Above the fog on the Vogel trail

A cable car took us out of the dull grey early morning fog in the valley to a world of bright sunshine and wonderful colour in the mountains. There were plenty of great flowers and butterflies today on the Vogel trail high above Lake Bohinj. We walked 7 miles and climbed nearly 1700ft (520m), with the highest point on our route being Šija at 6168ft (1880m). 

Carpets of gentians and mountain avens and a sea of alpine pasqueflower and globeflowers were the canvas, interspersed with lots of other wonderful flowers and butterflies. Water pipits sang on the hillsides, alpine chough flew past and ring ouzels cackled. A really great experience, if a little hair raising at times. Then it was onto a mountain hut to chill for a bit before taking the cable car back to reality. At least the fog had now cleared.

Goodbye dark and dreary world, hello sunshine.

Mount Triglav on the right, the highest point in Slovenia.

Spring gentians.

I think that this is Clusius' gentian Gentiana clusii, the commonest trumpet type gentian in the area, preferring limestone soils which is exactly what we have here. The very similar trumpet gentian G. acaulis also grows here but is much less common and prefers acidic soil. I find distinguishing the various species of "trumpet" gentian quite difficult. Perhaps if I had more time that would help but this was a hike not a botanical field trip, so rather than delay us I just walked past 90% of everything I saw, and just admired it for what it was.

Especially when it comes to flora, the identifications on this blog are usually just my opinion and certainly shouldn't be taken as absolute fact. I've not got time to go into the finer details of each plant.

Triglav gentian, I think!

Globeflowers.

Wood anemone was quite common at higher levels with the similar three-leaved anemone replacing it at slightly lower levels, for some strange reason 

Alpine clematis.

Alpine rock-jasmine.

Pyrenean whitlow grass.

Alpine flax.

Alpine pasqueflowers.

Velvet bells.

Where the going gets tough. The Vracta pass, complete with shear rock faces and pins driven into the rock to help you traverse it.

Glacier crowfoot.

Wulfen's primrose.

Wulfen's primrose.

Oxslip.

Hybrid buttercup.

Alpine pasqueflower.

Glacier crowfoot.

The magnificent Zadnji Vogel alpine meadow, full of flowers, butterflies and other invertebrates.

Greater meadow-rue.

Pyramidal bugle.

Lots of butterflies today including a few Duke of Bugundy.

Pearl-bordered fritillary.

There were several brimstones.

Green-veined white.

Large wall brown.

I've come to the conclusion that painted lady is the commonest butterfly in Europe. There were loads in Cyprus when I was there in March and they seem the commonest in Slovenia.

Speckled yellow moth.

Early thorn moth.

The perfect spot for a rest.