My first Hut-to-Hut hike: Triglav National Park, Slovenia
I have dabbled in hiking. Plenty of day trips out to the Dandenongs in Melbourne, some exploring around the Byron Bay and Brisbane hinterlands, a four day trek to Machu Picchu several years ago, Cinque Terre in Italy. I am in no way a serious hiker. I’ve never done a multi-day trek where you take your own food or anything like that. But in December I am fulfilling a promise I made to myself back in 2011 when I first went to Argentina and saw a tiny bit of Patagonia from the gorgeous town of Bariloche. I was so moved by the landscape, I promised myself that I would return and hike the W trek to really immerse myself in that stunning, overwhelming vastness by walking its most famous trail. And now, the hike is booked – I’m going with my good friend Cate and am woefully unprepared!
It was on that basis and with thanks to yet another Sarah Wilson blog (this is the last shout out, she’s home again, but I wish she was still travelling because she’s basically been my Lonely Planet!) that I found myself booking a last minute, 2 night Hut-to-Hut hike in the Triglav National Park in the Julian Alps in Slovenia through Slo Trips. I went into it with a reasonable level of fitness, but certainly no hiking preparation. I weirdly was thinking of this trip as part of the training for Patagonia, but hadn’t really thought about the lack of preparation I had done for this one! Luckily, my general fitness and a lot of walking in the last little while saved me I think, because this hike was not a walk in the park. It’s probably just as well I didn’t have too much time to think about it!
Slo Trips cap their hikes at 8 people plus a guide. Our group consisted of 5 Alaskans who were in Slovenia for the World Masters Games for rowing (in other words they were seriously fit, tough mountain people who I might have had an age advantage over, but were definitely fitter than me), an ex-heptathlete from Belarus who lived in London and spoke about 72 languages and a mid-twenties Aussie girl who I immediately knew was smashing mid-twenties travel out of the ballpark (I wish I’d figured out I liked hiking back then!). Our guide, Tanja, was a biologist and worked for the Triglav National Park when she wasn’t being patient with hiking tourists.
The Triglav National Park is the only Slovenian national park and is named for the highest mountain in Slovenia (2864 m). We spent a lot of time searching for its peak through the clouds! Our Alaskan friends were supposed to do an optional summit of the peak, but it was not possible due to snow and ice conditions. It is said that all true Slovenians must make the summit at least once in their lives, is is somewhat of a rite of passage.
Small group tours are fraught with danger. One idiot, one whinger, one precious princess and it can really make for a horrible experience. I’ve done a few tours over the years, as a solo traveler they can be great, especially in far flung locales. In my experience, tours that are quite niche, for instance a hut-to-hut hike, tend to attract like-minded people – the risk of d*ckheads is lower, not eliminated, but definitely lower! It’s a rule of thumb that held true here. It was just easy. We walked and talked and got to know each other a little, but the main focus was the present moment: where we were walking, the terrain, the views. We talked of home and travel and politics and sports and relationships but mainly in the hours we hiked, we were quiet or entirely in the moment. Everyone just seemed to understand this was ok – there was no such thing as a need to fill the silence.
Hiking does this. Of course your mind wanders to lots of topics, but for me, as someone who doesn’t actively meditate or just “be” all that often, hiking is that for me. The thoughts come and go. They float past. Sometimes you follow them, sometimes they just file past, like an old black-and-white movie on the TV you turned on for background noise whilst you’re doing something else. The repetition of one foot in front of the other, the concentration of where to put your foot when it’s slippery or scrambly or scary, the weight of a pack on your back, the crunch of autumn leaves or bird song or squelch of mud, these all take away anything else. Challenging, remote hiking puts you more in the moment then the modern world often allows for. No wi-fi, no phone reception, sometimes no breath left over to speak or ability to actually look up that often because of the terrain. Just one step. One step. One step. Over and over. Until you are up or down or across or through. Until there’s a view to marvel at. There is an honesty and a purity to that process that feeds my soul in a way nothing else does. I’m very glad I found that out (even if it took me a bit longer than Ciara).
As for a Hut-to-Hut hike (eg a multi-day hike, staying overnight in mountain huts), should you do one? Aah, yep. I know both Slovenia and Italy do these well. Both countries have a system of rifugios (huts where you can book a bed for the night and get a meal in the bigger ones). There are many options to do this guided (as part of a tour or on a specially designed itinerary with a licensed guide) or under your own steam. I will say, it requires a fair bit of research and planning to pull off on your own. I tried to look at it for the Dolomites in Italy, a very established network, and I found the information online just way too overwhelming. As for this specific hike in Slovenia, I’m so glad we had Tanja! If you are a clever person who can read mountain elevation maps and know what to do in varying weather patterns, then of course you can hike mountains without a guide. But our group reflected on a several occasions how lovely it was to be able to just walk and enjoy the scenery and experience it all without the worry of whether you’re on the right track. Especially when we had to change our route due to a 100 km winds and snow on the pass we had intended to take! And, like many of the best moments of travel, this detour meant we stayed at a fantastic hut the second night where we had lots of time to enjoy a meal together, play a dice game that kept us entertained for hours, drink some red wine, do a shot of blueberry schnapps and be serenaded by accordion by the man who had run the hut alongside his wife for many, many years.
Three months into my travels, this trip is a massive highlight for me. The Slovenian mountains felt untouched. It was overwhelming scenery. I’m not sure when we started describing scenery like this as being like a movie set or somehow fake, because of course the reality of those majestic mountains is far more impressive than any movie set. There is something about being in mountains like that, moving your body to the point of exhaustion, eating simple food and being surrounded by people who are all having their souls topped up in the same way that is just so fulfilling. It is good for me. On lots of levels. Hiking is not for everyone, but I’m very thankful I figured out it is for me.
