Well, the night was even worse than expected in the Rifugio. Three of the people sleeping in our dorm entered it rather late at 11.30 p.m. and didn’t even try to be quiet. But if we could have had at least those precious hours of sleep until morning it wouldn’t have been so bad. But then there was another person, actually a small gaunt woman, that snored so incredibly loudly like a pig that you could have mistaken her for a big lumberjack type of a guy. Honestly, I’m not exaggerating, in fact it’s the contrary. I’ve tried my earplugs but she was snoring so beyond any measures that I had to press the earplugs into my ears so very firmly that I awoke after an hour because my ears hurt. 😣
If at all, we slept altogether probably 3-4 hours. Felix didn’t even have earplugs! Somewhere at 3 a.m. I couldn’t bear the noise any longer and since sleeping wasn’t an option I searched my backpack for food and started to eat something. At 3.30 a.m. I stuck my head outside the tiny window and inhaled the fresh cool air and sighed at the soothing chirping of the crickets outside. Inside there was the snorrer of hell. At 3.45 a.m. I lay down again and listened to my Harry Potter audiobook. Somewhere at 4.30 a.m. I must have fallen asleep finally because suddenly it was dawning outside. It was 5.30 a.m.
I got up and went to the bathroom. There wasn’t any light yet so I took my phone with me. After Felix had hit the bathroom we grabbed our things and got outside. I sincerely hoped that we had woken the snorrer but I doubted that. 😉
We headed out of the hut and packed our backpacks in the cool air of the morning. The mountains were already bathed in beautiful sunlight and there wasn’t yet a tiny cloud to be seen. It was so quiet and calming here that I was so very happy to be outside. We ate something from our emergency provisions, grabbed some water from the well and headed off at 6.30 a.m. We really didn’t want to wait for breakfast anymore because I’m not sure if I could have faced Mrs Lumberjack peacefully. 😉
The path up was a nice though steep hike through the forest and we soon weren’t cold any longer. The fresh air and the exertion woke us up and soon I was really enjoying being up that early and hiking without a real breakfast.
The way first led to the narrow, rocky pass La Porticina, border between Italy and Slovenia, at around 1900m. On our way up we even saw some chamois on a far mountain who eyed us as curiously as we did them. There was really no sound to be heard, perhaps some birds but other than that it was the wonderful solitude of the mountains I hoped for but couldn’t find at the Rifugio. The last few metres up to the pass were very rocky and sometimes you had to use your hands to haul yourself up.
But the view from La Porticina was worth it! We saw right into Slovenia and all the mountains around and even some deers some 100 metres below. The region was incredibly awesome! We made a break exactly at the pass and watched the beautiful region and listened to the busy humming of the bees.
If anything then La Porticina was a real compensation for the awful evening and night at the Rifugio. That was the sort of hiking I love. Gorgeous landscape, pure nature, no other people around and no sign of civilisation.
The way back to the junction where we had to follow the path to Kransjka Gora was the same like up. This part of the route was only kind of an add-on you didn’t have to do (2km and 500m up in each direction) but it surely made our day!
Then the path led back to the Lago di Fusine inferiore through the forest. Another great track and again no people around. We also had some good views down to the lakes and the mountains like Mangart:
In-between the way was even a bit adventurous and I loved it:
At 10 a.m. we were back at the lake and decided to make up for the lost breakfast with coffee and cake.
Then we continued with the last 11km to Kransjka Gora. For 9km it was along the already well known bicycle highway. It wasn’t very exciting but easy walking. In-between, already in Slovenia now, there was someone selling icecream and we together with a lot of bikers totally fell for that clever business idea. 😉 It was very good icecream though!
We reached Kransjka Gora shortly after noon and did some shopping before heading to the hotel Miklic.
After the Rifugio it was such a relief to have a beautiful big room with a big bathroom and large terrace all for ourselves. There was everything we needed and we spent the rest of the day in the hotel and even ate there since the weather had turned out as predicted: thunderstorms and heavy rainfalls the whole late afternoon and evening.
Some figures for today:
- 18,3km
- 710m up
- 1300m down
- Hiking time: 4h 29m