Poor Man's Velika Planina..
When we were lucky enough to travel the world for a year, we just strolled into a travel agent in Quito, on the Equador section of our adventures and bought some last minute tickets for a 10 day cruise of the Galapagos Islands on a smaller boat, (much better experience to go on the smaller than the bigger boats) and had the holiday of a lifetime, within our holiday of a lifetime!
Wouldn't like to think how much the Galapagos would cost if we did it now as a direct package from London!
For those who can't quite afford the Galapogos trip, there is an island just off the Equador coast called Isla de la Plata, or the Poor Man's Galapagos, reachable as a day trip by boat.. Of course we couldn't resist doing that trip too, marvelling at an island that could give us deja vue for parts of the Galapagos, with wonderful birds like Albatrosses and Blue footed, Masked & Red footed Boobies!
Travelling the world for 365 days back in 2005 sure gave us a lot of perspective on many things.. and when we returned to Europe it helped us spot immediately, as soon as we first set our eyes upon Green Slovenia.. that we just knew we had to live here!
Fast forward a bit to now, having opened our dream Lodge between the mountains and the sea here in little old Slovenia.. Just one of the Green magnets that keep us here is an absolutely stunning mountain to go up called Velika Planina, 1,666m (Big Mountain Meadow) or "Heaven on Earth" as we call it!
Velika Planina is another one of those MUST DO's for any trip to the Greenest country in Europe and maybe you heard about it, maybe you didn't.. Either take the cable car up or do a much longer hike from the back via Mala Planina (Little Mountain Meadow) and you will quite simply enter Heaven on Earth..
The mountain is so high up, but with huge flat grassy meadows on top like a massive garden, covered with Alpine flowers and cows grazing, with stunning views of the Kamnik Alps and pretty much the rest of Slovenia too!
Clouds float past up here like luxury yachts and that is not all, cos once you reach the very top you can get transfixed by a magical Hobbit like wooden village built up there, where the locals make cheese in the summer and.. relax!
It is only a 70 min drive direct from the Lodge to the Velika Planina cable car, so an easy day trip for guests to see this magical Green Nugget..
Velika Planina is in the Kamnik Alps, one of the three larger Alps in Slovenia and there is a fourth Alps starting with Nanos, 1,313m, which dominates the view from the Lodge back garden and can also be seen from the top of Velika Planina on one of those many beautiful days that we seem to get so often here on the Sunny Side of the Alps!
Nanos is the start of the Dinaric Alps, a smaller mountain range streching about 700km down the Balkons coast and there is a ridge of Dinaric hills and mountains you can see from the Lodge car park, starting with St Lawrence 1,019m and ending with the very subject of this blog, Planina Hill (Gora), 964m, which looks out over the huge Planina Disappearing Lake.
We describe St Lawrence, just a 7 min drive from the Lodge, as our Stairway to Heaven mountain hike as it is like going up a massive green staircase and we have found several ways to hike up to the top for the amazing views!
One of the things on our list to do is to hike the entire ridge of these Dinaric Hills from St Lawrence across to Planina Hill. We have done this via an incredible forest stone road route by E Bike directly from the Lodge, which we will also explain below..
Planina Gora, (Hill, but we will also call it Gora here) sits at the end of that mini row of Dinaric hills, forming a wide buffer at the end of the green valley and it was only when we had been invited to hike on top there by some friends, that we made a startling discovery..
Standing high up on top, admiring the views across to the Nanos and that beautiful valley below our friend mentioned he is strongly reminded of Velika Planina when he is up here on Planina Gora..
We knew exactly what he was talking about and got that similar feeling.. the landscape, mood and calm up here was JUST LIKE Velika Planina and we realised we had indeed found a "Poor Man's Velika Planina"!
Just to be perfectly clear that there is NOTHING "Poor Man" about Planina Hill, or Isla de la Plata too.. "Poor man" is just an expression to illustrate a smaller, unknown, alternative to a bigger and better known Giant..
