The campsite at Maribor is very close to the cable car going up the Pohorje Mountains where there is a lot of skiing in winter and mountain biking and walking in summer. We decided to go up by cable car, go for a hike up there and then walk down.

The tourist agency gave us a map and an idea for a return route for a half day walk.

We got into the cable car at 10am – the cable car only runs on the hour every hour and then stops. It was a nice cool day – only around 24 degrees top.

The views from the cable car were lovely.

It felt like we were going skiing ⛷️ on the way up.

At the top there were a few people around but it wasn’t too busy. We were amazed that a motorhome was up here. There was also a small church.

We got going on our way to Ruska Kota – a hut that is a cafe/bar about 2.5 hours walk from the top of the chairlift. The path through the pine forest was very good and mostly flat. We met a few walkers and cyclists but not many. We came to the first hut – Mariborska Kota – and carried on.

We enjoyed the walk through the pristine forest. Someone had obviously lost a ski in winter – and it only turned up after the snow melted.

We came to some strange signs with crosses. There was then a memorial related to WWII and some large craters. Only later there was a large board in Slovenian telling about how in 2007 several mass graves had been found up here. It turned out that in 1945 the Yugoslav secret police had taken many prisoners of war and inmates in concentration camps of many nationalities and shot and buried them. An 11 year old at the time had seen what looked like shallow graves and told a local man. Neither said anything until after independence and then in 2006 when a department was set up to uncover unknown cemeteries. 190 adult male bodies were found in 18 areas and some were identified. They were reburied in a cemetery near Maribor. It’s quite shocking to think that this was a regular occurrence. And that the prisoners of war should have been returned to their country.

We were now at Ruska Kota where we had our picnic.

A few ducks came over getting very close to hassle us for bread. They didn’t get any.

From the map we found what looked like a good route down the side of the mountain.

It was a good path along logging tracks to get to Pecke hut further down the mountain and then Hastje in the edge of Maribor. We crossed a couple of ski runs giving us a good view down to the town.

We kept going down and the logging roads weren’t taking us nearer to Pecke. We saw what looked like a mountain bike track that we had to go down to get there. It was actually a steep hiking path that had been washed out with some trees across it.

It was tough going but only 600 meters long – so we made it and arrived at the Pecke hut. We had an icecream there and got going again after being told by an old bloke it was only 2 hours walk to Maribor.

It was again rough going and after some wrong turns eventually found a good track down. We met other walkers who told us it was best to go to Limbus on the edge of town and go from there.

It was 7pm by the time we got to Limbus which is a very good wine area – probably making the wine we had been tasting earlier.

We decided to find a recognizable address where we could call a taxi to come and get us. We found a restaurant – now closed. We had trouble talking to a taxi company on the phone. Then the the restaurant owners came out to find out what vagabond people had arrived on their doorstep.

They were lovely and said they would drive us back to the campsite. They first gave us free drinks and sat down with us for a chat. Sasha the husband was very interested in Australia and he and Glenn didn’t stop talking.

He then drove us the few kilometers back to the campsite. All he asked was we send a postcard from Australia in return.

We have found the people in Slovenia to be very nice and helpful to tourists.

We were relieved to get back and collapse in the van. Luckily there were leftovers to be reheated for dinner so no effort.

It was easy to get to sleep that night.