Slemenova Špica

Not content with tackling the Vrsic pass yesterday, today we went back for seconds, this time from Kranjska Gora, 24 hairpin bends up and the same back down. We parked at the top and walked to the summit of Slemenova Špica, altitude 1911m (6270ft), which involved a climb of 1600ft for us and a walk of 9km (5.5 miles). Just when we thought we'd seen every spectacular view available, this walk offered us even more. Truly breathtaking. 

Lots of amazing flowers on the way including alpine and least snowbells, glacier crowfoot, shrubby milkwort plus the usual dwarf alpenrose, mountain avens and twoflower violet. Plenty of birds including alpine choughs and once again a high altitude lesser whitethroat singing at 1850m! A short walk this afternoon and I managed to find Dinaric hawksbeard, a Slovenian speciality and a rarity even here.

Vršič Pass

Today we took on the Vršič Pass in the Julian Alps to get from Bovec to Kranjska Gora. Infamous for it's steep inclines and umpteen hairpin bends, the road climbs to 1500m (nearly 5000ft), but we found the reality a lot less intimidating than the myth and certainly I've faced worse roads in Scotland.

No doubting the scenery though, absolutely awesome, every day seems to get better at the moment. Some nice birds, the biggest surprise of all though, a lesser whitethroat singing at 1750m (5700ft)! Who knew that lesser whitethroat was an alpine species? Loads of great flowers as well, including more gentians and carpets of mountain avens. Add to that a couple of great stops at spectacular mountain huts in truly breathtaking scenery and it really was a day that will live long in the memory.