Triglav National Park
With our hiking plans set, we spent a lazy morning enjoying a fantastic breakfast before setting off around 11. We got to the Trail head around 11:30 and we’re on the trail by noon.
The kids were giddy with enthusiasm which lasted for almost an hour until the serious uphill began. The heat and the steepness nearly melted us all and only after Tom took Tyler‘s backpack did his meltdown subside.
Three hours into our 1000 m climb, the clouds which had been suggesting a rain shower finally coalesced and dumped the freezing cold rain storm us all. Thankfully we had purchased garbage bags and just such an emergency and they saved us that’s for sure!
Thankfully, the shower only lasted 30 minutes but long enough to send us all into a shivering moment. The biggest casualty were the shoes that were now soaked completely through. Around 4 PM we arrived at our mountain hut. Not the one we had reserved as that was two hours further down the trail and with the weather looking foreboding we opted for a shorter hike.
We got the last four beds in the 30 bed bunk room. Yes, you read that right 30 people sleeping in one large room. The main dining room was for picnic benches all packed with hikers playing all manners of games, eating sausages, and drinking beer, while the rain continued outside.
The intensity of it all finally overcame the children and both had one of those “homesick moments “where everyone just wanted to go home. The next day we were scheduled to do a six hour hike to another hut just below the peak of Triglav. The kids began a nearly nonstop pitch to hike all the way back the next day and get the bleep out of the mountains!
We agreed to decide in the morning and made a series of back up hut reservations.
Thankfully along the way we had met a lovely mother daughter pair from Germany and the kids immediately bonded with the 15-year-old girl and they got engaged in a vigorous game of BS. By 9 o’clock, exhausted, we joined the rest of the hikers and snuggled up into our bunkbeds. Amazingly, while there was a few loud snorers we managed to get a reasonable nights sleep.
Sometimes you conquer the mountains, sometimes the mountains conquer you.