In our view you should absolutely climb Velika Planina and Planina Hill, but there are a lot of other exceptional places to see here too, so we will now explain the similarites & differences between them, so you can decide!
Planina Gora or Velika Planina.. Or Both!
In truth, due to having to go up by cable car ride or a big hike up, Velika Planina will never feel that "busy", even with hundreds of people up there as it is also so huge and there are lots of places where you will be completely alone up there in Heaven on Earth.. but go up Planina Gora and you will be almost certainly alone!
Alone from human contact, of course, we saw small herds of deer on Planina Hill and the wind must have been blowing in the right direction cos they did not smell us and we were able to get a half decent photo!
Velika Planina is another 600m higher than Planina Hill and it seems like you can see the whole of Slovenia from up there.. But there is also a superb panorama from different points on Planina Hill, you get a great view to Nanos mountain and the other mountains starting this Dinaric chain, but also a unique view over the Planina Disappearing Lake and the rolling peaks that lead off to the Cerknica Disappearing Lake..
Both the mountains have wide, open meadows up top, the views will remind you how high up you are, but neither have scary steep drops up top, so you are walking from vista to vista.. Planina Hill has lots of special pockets of very beautiful trees..
The Italian Post WW1 Border..
Where as Velika Planina has that magical Hobbit village on top there is plenty of different more recent history to find on top of Planina Hill..
After WW1 the south west corner of Slovenia was occupied by Italy and a border was crudely drawn on the map with Planina and Postojna (both 10 mins from the Lodge) becoming new border towns, neighbouring the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The lake village of Planina was almost cut in two to accomodate the rich nobels who owned Haasburg castle and it instantly made Planina Hill into an incredibly strategic position, looking down on the Planina lake and over Yugoslavia..
The Italians set up their first of two defensive lines along here from Planina to Postojna, using caves and building concrete bunkers to fortify their position..
Do not be surprised if you stumble upon one as you hike around and there are several 100 year old bunkers you can still find up here on the mountain!
Another historical treasure to find near the top of Velika Planina are the remains of the large stone bases running up the hill in two lines for the furnicular lift used by the Italian army to bring supplies up the mountain!
The best bunker we found was huge and hidden under the forest track that leads from the hut or "Koca" at the top of Planina Hill, so you have to scramble down into the forest a bit next to the road to find it.. watch your head inside and you will need your phone torch!
2 Suggestions for Enjoying Planina Hill..
Wouldn't it be a terrific idea to somehow resurrect that post WW1 cable car for hikers to get up Planina Gora.. now that would be fun.. But don't hold your breathe and in the meantime we suggest either driving or E Biking up!
Driving Up..
Just 10 mins! Simply take the road that leads from the Lodge to Predjama Castle and Postojna Cave, ignoring both and instead heading towards Planina.
You go through the village of Studeno, (which is where you would start the St Lawrence, Stairway to Heaven mountain hike) and continue to the end of the long green valley to the tiny village of Lohaca and just before the end of the village there is a sharp left turn.. next to a metal model of a knight outside a house!
Not far to go now, but this next bit is a terrifying drive up the hill, a relatively straight, but steep stone road that leads to a little car park.
These steep mountain roads are common here and only become terrifying if another car comes the other way! There is actually plenty of space for two cars, but it sure doesn't feel that way when a local is bearing down on you with not a flicker of emotion in their eyes!
Our tactic in these scenarios is to just stop where we are and let the local deal with it.. usually works, you feel a bit stupid, but get the job done!! However up here, it will be very unlikely you see another car!
Leave the car now in the little parking spots with amazing views down to the green valley and we recommend doing a big loop hike now to the top of the hill, from here you can see the church (St Maria's) further down and ahead..
Your mission is to head cross country over the mountain meadows and maybe directly through a bit of forest to get to that beautiful church you can see from the top of the hill..
There is no direct path to the church.. You are gonna be rambling and maybe even scrambling, so this is where your true green adventures will begin!
There are some incredibly pretty trees up here and we found another smaller Italian bunker in quite poor condition.
