We will literally take you to new heights in this epic Green road trip adventure to a cave we haven't actually been to and a flute we have not actually seen, but stay with us, we will explain all.. This is a really fantastic loop exploring some nooks & crannys of Slovenia you probably won't know about!

The Flute is thought to date between 50,000 to 60,000 years old, blowing up the record for the oldest musical instrument to be found in the world and shocking archaeologists that Neanderthals were also making music back then!

Well it was found in the Divje Babe cave here in little old Slovenia and we are gonna tell you all about how to go find that cave as part of a this really fun road trip loop into the back of Green beyond..

The bone flute is now on show inside the National Museum in Ljubljana, so maybe you will see it there another day on your hollibubbles..

There are lots & lots of Secret places you could choose to also go visit along this special route and you WILL get the opportunity to do a hike to the Divje Babe cave, choosing EITHER to go from above or below!

 

Road Trip to the Divje Babe Cave and back via the Ice Cave..

Our strong advice for getting a fuller Green Slovenian experience is to use the local and back roads wherever and whenever possible..

It is difficult to describe in words, or indeed single photos just what you will see on these local roads, but you will basically see what Green Slovenia actually is..

A huge Green mass of forest, mountains, rivers and lakes, dotted with cute little villages, vineyards, numerous castles and a church on pretty much every hill!

One fab way to experience this is to tootle along in your car, stopping wherever you fancy, but generally following a route and better still, linking up several secret Green places to visit along the way.

 

Directions.. Also have a look at our LOCATION map to find these places..

There is a wonderful set of country roads that will whisk guests from the Lodge past the Planina Disappearing Lake to the Unesco listed town of IDRIJA in just 50 mins of non motorway driving heaven..

From Idrija we take the road along the IDRIJA River that leads towards Tolmin and Most Na Soci.. This road follows the river beautifully and look out for the turning to CERKNO, cos you keep going straight and after that you have TWO choices to go left and find the Divje Babe Cave..

1.. From Below.. Quite soon now after not taking the turn for Cerkno,there will be a left turn OVER A BRIDGE, but only turn if you see the BROWN sign for the DIVJE BABA cave, (will prob say Jama, not cave!)

You then drive up to a farm, park up and follow the steep trail up the mountain to the cave..

2.. From Above.. Ignore this turn over the bridge driving a bit further towards Most na Soci and turn left at the sign for ŠEBRELJE.. This is a very steep, but good road that leads up to what will feel like such a remote village on the top of the hill!

 

We took option 2, going up this curvy road and some of the viewpoints are spectacular as you feel as if you are climbing into the mountains, cornering past little houses built into the hair pin bends of the roads and you might wonder how on earth someone could live there.. But then you see the view..

There is no need to be apprehensive about driving up this road, cos buses and trucks need to go up to the biggish village too, so the road is actually quite wide and pretty soon after the early climb you go back into the bosom of the forest!

Like we said, it does feel a bit wierd after driving for 10 mins or so up to find a whole village perched on the top of this hill, so welcome to Šebrelje!

 

St John's Church (SV Ivana) with the Viewpoint..

Now you just drive across the village to the other side and out on a single lane stone track road which offers a glimpse of the sensational views to come!!

The great thing about Green Slovenia is the EU is still pouring money in for development to a country that will remind you more of Switzerland, than a country actually in need of development.. HOWEVER tourism is still heavily under developed here and all the little car parks and trails that are being created and new signs posted are a move in the right direction and, at least some payback for these vast funds spent..

 

Well they are building a little car park here too, just before the church, which we hope will be ready by the time you go visit and there is even a chemical toilet there too!

If you choose to drive directly from the Lodge to this stunning spot then it would stilll only take about an hour and a half!

 

Our photos really cannot prepare you for the view you are gonna get now, cos this is a very wide panorama and also one that looks back into history..

You see in WW1 this part of Slovenia and the Soca river which leads directly up into the Alps, was a huge set of defensive lines for the ruling Austro Hungarian empire and holding back the Italians..

So as you step towards the church, eagerly awaiting the vists, you are also walking back into history!

When you get to the long safe edge you will immediately noticed  lots of grass bunkers and old trenches on the edge and these were built by Austrian soldiers.

 

You will see why as this view has to be one of the most beautiful in the whole of Green Slovenia, which is saying something..

You are looking across at the mountains that will lead into the Slovenian Julian Alps and far below is the Idrija river and road you were driving along, with the customary little villages and churches dotted all around the skyline and in the background LEFT are the main Julian Alps. WOW..

 

There are scary bits to stand and not so scary bits too and you can get a deep understanding of what it must have been like to be up here as a soldier, maybe a conscripted Slovenian forced to fight for a distant empire, when you have a good walk around, especially if you find the cave dug out by the soldiers under the church for shelter and protection..

There is another short path near this bunker leading along a very scary narrow trail out to the best viewpoint of all, so even if your legs are shaking a bit, try to get to the safety of the fence and the map to see the view and read up what you are looking at! Double, triple WOW..

 

You might remember we were gonna tell you about the Divje Baba Cave and that old flute?!

Well UP HERE, next to the church, is a big sign with info and a new mountain path leading down to the cave!

So you can also decide to walk down the hill to the cave instead from here and we think it is not so far DOWN from here than if you hike UP from the farm below, but that will be for our next Green adventure here to find out.. Or for you to find out before!

 

Hopefully by just explaining all the stuff possible on top of a simple hill top in a place you never heard of can help you appreciate really how many Green adventures there are for you to find in Slovenia..

You could spend all day on this hill or climbing up & down it and also maybe find one of the other "donkey trails" created by the soldiers for supplies..

