Trip to Vogel

Posted by Helena Smole in Vacations and trips on Jul 4th, 2016

Vogel is a mountain above Bohinj Lake, accessible by cable car. It is a ski resort in winter and a mountain walking paradise in summer. My husband ascended it on foot from the lake up, while I took the cable car. I used to walk up mountains like this, but the last couple of years I have been having problems with too low blood pressure. I would probably need a flask of coffee to conquer 2,952 feet of altitude, so I decided to go up by cable car instead. I let my hill walking height of 984 feet be the norm, for which I only require to drink one strong coffee before I set off.

I enjoyed the vistas of Julian Alps, the jingling of cows and a musical band rehearsal for playing at the event of a mountain-bike competition, and I waited for my husband to come to the upper station of the cable car. He surprised me, for he was up in an hour and a half. I had barely managed to make a round on foot with my photo-camera and take a few pictures of the wonderful alpine flowers and have a toast and coffee, when suddenly I heard behind my back: “Hi, darling!”

Afterwards he had a home-made sandwich and some water himself, sitting with me under a sun-screen umbrella. We were both very happy to be able to descend down the mountain ridge after the light lunch. Normally I would feel bad about not being able to ascend a mountain like that, but this time I was satisfied completely with the down-hill part.

First we were greeted by wonderful sea blue columbines, some of them enjoying the shade of spruce and beech trees, the others taking a sun-bath amidst grass, ferns and other summer meadow flower variety. I never managed to make a good shot of the blossom from the lower side, so please enjoy the top view of a blue beauty.

As we proceeded with our nature gazing walk, descending carefully, making sure with our walking sticks that we did not slip, there came a breath-taking meadow full of yellow globeflowers. They were glowing in sunshine, even the ones in the shadows seemed to have caught enough sunlight to glisten in their yellow hues.

The temperature must have been over 77 degrees Fahrenheit and after an hour of descending among magnificent trees I started to get tired. The coffee must have stopped working. Still I kept walking, trying to avert my attention from tiredness by gazing at a fallen spruce here, a huge beech still standing there. As we proceeded downhill the forest got thicker and there were only few glades with flowers. Nevertheless, in the last third of the path I spotted some freshly blossomed red helleborines, native orchids that are called red, but are actually pink in color. The photo barely does them justice, for their intense color was hard to catch with the camera. In the sun the photos got too bright, in the shade too dark. After all, it was past 12 and not the right time to make photos due to the extreme sun-light.

After three hours we reached our car and drove closer to the lake, stretched our roll mats and enjoyed the sound of wind, the play of waves and the chatter of people swimming and kids playing. After all, we deserved our rest at a pristine alpine lake.

Of course in the evening we checked our bodies for ticks. And even that was perfect: there were none.

Take care,

Helena Smole, author of:

– a fantasy novel with romance Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships

– Balancing the Beast, a book offering a bright view of schizoaffective disorder ˗ bipolar or manic-depressive type