Mother Nature does good work: Fratarica canyoning and Soca Gorge

We had an early start this morning in order to get to Bovec to do our first canyoning in Slovenia in Fratarica Canyon. Once again, we're in helmet activity territory. We usually don't use a guide for canyoning, but it was so much easier to not have to bring our gear and relaxing going with someone who knew the canyon (when to slide/jump/rappel and where the anchors and hazards were).

In order to get there, we had to go through Vrsic Pass. This is a route has been around since WWI (it was an important supply route for the Austro-Hungarian soldiers. It goes through a the northern western Julian Alps and reaches a height of 1611meters. There are 50 hairpin turns! Many cyclists challenge themselves to ride up this pass. This does not sound appealing at all to me, but there are other members of my family who would probably jump at the chance. There are also many hikes that start along this pass.

At the top of Vrsic pass

A cyclist who got an early morning start to ride up the pass

Each hairpin turn is labeled with a number and the elevation

I have read a bunch about the Soca River but it's still shocked me with how turquoise it was.

Just a random place where we stopped and happened to see this beautiful gorge along the Soca River - there wasn't a sign for it or anything, just a swing bridge

I had booked about a month ago with an outfitter with whom to go canyoning. We had picked out two canyons to explore and today we did Fratarica. It was a super fun, playful canyon in addition to being picturesque. It had slides and jumps, the highest jump being only 7 meters. Our entrance into the canyon was exciting as we saw a poisonous snake swimming in the water just as we got in. Our guide said that he had never seen one in this canyon before. In our group, we had two Australians, one Belgian, and our guide, Andrej. Everyone in the group did great and we enjoyed each other's company.

Next stop was to find our apartment in Bovec where we planned to stay for the next three nights. It is a hopping mountain town with so many adventure outfitters. Just about any adrenaline sport that you want to do, you can do in Bovec.

Two Lotus sports cars parked in Bovec

Our apartment for 3 days!

Our kebab wraps being made

A fruit and veggie stand in Bovec

Laundry time in the apartment

We rested and did laundry after canyoning. Before dinner, we decided we would zip out to explore a gorge that is part of the Soca River. Between the beautifully carved rock to the unreal color of the water, it is clear that Mother Nature did some fine work here.

A cool pothole

Ready for a dip

Restaurant Brunarica

Our canyoning guide, Andrej, recommended Restaurant Brunarica so we decided to check it out. It hit the spot! And Dan finally got his Father's Day ribs 😀