"Karawanke Warm Up" a Slovenia Travel Page by mtncorg

I wanted a warm up hike to get my legs ready for the hopeful hikes that I would do later in the Julian Alps, especially since all I had been doing had been to set on the sunny Croatian coast for a week.

After consulting with the VT regional expert, Marko, whose fine apartments in which I was staying, I decided to climb up the forested peaks rising directly above Dovje on the northern wall of the valley of the Dolinka Branch of the Sava River. These peaks make up the Karawanke range and also the peak crest is the border between Austria and Slovenia.

The preceding day had been wet.....

....but the sun shone brightly this day. Starting out from Marko's, I first wandered through the center of Dovje - there is a nice local handicraft store here selling locally made products to include some great schnapps which can come in handy after a hike. Dovje is a wonderful example of a Slovenian alpine town complete with room in the house for the cows. The fountain in the central square is a gem.

Next to it is a beehive panel exhibit with beehive panels painted by local children. Sorry, the camera was not cooperating. Maybe I had already started on the schnapps?

Going east out of town and crossing the Mlinka stream, you finally start out on the trail which rises through forests and steep meadows ever upward. Part of the way is on a local road serving the pastures and the mountain hut above, the Planina Dovska Rozca, which after much sweat, comes into view.

Baba (Frauenkogel in German) is visible rising a short ways above the hut, pastures and cows extending to the very peak.

The crux of this climb is to convince the cows, near the peak, to share a few brief moments on their peak.

Then it is back down to the hut, to share some conversation with the hut-keepers, a very nice retired couple from the town of Mojstrana, deep in the valley below. They supplement their income by coming up and running the hut during the summer and keeping the cows from getting into too much trouble. My conversation was limited by my inability to speak Slovene, though with the husband I was able to use some German. He had learned that language back during WWII when the Germans had annexed this area and insisted on German being the language of education. So, we both spoke our halting German, drank our beers and enjoyed the fine Karawanke air.

Following this interlude, I spied out the way ahead from the hut, over the pass (the Milinka) and the Plevelniki which was the first big hill to traverse around.