Since we fell asleep rather early it was no problem to get up at 6 a.m. And at this time you could even open the windows without mosquitos. 😉 Since Felix has fetched the breakfast the day before from the main house we could even eat in bed. 😉
The breakfast was not exciting but the typical Slovenian or Italian breakfast never seems to be. And at least I had chocolate spread (also known as Nutella 😂). 😉 And we still had some fresh figs from yesterday’s exploitation from the surrounding. 😎
Shortly after 7 a.m. we left the farm and headed uphill. The air was still fresh, the sun not yet very hot and we walked alongside countless fruit trees and a wonderful smelling field of lavender. Honestly, there is mostly always a reward for getting up early when you hike. 😉
The path led mainly quite nicely through the forest up to the church of Sv Andrej where we stopped for some pictures. The morning sun was great and there was no one except us.
Afterwards we hiked downhill again. Most of the way was between vineyards, sometimes on asphalt, but gratefully more often not. At a crossroad, we saw a restaurant and wanted to stop for a drink. Someone was already cleaning the floor and we asked whether it’s open yet. Nope, only at 10 a.m. It was 9.40. Well, if people don’t want to make money we don’t need to urge them. So we continued uphill and downhill through the vineyards for quite a while.
Later, at a very nice spot where we found a lonely wooden hut with a bench, we made a short break and also found these pretty guys:
It was already nearly noon and the sun was now quite intense. There was hardly any shadow and we tried to hide under every tree we found. At Fojana, around 2km distance to the castle Dobrovo, the path went uphill again and we had another fine view:
Right now we really wanted something cool to drink but so far no restaurant, shop, bar, inn… was to be found. Our water flasks were also nearly empty, so we strongly counted on the castle!
When we finally reached the castle Dobrovo one hour later we were so desperate that we burst into a wine cellar, where obviously a degustation was going on, and headed straight for the barkeeper. We asked whether they had anything except wine. He seemed a little overrun but offered juice and water. He also refilled our water flasks and put ice in them. I could have hugged him. 😂
Then we continued in the direction of Šmartno but beforehand made a short 1km detour to a lookout tower. It’s 23m high with 144 stairs and overlooking the whole region from “the plains of Friuli to the Julian Alps” as our guidebook says. And in fact, it was worth the detour!
We even saw the end of today’s hike, Šmartno:
On the top of the tower we met 4 guys from Villach who made a day trip on their motorbikes down here and were very interested in our hike. We talked a little before they headed off on their motorbikes.
Down at the tower, we sat in the shadow for a little while until we mastered the rest of energy for the last 2km to Šmartno.
After a little irritation we found our accomodation very nicely situated within the walls of Šmartno. The waitress at the bar shocked me a little by saying that they were full when I asked for our reservation. She was just joking and told so immediately when she saw the look on my face. 😉
The rooms are very nice, large with a pretty bathroom with rain shower and even an aircondition. After showering we went down to eat. It was very good, and I even took two desserts being on the edge of famished. 😉
Some figures for today:
- 29,2km
- 920m up
- 850m down
- Hiking time: 5h 46m