The wildlife up here will not expect to see you, so you have a really good chance to spot some deer, but you will not be the only ones who have hiked here as when you reach St Maria's church, you will see the signs for the centuries old St James Pilgrim path that goes from Zagreb to Santiago.
From the Church head (steeply) up again through now thick forest, but on a track that leads to the "Koca" or hut..
From here there are really fantastic views across to Planina and the hills to Cerknica, home to the biggest disappearing lake in Europe!
At the Koca, look at whatever ap you are using, (we always suggest Komoot) to see the stone road that goes down to Planina town on the other side of the mountain and more importantly the road that will lead you back to your car through a thick beautiful forest.
Less than 50 metres form the hut is that huge hidden bunker that you will not see from the road, but it is there and you can go inside and explore..
It is quite literally chilling to think people lived here around 100 years ago..
The walk down along the stone road back to your through thick, green Karst forest is quite straightforward now back to the car and this is where you will most likely see a few cyclists.
Wow, what a hike, we did it in around 3 hours, but take a sandwich and enjoy the views!
Many of the hikes we recommend can be done in either direction, but this one we recommend is best done in the direction we described.. basically finding the church from your starting point high on top of the hill..
Yes it would be easy to find and do the first bit of the hike up the stone road to the hut (Koca), but then hill is huge on top, so NOT so easy then to find the church AND complete a circle back up the mountain to your car..
And for some extra fitness and views, why not even leave your car at the base of the hill road in the village of Lohaca and hike up that really steep road instead.. the views on the way up are very good indeed..
E Biking Up..
Or you could E Bike up!
We are explore the Dinaric Karst mountains around here a lot often finding forest stone tracks that do not even appear on googlemaps!
We were determined to find a way to E Bike from the Lodge via Predjama castle up into the forested hills and get behind St Lawrence mountain, coming down the other side into that green valley we mentioned with the village of Studeno and complete the loop back to the Lodge!
You will need an E bike to do this..
The uphill from the castle to St Lawrence mountain is intense and beautiful with lots of vistas until you quickly get the feeling that you have completely left civilisation and are surrounded by very thick Karst forest, with those jagged white Karst rocks littering the forest floor!
There IS a stone track the entire way, but you cannot really just pick the right route first time as there are also hunters tracks and logging tracks up here too.
It is also possible to pop out of the forest for a view of Studeno and St Lawrence church with a small detour, leaving the bike and hiking up a 150m long steep track that pops out at the church!
Back on the bike the track levels off and is brethtakingly quiet and beautiful.. There is a small chance some foresters will be working cutting trees on a section of this road and they will be very surprised to see you arriving there on your bike!
Bursting out of the forest you could have knocked us down with a feather when the view down to the green valley came into play and we realised we were EXACTLY at the little car park that leads up to Planina Hill.. We had made it to Planina Hill!
Well now we know it would be possible here to do a "there and back" ride to the HUT or do the death defying ride down that steep road back to LOHACA and follow the quiet road back to the Lodge, doing a wonderful green detour along a section of the St JAmes Pilgrim path that you can pick up in Studeno.. Epic!
We mentioned the most unique castle in the world, Predjama at the start of this bike ride and of course it would be possible to stop off and visit the castle first at the start of this bike ride.. totally unbeatable!
We have made sure we recorded this route and so many other sensational E Bike rides you can do from the Lodge and so swallow your pride.. Green Slovenia is the perfect country to use an E Bike, so hop on and properly enjoy the day!
We did and saw a lot of amazing things travelling the world.. We hiked to Machu Piccu, saw the Taj Mahal and swam with pink dolphins in Cambodia, but every single one of our top ten picks was in the Galapagos, they are that good.. you really should get out to see them once in your lifetime!
Velika Planina would almost certainly be part of our top ten for Green Slovenia, but try this hike or E Bike ride on top of Planina Hill and you will have recorded yet another sensational day to remember in Green paradise..
French Connection en Slovenie