But we had to move on to new adventures, so we drove back down the hill.. totally enjoying the views again.. and jumped back on the road from Idrija to Most na Soci.. (so we went left when we got back to the river & road)..

 

Most na Soci..

Most is "bridge" in Slovenian and so this village destination has a bridge over the Soca river, but there is also a large unexpected lake here with an Electric Paddle Steamer doing trips under this bridge and along a secret part of the river.

The lake is a huge reservoir with the same epic turquoise colour as the Soca river and little white pebble beaches all over the place, so could well be a place you might stop off for lunch or a swim or for a trip on Captain Dejan's paddle steamer!

 

There are a couple of restaurants in Most na Soci and the very minimum you should do here is see how beautiful the lake is, so either bag a parking space in the village next to the petrol station or, more likely turn right on arriving in the village onto the Tolmin road, (yes folks, the uber amazing Tolmin Gorge is just a few KM from here too), and there is a car park just asfter the Zebra crossing on the edge of the village..

Then just walk back alongside the lake and like we said, as the bare minimum, go walk to the bridge.. it is something special!

We thought we had seen all the little corners of Most na Soci, but our local friend was accompanying us and he knew about a secret road that leads from the back of the village and almost doubles back the way we had just come from Idrija, but instead takes you to the hills above the Vipava Valley AND back to the Lodge!

 

So you kinda weave down a narrow road and take the road to the train station that leads out the back of the village, the 609, direction Čepovan..

But first we had yet another epic viewpoint to go see and we took a small detour up another road out of Most na Soci to a little farmstead up on the hill called Turistična Kmetija Široko, which meands Tourist farm Siroko, where the views from up there are sensational AND you might be able to get some lunch up here into the bargain too!

 

The extra drive up is so worth it for the clean vista across to the even closer main Julian Alps, Tolmin down below AND the Soca river looking as beautiful as always!

Unfortunately you need to come straight back down the hill road to rejoin the 609 road from Most na Soci and make a stop when you get to a little jucntion with a tourist sign and memorial that looks a bit like this photo below!

 

Many many visitors to Green Slovenia will get their timescales and logistics completely wrong and end up missing out on the Soca river altogether, which is frankly unforgiveabubble..

Being excited foreigners moving to Slovenia, we could locate our Lodge EXACTLY where we wanted, not where the family lived, but in the very best spot at the end of the Green Karst and Mt Nanos, within spitting distance of the best motorways and roads that can whisk our guests off to Green adventures ALL over Slovenia!

We already know two really fantastic and speedy routes to whizz guests up to the Soca Valley, one via the Vipava Valley and the other route is the one we have been looking at here, to get from Idrija to Most na Soci..

But we didn't have a Scooby Doo about this 609 road from Most Na Soci to Čepovan, which will take a little longer, but boy oh boy, this is a super beautiful and quiet option for guests wanting to enjoy the Green Slovenian country roads.

 

And we have to go back to WW1 again to thank a General called Boroevic for this epic road, cos he insisted to the Austrian military hierarchy that the Empire should be defended from here, by Most na Soci, rather than falling back a long way into Slovenia and so this road was built to supply this third front line!

So you will be driving along an old military road!

As it happened, most of the horrific WW1 fighting took place further up the Soca River in the mountains there, called the Isonzo Front, (Isonzo is the Italian name for the Soca river), so nowadays we are just so lucky to have this almost completely unknown Boroevic Road open and available for us to use!

 

The Boroevic Road from Most Na Soci to Ćepovan & Beyond..

ČEPOVAN - LOKVE - PREDMEJA is the route to go then at Predmeja you have the Vipava Valley at your mercy with a 20 min journey from Vipava old town back to the Lodge or head via COL and PODKRAJ back to the Lodge via PREDJAMA CASTLE!

If you really love driving, maybe on a motorbike too, then this Boroevic road has the twists, the turns, the little villages and the Green hills to make this a memorable road trip adventure.. Oh yes, and there is an Ice Cave on the way too!

It was only recently that an entire section of stone gravel forest road between Lokve and Predmeja got a proper road surface making this whole road trip to Predmeja tarmacked, so you will be effectively driving on an old forest military road, but on a brand new road surface!

Just one thing to note here, that often littler rural roads in Slovenia can get completely closed for resurfacing, rather than using traffic lights and keeping one lane of the road open.. so just double check the Boroevic road is open before driving it, (a quick glance at google maps usually works) and this handy tip can apply to any number of other countryside roads off the beaten track in Slovenia at any time.. 

 

If you are interested in seeing the Ice Cave along the way, then just look for the LEDENA JAMA (ice cave) sign halfway between Lokve and Predmeja and this time you must use a stone track road to go even deeper into the forest, find the little cr park and hike down to the cave, (20 mins max from the parking)..

Predmeja is yet another one of our recommended stops as part of another epic daytrip, much closer to the Lodge and a fab Hike to the OKNO, which is a huge natural stone window, 1,000m up with views down to the Vipava Valley.

From up here high above the Vipava Valley at Predmeja there is yet another beautiful road directly down into theone of Slovenia's 7 wine regions and you pop out surrounded by vineyards at Ajdovsčina, or Adjective as we call it!!

You do not need to go down to the Vipava Valley though, from Predmeja, stay 1,000m up in the hills behind Nanos mountain, descending slowly into the forests above Predjama Castle.. and then it is just 10 mins back to the Lodge!

So you can see now there are just so many extra options you could combine into this looped route, making it really worth planning a little beforehand.

This route is on the map, but it would have been very unlikely you might choose to drive it without the help of this little article, so if you do want a bit of a drive around, with some exploring, maybe a hike, unique views and isolated villages, then this could well be the day trip adventure for you!

But if you wanna see the flute..