Monday, May 19, 2025
Stage 7 of the Juliana Trail ~26,000 steps
Today was supposed to be the easy day, just hiking from Stara Fuzina to Bohinjska Bistrica. Our Juliana Trail guidebook talked about adding on the Savica Waterfall to make it a complete day. On paper, the mileage with the waterfall and Stage 7 looked ridiculous, so after Nathan was on crutches for 6 weeks this spring, I looked into renting bikes.
Thankfully, I didn’t reserve any bikes for this trip, because the hotels we wanted to bike from had them available for us.
Breakfast at Hotel Majer’ca was not a buffet, but they had an a la carte menu. Initially I was a little freaked out that we had to pay for breakfast, but it was all included in our room, you just needed to order off the menu.
The waitress brought out bread, mini croissants, fresh pressed apple juice for us before taking our order of omelette with everything (Nathan) and fried eggs with bacon (me). We also had a few coffees with milk, and shared a fruit and yogurt plate.
Given that this is the easy day, we didn’t race through breakfast. We don’t normally, but some days are more leisurely than others. Perhaps this was one of those days.
We managed to get checked out and on the borrowed bikes by 9 am, and we set off for the Savica Waterfall. The hotel rents these bikes from a local bike shop, and mine is way too small for me, so we contemplated exchanging it for a bigger bike, but in the end I made do, and reserved the right to complain about it.
The bike ride was either 4 or 40 km long, and uphill. Boy was it ever uphill.
Initially, the ride next to Lake Bohinj was quite pleasant, and we stopped a time or two to raise my seat. We’re on mountain bikes, and mine is super bouncy, so we also mess with the suspension. We’re also wearing our fully loaded daypacks, with poles, and full water bladders, so its a lot.
Once we reach the town of Ukanc, we leave the lakeside and the climbing begins in earnest. Not sure who Earnest is, but this climbing is no joke. I had to remind myself, more than a few times, that we were doing this for fun.
I had to walk my too short rental bike on more than one occasion, and I kept looking at the map because I was pretty sure I had NOT signed up for this, but by 10 or 10:15 we had made it to the entrance of the Savica Waterfall. From here its a 4 Euro each entrance ticket and a mere 500 or so steps to see the falls.
I contemplated counting the steps, but then stopped because it was really depressing. Honestly, I don’t know if it was 500 steps or not, but we reached the waterfall at 10:40, so in actuality, it was not that bad.
The hike down was easy, and we grabbed our bikes for the quick and fast downhill back to the hotel.
We turned in the bikes, retrieved Nathan’s ID (collateral), paid 20 Euro for the bikes, and used the WC before saying goodbye and setting off on Stage 7.
By now it was noon, so we hiked for a bit back to Lake Bohinj before we found a nice shady bench for our lunch.
The problem with such an easy day, is that you have an “oh, we have lots of time” attitude, until you don’t. Starting at noon was doable, but today was our first really sunny and warm day, so hiking at 3 pm in full sun is the stuff that makes one cranky.
Mentally, finishing at 2 pm sounded nice. There was no chance that was happening for us. We stopped at all the viewpoints, took photos of plants and animals, danger noodles included. We stopped at a TI and had a hilarious exchange with the gal working there who wanted no part in stamping our legitimate, American passports with her Stage 7 stamp.
We rolled into Bohinjska Bistrica at 4 pm, and low and behold, there is a river here, a river that begs us to dip our hot and tired feet in it. So we do. From here, our guesthouse is just a 5 minute walk. Our hostess lets us in after a brief wait, and we both feel like we’re staying with our Slovenian grandma; line dried towels, vintage bedclothes, and super fast wifi.
The balcony begs for us to have happy hour on it, so I ask our hos tess where to buy wine while Nathan showers the day away.
