Page 60 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

scramble before reaching the summit. It offered beautiful, uninterrupted views of the entire Julian Alps range. The final height was 2864m. We managed to get back to our start hut at around 1300hrs and had lunch there.
The next phase of the walking started off head- ing south on clear paths into a large glacial val- ley. Terrain moved from the white rock and shin- gle into more green pastures, before becoming a pine forest at the centre of the
After descending a fairly overgrown path for two hours, we came to a sign hanging over the trail informing us that the way ahead was closed due to a rockslide and that we could not continue on our chosen path. The thought of turning around and ascending the steep track we had just come down was a crushing blow. We sat down to con- sider our options when OCdt Davey spotted a faint red trail marker painted onto a tree some 20m directly up the slope. Phew.
We were able to box around the rockslide and continue our steadily descending path, leaving the high altitudes of the Julian Alps and Mount Triglav behind us. Our path leads us through quaint alpine villages with stunning views down onto Lake Bohinj in the valley below.
We stayed overnight at the Traveler’s Haven hos- tel in Lake Bled. As the main part of the expedi- tion had been completed, we decided to embark on a one-day hill walk in the vicinity of Lake Bled.
The route we chose was around 8 miles long and took roughly four and a half hours to com- plete. It started at the hostel and we made a quick ascent up to Bled Castle on a promontory overlooking the town and the Lake. After this we headed south-west, staying on high ground contouring around another
small peak.
We then descended down and crossed a small river which marked the halfway point of the walk. The final phase involved climb- ing another 300m up a ridgeline to the south of the lake. We then followed this for another few kilometres before descending back into the town of Bled from the opposite direction that we set off from. This hike was a convenient loop and had well-maintained footpaths throughout. We finished the hike at around 1300hrs and so had time for a late lunch in Bled itself.
valley itself. We followed a dry riv-
erbed down the valley for a few
kilometres before ascending once
again around 100m up the east
side of the valley. After another 30
minutes we arrived at hut 39 (Vod-
nikov dom na Velem polju). This
was perched on the side of the
valley offering great views up to Triglav through the valley we had just descended through, and also further to the south and west. This was perhaps the most beautiful hut we stayed in on our trip. We arrived at around 1600hrs and were at an altitude of 1817m for food and our new favourite beer, Laszkov.
Day four was our last day of the hut-hut phase of our Adventure Training and a hard day on our knees. We needed to descend nearly 1000m from Vodnikov Hut to the car park in Stara Fuzina.
It offered beautiful, uninterrupted views of the entire Julian Alps range.
58 SANDHURST