like to visit and combine into your Red Karst day!