Kobarid, Trenta and the Soča river

On Saturday, we drove through Udine and crossed the border into the quiet winding mountain roads of Slovenia. We stopped at a simple campsite on the outskirts of Kobarid, a small town on the Soča river. We were keen to see the river; we planned a walk that criss-crossed it and one of its tributaries, and in the morning, after a hearty breakfast in the sun, we set off.

The river is absolutely stunning, incredibly clean, apparently drinkably so (though we didn’t try), and the most amazing turquoise colour.

It was reminiscent, in places, of a tropical white sand beach. The underlying rock is almost pure white, as it is on the mountain tops (which we initially mistook this for snow).

At one particularly remote point on the walk, Josie had a sense that we might have been observed by bear, an idea we shrugged off as fantasy, before later having the presence of bears in the area confirmed to us.

Needless to say, at every turn there were breathtaking views and interesting things to see. We even walked through some first world war ‘trenches’ that were more like cliff-edge dugouts.

Today we left Kobarid and had a pleasingly short but beautiful drive following the river Northward to our next stop near Trenta at another, arguably even prettier site. Since we arrived in good time we decided to go for a run tracking along the river.

Then we had a few rounds of Mancala (thanks Micky & Lowri!), Josie did her pilates while I made dinner, and we went to bed happy and pleasantly tired.