Totnes & District

Report 094 December 19th 2018

On Wednesday 19th December 13 members of the Natural History Group travelled to Salzburg, then took a coach over the mountains into the Republic of Slovenia and the Triglav National Park which is in the Julian Alps with the highest peak being Mt Triglav (2864m). Slovenia is bordered by Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and a 25km Adriatic coast. The whole country is just over 20,00sq km of which over 50% is wooded making it the third most wooded country in Europe. It’s population of two million seem to be proud of their country, as Terry , Dot and Chris only saw two thrown-away drink containers . The first stop in Slovenia was by their largest lake Bohinjj, surrounded by mountains. Strict conservation laws meant that there was only a handful of buildings, which included the Mt Vogel cable car. The only motorised boat allowed on the lake is an electric propelled ferry. A speciality of the area is the floriferous meadows, although lakeside woodland walks helped swell the seen flower list into many hundreds. We spent a week based at Bohinj which included a visit to the beautiful old part of the Capital city Ljubljana, Lipica to see the Lipizzaner horses and Piran on the Adriatic coast. The second week was spent at Kranjska Gora close to the Italian border, another botanically rich area. At both centres we travelled around in a hired car, stopping when anything caught our eye and making short walks. Terry loves narrow, twisting mountain roads so he was in his element going up the country’s highest road to the Mangart Saddle, only reached by a detour through Italy. From the saddle there were wonderful views and masses of alpine flowers.
The members were being taken to Slovenia as part of the December meeting, being held at Fairlight, Terry and Dot’s home, and being entertained to a picture show and narrative of their two week trip made with Chris and John from Hertford in the Summer. Everyone was welcomed with a glass of hot punch and ended the morning with a buffet; the delicious food being provided by everyone; a fitting end to a year of outings -aren’t we lucky to live in such a beautiful, interesting area where we can enjoy the natural environment in great company. Happy Christmas and well wishes for the New year.