We all piled into Lisa and Sean’s van and set off up the Soca River towards Tolmin. The views with the mountains and green/blue river were lovely.

We arrived at car park 1 at the Tolmin Gorge and were shooed away to car park 2 as we were a motorhome. However that wasn’t so bad as there was a free shuttle bus up to the gorge. We paid for our tickets and got retiree reduced rates of 8 euro, not 10. The numbers are controlled to 200 people admitted per hour – a good thing.

It was initially a lot of steps down to the very clear blue river where people were building little stone piles.

The devils bridge was a long way above us.

Over the bridge we went up a narrow gorge.

We came to the top of the gorge where there is a hit spring. We could see the steam rising off the water. The temperature would be 20 degrees as opposed to the river water of a chilly 9 degrees.

We continued up another branch of the gorge to find the bears head rock – a separate rock jammed between 2 huge rocks.

There were lots of interesting fern type plants growing in the damp atmosphere.

We then climbed out of the gorge onto the road above.

Dugan Baba was reputedly a wild woman living in a cave above the gorge. Here is her story:

“With her long, messy, green hair full of lice, her black, sharp nails, a huge crooked nose, smelly breath and scrappy clothes, she was not considered a beauty.

But don’t be too quick to feel sorry for her, she was a mischievous witch. Guarding the cave’s entry, she had an overview of the path on the other side of the Tolminka river. Whenever she spotted a foreign person, she ran viciously, crossed the river’s footbridge and waited for the unfortunate chosen one with her favourite demand.

She ordered the newcomer to put her on his shoulders and carry her across the rushing cold water. If the person completed the task successfully, he obtained the right of passage and access to the beautiful gorges. Bravo! But in case the person failed to deliver, Duga baba had another trick up her sleeve. She offered him her daily special: a piece of bread with a spread of fresh slimy snot. Of course, one could not even think about refusing the hospitable gesture. Yummy.”

Dante also visited the cave next to Duga Baba. It is believed to have inspired Dante Alighieri’s depiction of Hell in The Divine Comedy.

We then crossed the Devils bridge a long way above the gorge and then through a tunnel back to the entrance where we had started.

We stopped for a cooling ale at the pub at the entrance. Lisa and I shared a local nonalcoholic Lasko beer that is really good.

We got back to the car park and headed back south to find a swimming spot on the river. We stopped at the ‘beach’ car park and walked alongside the river to find the beach.

We found the only way to get into the river was down some steps. Glenn and Sean went first. They didn’t stay long. They found it absolutely freezing when they went in so got out within a minute. Lisa and I went in and also were out in a flash. The others were brave though and went in again.

We then went back to the van and had lunch.

We continued to the little town of Kanal on the river which looks very Venetian. It had been very damaged in WW1 and has been well restored. It’s an entry area to the tops of the mountains where there are the remains of trenches running all up the Soca River – now the 320km Walk of Peace.

There were many swimmers in the river.

We found a nice gelato shop at last – we have been looking for a few days.

We checked out the inside of the church with a beautiful altar.

We then saw the large Neptune Statue – probably related to the river.

We then drove back to the campsite and got a big laundry done, a quick van clean and then cooked a veggie curry to go with curry leftovers.

We then had a nice evening enjoying wine we had picked up during our trip.