The last hiking day had only one purpose and that was to get back to the car. This time the hike was going to be a pretty long one but at least it was going to be mostly downhill. Or so we thought...
First of all, it's not always so trivial to see 'small' altitude changes on a map. Secondly, it's not always so trivial to find the path that you're supposed to use. We got good reminders of both of these things as we chose a wrong path early in the morning and gained quite a bit of altitude before finding an alternative route back down and then ended up climbing up and down 'smaller' mountain passes a couple of times as well as gaining some fifty or a hundred meters of altitude every now and then that we hadn't really planned for.
The riverbed in the picture is where we were _supposed_ to walk!
I didn't mind the hike though because the weather was good, we still had food and time and the Triglav national park still looked stunning. We ended up walking in mountain valleys that felt surprisingly remote and saw villages that at least looked very traditional with cows chilling out on the pastures and elderly people leisurely doing their things and enjoying life. I even saw a fat viper while climbing one of the bigger mountain passes of the day. The poor thing seemed to be very much afraid as it slithered downhill in an almost uncontrolled fashion.
One of the many many limestone caves in the park
Traditional mountain villages can still be found in Triglav national park.
Hours and hours and one lunch later we made it back to the 'black lake' and started the final steep descend to the car. My knees were hurting like they almost always do in downhills so I decided to make it down as fast as possible. Somehow running downhill doesn't feel as bad as walking slowly and I actually enjoyed the physical challenge. Good times!
Everyone was only heading back home the next day so we headed back to Ljubljana together to sleep in a hostel and see the city a bit. Before Ljubljana we stopped at the Bohinjsko jezero and swam in its cold water for a while. Quite refreshing after not having a shower in four days!
The very picturesque Bohinjsko jezero
In Ljubljana we visited a fancier restaurant than I normally ever would, but the food wasn't super expensive and there certainly was enough. With our stomachs full Turo and Harri felt too tired to continue and went to sleep when we went for a short walk in the city center with Henkka. Ljubljana sure is beautiful during both night and day!
The castle of Bled on the way back
The Ljubljana Castle in the night
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