Tag: travelling

Short Facts:

Duration of the journey from Chalet Bjoerk:
Round trip Chalet Bjoerk – Wurzenpass – Kranjska Gora – Vršič Pass – Soca Valley – Predil Pass – Tarvisio – Chalet Bjoerk can take up to a full day if you take a couple of stops. The driving distance is around 160km.

Recommended Equipment:
good walking shoes, binoculars, passport

This round trip will take you to Slovenia and Austria, provide you with beautiful views, and take you back in time.

The first part of the trip from Lake Ossiach to Vršič Pass
Starting from Chalet Bjoerk, you’ll take the winding road up the Wurzenpass to cross over to Slovenia. After you have passed the skiing village of Kranjska Gora, the winding road to the Vrsic mountain pass provides stunning views of the Julian Alps. The road through the pass rises from Kranjska Gora in a series of 50 hairpin bends, traverses the top of the Vršič Pass, and descends into the Soča Valley. The upper elevations of the road are rendered impassable by heavy snowfall during much of winter. The Isonzo Front of World War I greatly improved the road in late 1915, and it was originally named after Archduke Eugen of Austria-Hungary. The current name, Russian Road (Ruska cesta), refers to the approximately ten thousand Russian prisoners of war used as labourers in the 1915 construction. On the north side of the pass, just off the main road, at an elevation of around 1,200 m, a Russian Orthodox chapel built by the Russian POWs to commemorate their about 380 comrades who died the road construction. The Vršič Pass is the highest mountain crossing in Slovenia and the highest in the Eastern Julian Alps.

From Vršič Pass to Predil Pass
26 hair bin bends take you down to the beautiful Soca valley. Along the road, you will be able to see remnants of the First World War. The valley was the stage of major military operations, including the twelve battles of the Isonzo on the Italian front in World War I between May 1915 and November 1917.
Due to its emerald-green water, the river is marketed as “The Emerald Beauty.” It is said to be one of the rare rivers in the world that retain such a colour throughout its length. The river’s course invites you repeatedly to park your car and take a few steps through the valley. For fishers of particular interest is the Soča Trout, which attracts fishers from all over the world. The marble trout is found in only a handful of drainages and rivers of the Adriatic basin.
Following road 203 from Bovec to the north, you will arrive at the Kluže Fort. In the 15th century, it was a wooden fortification intended to prevent Turkish invasions in Carinthia. Later on, a stone fortification was built, defended by Austrian soldiers from Napoleon Bonaparte’s military in the 18th century. The fort obtained its modern view in the 19th century, while in the 20th century, it played an important role on the Isonzo Front. The Fort Hermann on the Mt. Rombon was built to support the Kluže Fort between 1897 and 1900. You can reach Fort Hermann by foot, from the Kluže Fort, on a wide marked route, carved into a rocky slope, through a 100 m long illuminated stone tunnel and then on the left path climbs the Rombon. The walk to the fort takes a little less than half an hour. Via the Predil Pass, you will cross over from Slovenia to Italy.

Lago del Predil
Following the road down from the mountain pass, you will reach a beautiful lake at the foot of the mountain – Lago del Predil. Due to its picturesque setting beneath the Kanin massif, it is worth taking a break.
For centuries, the southern border of the Imperial Duchy of Carinthia with the Venetian Domini di Terraferma ran along the nearby mountain crests of Predil Pass and Sella Nevea. After the Venetian territory’s loss to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1885 to 1887 had a fortress erected on the lakeside to protect the road down to Tarvisio. In World War I, the fort was badly damaged during the Battles of the Isonzo on the Italian Front. Some ruins are preserved and accessible to the public. On the way to Tarvisio, you will pass the village of Cave del Predil, which was once famous for the lead and zinc mines.

Tarvisio
Located at the border with Austria and Slovenia, Tarvisio and its neighbouring municipalities of Arnoldstein and Kranjska Gora form the Romance, Germanic and Slavic Europe’s tripoint. As a former component of the Austrian Empire, until 1918, the town was overwhelmingly German- and Slovenian-speaking, as was the rest of the Canal Valley. Today the municipality speaks mostly Italian. For decades, Tarvisio benefited economically from people coming from Austria and Yugoslavia for shopping trips. However, trade at the notorious “Rag Market” diminished after the establishment of the Eurozone. Today, tourism and winter sports in the Karawanks, the Carnic Alps, and the Julian Alps have become important industries.

Using either the motorway (A23) or road SS13 (B83), you will get back to Villach and subsequently to Chalet Bjoerk.