#4. Hiking day - Triglav lakes and wild alpine goats in natural habitat (Part 2)

poss (56)in #landscapephotography • 7 years ago (edited)

Ever wondered how alpine wild goats spend their afternoon? Join me on our trip to Triglav and you'll find out!

Hellooo from the other side ?!?!?

Don't worry, we'll get back to this young lady and her family later in the post but first we need to start our 2 days long trip to Triglav. If you've missed my post about the history of Triglav and why is it so important to our small nation, be sure to read about it in [Part 1 - History] (https://steemit.com/hiking/@poss/4-hiking-day-oj-triglav-moj-dom-or-climbing-up-the-most-important-slovenian-mountain-triglav-part-1-history)

There are many different routes available to reach Triglav, but we decided to pick in our opinion the most beautiful path across the Triglav Lakes Valley. Our journey to the highest mountain in Slovenia started on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The starting point was Savica waterfall.

To reach the waterfall, you need to walk the path with more than 500 steps. But it is a well maintained area with a small entrance fee full of tourists. If you are visiting the Bohinj area it's a must see!

I hope @broncnutz won't see me in my Patriots t-shirt? :)

After dropping our equipment in a small attic room in a near by hut, we decided to go for a beer to the camp at the lake Bohinj.

A really cute place, with canoe rental, swimming locations, bike rental, camping options, food and drinks ... That was mostly it for the first day, we had to wake up at 4:30 so it was time for bed.

The alarm clock came sooner than we hoped, it was cold and still dark outside. The fog was covering the hole Bohinj area. We packed our stuff, ate some food, filled our bottles with water and started to climb straight into the hill. The path from Savica waterfall to the first lake (Black lake) is actually quite technical and you need to be at least a bit experienced to pass it without any trouble. Only few minutes after the start, we get to see the first amazing view - we came out of the fog!

The clouds that looks like chimney smoke is actually just above the famous Vogel ski center. The only bigger ski center in Slovenia with only natural snow.

After a short walk across the iron rungs we reached the Black lake. It was just barely exposed to sunlight so it was a perfect spot for short break and taking some photos.

Black lake

A fellow hiker doing his amazing headstand on top of a giant rock

The path was still long, we were only on our first 2 hours of 12 hour daily plan. So we continued our journey past some amazing cliffs and small waterfalls. This picture bellow brings laugh out of me every time i see it. Mostly because of the struggle on my friends face while supporting the mountain.

Priceless! (right click and view image for bigger resolution)

We followed the marked path to the next lake until the path disappeared ... Only then we realized that we were following a dead path leading nowhere. Since we had no idea for how long we were walking this "wild path" we decided to use some help - gps on my cell phone :) As we saw that the next lake is not far from our location, we decided to take the direction straight to it. It was everything but easy but we managed to get to the next lake quite soon - luckily all safe and unharmed (knock knock knock on our wooden heads, for not paying attention to the markings ...)

Triglav Lakes Lodge next to the Double lake

The next lake just 100 meters away from the lodge is artificial lake called Močivec, built to support the lodge with fresh water during the summer time when the lodge is open.

Since we were walking a long way with still a long way to go, it was just a perfect time to pay a tribute to the LOTR trilogy.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS !!

As soon as the fake Gandalf moved from the bridge ... we followed the marked path (!!) to the next lake - Ledvica (Kidney in translation because of the kidney shape). Now this is a view i just can not forget. I don't believe i have seen something more amazing than this lake with my own eyes. The deep blue color in the middle, smaragd on the edges, 100% pure. See it for yourself ...

I don't think words and even photos can describe or show how magnificent the view was. I think we stayed for almost an hour there. Just sitting and enjoying the view.

One last group photo and off we go to our highest point of the day - mount Kanjavec

Kanjavec is a 2569 m high mountain in the Julian Alps. The path from the Triglav Lakes Valley is easily approachable and suitable for all hikers with good physical condition and at least some experience. The view from the top offers a nice opening on the western Julian Alps, Triglav, and the lower mountains in the near proximity. Sadly the closest peak covers the view to the Triglav Lakes Valley. We could avoid this mountain and go to our sleeping destination, but none of us has been on top of it, so it was a easy call. And if we knew what we would miss skipping this mountain ... we would probably walk across the entire valley just to witness this sight once more. We saw the entire wild alpine goat family or more correctly - Alpine ibex family.

This young fella was extremely curious and not afraid at all

We have never seen a family so close before, we were actually intruders in their living room. Making an unannounced visit in their nap time ... We didn't want to disturb them much so we calmly crossed their area and continued to the Kanjevec summit.

Western Julian Alps with mount Jalovec in the middle. One of the most demanding mountain in Slovenia for hiking. Still on my check list. Maybe in 2018?

Triglav - our final destination for the next day

We were walking for over 10 hours and the only thing left for the day was to climb down from Kanjevec to Dolič lodge where we spent the night.

We arrived just in time for some last sunset shots.

We were tired so we grabbed something to eat (the food in the hut was terrible), the service was unorganized, but we didn't care much about that. We had a room reservation with bunk beds for 6 people. It didn't take long and we were all happily re-imagined our day in our dreams!

With this thought i'll conclude part 2 of our Triglav tour and i'll invite you to follow if you want to see how the trip ended. Part 3 should come in couple of days.