1 October: day off at Jezersko

Breakfast is intriguing: classy, fat-melting charcuterie; crudités; cheesy eggy mixtures; sourdough bread; and a range of nut butters and home-made jams. Yumsky.

It is a pearl of a day. I set out along the road north, towards the Austrian border, 2 km away. No map but a sheet of A3 depicting a panorama of walks and my trusty app. It is the first time I have embarked on an alpine stroll in eight years, and the body doesn’t quite know what is happening. Last time it did this it could see without glasses, and was a degree more surefooted. But conditions are perfect; dry sunny, exhilarating.

At the border, I take a path west and, using the app, make up my route as I go. (I’m in luck with signal.) Many of the forestry-track surfaces seem unnecessarily ritzy for logging activities. I later discover – I am on the Austrian side of the border at this point – that it is forbidden to cycle in Austrian woods. (Remind me never to plan a cycle tour in that country!) During the day an abandoned house, sentry boxes, and a memorial to a soldier are a legacy from former times.

The app mitigates the absence of signage. But at one point, back on the Slovenian side, it is helpful to see (rare) fellow walkers disappear over the edge of a broad track into a steep descent through root-choked chaos. I would never have found that “path”.

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I walk into Jezersko village via some gorgeous traditional farm buildings…

… and pick up the track along the flat valley floor towards the lake, Planšarsko Jezero. Ahead of me and up high I can see the house I passed in the morning. 

It looks as though everyone who wasn’t already on a bike today, was out with a pushchair doing this route. At the lake, half the shore is in the shade, but I am given a gorgeous view. 

Close to base the view towards the head of the valley intensifies as the sun dips:

Supper is another mixture of gastronomic leftovers and tonight’s guests’ supper: broccoli soup, chicken schnitzel and lamb shanks, salad, mashed potato, and squash, cakes. Polona spends some time with us, generously available to answer questions, when all around need her to do another job. She shows us a recently published article by Andrej (who we met yesterday evening) criticising recent purges of media staff which mean the left-leaning government is stifling free speech. I asked her what the effect of this unwelcome shift to the left has been on her life here. And she answers another question – about the effect of Tito’s policy on agriculture, which is that large farms were forced to scale down into smaller units which meant that families were split up as members were forced to look for work in the cities. Another small piece is added to the jigsaw.

At the end of the meal, we are offered a glass – which becomes two – of wine. It is Peggy and Pat’s last evening, after all. Much photo taking ensues.