6: Slovenia - River Soča

Route: Kranjska Gora to Paljevo

Cycled kilometers: 107
Elevation gain: 1280

Thursday, 26.08.2021

Unlike the previous day, today was a challenging stage. We had to cover 105km and 1200m of elevation gain, with 400m of it in the first 4km. And they were amazing!

We started the day with the same calmness and focus as yesterday, after a delicious breakfast at the lodge. We shared the road not only with numerous tour buses but also with cows. At the top of the pass, we were certainly not alone! Masses of tourists were hiking up to the summit. But for us, on bicycles, after enjoying the view, we descended, which was very relaxing but also chilly due to the wind.

For the rest of the day, we followed the Soča River, a truly beautiful mountain river! We often rode directly along its banks, but we also had to conquer many climbs. We had our lunch break within sight of a famous waterfall, where we had to walk a few kilometers. Despite the crowds of tourists there as well, the excursion was worth the effort.

After that, I started to lose energy, but we didn't want to take a long break to recharge because we still had a good distance to go.

We left the mountains and returned to hilly areas, where we saw a large number of paragliders and treated ourselves to ice cream in a larger town. This boosted all of us, and before the final uphill stretch to our accommodation for the day, we bought ingredients for our dinner: wraps! We also looked for the train station.

In the light of the setting sun, we finally completed the last meters of ascent and the last kilometers and arrived at our accommodation, a large house that we shared with 2 workers. We had our dinner outside under the cover, unfortunately, after a cold shower, before it started raining and storming.