Story
1. den - Saturday - 11.8.2018
After several weeks of evening planning, couple of emails and phone calls is our C5 expedition of this year ready to start. It's about 4:30 in the morning, Kristi and Auke pick us up at our home and we head up to long drive through Austria and Slovenia. Haníkovi are already on their way. They decided to fight for our tent places in the campsite at Lake Bohinj from the early morning.
There is very strange "system" of getting the camping place. You are supposed to come around 8am and pitch a tent, after roughly 30-45 minutes is the gate closed and you cannot drive in any more. But nobody said, you cannot walk in with the tent... Check-out is till 1pm and from 1pm is check-in for those, who vere able to find a place. In our opinion, they have such a mess in all their labels and tags for tents and cars, that nobody would be able even check, if everybody in the campsite paid or not, moreover to find when did you come. Nevermind, as we came in around midday, Haníkovi had perfect place for all of us, which was very pleasant. Thanks guys!
We spend the rest of the (partially rainy) afternoon with swimming, eating, last preparations for the hike and short walk to the nearest village Ribčev Laz to withdraw money and taste local beer.
2. den - Sunday - 12.8.2018
The weather forecast was right and the morning promises significatly better day than yesterday. Last decisions what to leave and what to take were made and we can start our hike. The first kilometer is just to heat up a bit because the biggest and the most demanding ascend is waiting literally behind the corner. We have to climb up around 600 height meters of almost perpendicular wall and there might be some belayed sections that can possibly require ferrata set. The climb is steep but luckily not that much challenging, so we can top without any complications. Ehm, well, the crack in the water bottle could be counted as a small complication, but Adél fixed that promptly with tape (surprisingly :-)).
Zdenda (as our strongest Sherpa) is awaiting us at the Črno lake, where we then spend nice long lunch with swimming. Refreshed and saturated we go further through forrest to cozy hut Bregarjevo zavetišče. Jovial old man running this hut with his wife cares to make our short stop here very funny. I'm trying to ask about possible side-trip to Pršivec but I don't have enough knowledge of English/German to understand anything helpful (well, those couple of shots that the man defeat during our short stay didn't helped much, but obviously I need to practise my languages more, anyway). Luckily, Zdenda save the whole situation with his fluent Serbian: Možno ruksaky tam? And we could head up to the top of Pršivec lightweight.
Meanwhile, Kristi and Auke ensure our overnight stay at Koča na Planini pri jezeru, where we joined them later. The only thing that didn't come out was the sunset, as the hut is very well hidden behind hight mountains. But funny cows around the hut saved the situation a bit.
3. den - Monday - 13.8.2018
Nice clear morning is waiting for us and we are slowly approaching beautiful high mountains through the forrest. We are passing through literally fairy-tale village before we start ascending to first exposed saddle we have to cross. The effort is rewarded with our first view to massive Triglav and lunch from perfect lookout spot.
The section between saddles is easier than expected so soon we reach the second one and we finally see toaday's finish - Vodnikov dom. There is only one small hitch, we have to steeply descend several hundreds of meters and cross the valley and then ascend it back. But we manage to overcome all troubles with help of couple photo-shooting breaks and we get to the hut even so early, that the bunkroom is not ready yet. We chill out a bit at the hut's deck and before dinner we did small detour trip to nearest saddle. Unfortunately, big dark clouds are against sunset photoshooting plans, but luckily just few drops fall down during our outside dinner cooking.
4. den - Tuesday - 14.8.2018
Thunderstrom, rain and string wind came during the night and the morning showed that the weather forecast did not lie, unfortunately. Our plans for Triglav conquering slowely but surely disappear as most of the mountain is hidden in huge cloud and there is only negligible chance it's going to disappear in next hours... Alternative plan is set, we take the shortcut through the valley to the next hut and we'll see later on. Light but persistent rain check our rain-not-proof equipment. Six water goblins arrived from Vodnikov dom (Water goblin hut) to Koča na Doličuu.
The bunk room is going to be ready around 3pm, so we are sitting in the dining room, playing cards and discussing, why the hell we must hike during the (so far) only two rainy hours today... :-) Nevermind, we will dry out in the hut, hopefully, important is, everybody is allright. At least we can take some pictures and cook our lunch outside before we head up to Triglav summit in the afternoon. Actually, there appear a bigger challenge, we realize there is no water source in or around the hut! I feel really bad for that, because I didn't ask explicitly. I thought there must be water if they confirmed me they are cooking in the hut. Moreover, Jirka suggest leave some bottles empty in the morning, that we didn't have to to carry it in the rain, now we are missing that water. But he manage to find tiny water stream (maybe just from the rain water) not that much far away from the hut, which actually really save the unpleasant situation.
Weather is getting better, so we can go for a hike direction Triglav. We know, that we cannot reach it, there is via ferrata (classified as B/C) from this side, and we probably don't have enough time, but we'd like to give it chance and get as far as possible. Unfortunately foggy cloud hide us in about an hour and light rain with few thunders alert us not to go further. We reach the hut back on time, there is really bad weather in the evening and during night.
5. den - Wednesday - 15.8.2018
We are getting up curious, how does the weather outside look like. No rain, clouds are high enough and torn, perfect. The plan is to climb up to Kanjavec instead of yesterday unsuccessful conquering of Triglav. We leave our backpacks in saddle under Kanjavec and climb up a short detour. Even though we defeated just 2500 metres (roughly 300m less then on Triglav), we are satisfied because the views are amazing.
Back from the saddle we have to cross small plateau and start descending to Valley of Seven Triglavian Lakes. Unfortunately, the sun does not wish us today and stays mostly behind clouds, so we don't have a chance to take the best pictures of beautiful mountain lakes, but that's the life. The only disadvantage of this valley is its accessibility, which means, there are quite lot of people, so we try to reach the hut at the end of the valley as fast as possible.
We learned from mistakes and to be sure, Kristi asks in the hut, if there is water source in our destination hut today. It turns out, that there is no water as well, so we top up all of our bottles, hoping, it'll be enough even for tomorrow. Last part of the hike is not very difficult, but we cover around 17km today, which everybody can feel at least a bit.
But the lady at the hut is very welcoming and our rooms seem to be way more comfortable than bunkrooms of last days and (most important), there is a flushing toilet! The plan was to have a dinner at the hut and not cook as usually. The lady is helpful even with gluten-free meal, which makes a very good impression. The only problem appear to be the food itself. We all are somehow already got used to our flakes with seaweed and other dried (mostly) healthy stuff, so fried sausage with sauerkraut didn't make neither us nor our stomachs very happy...
There is a big "bojová porada" in the evening, the plan for tomorrow has two options: either descend directly to Savica waterfall and follow the river to campsite, or climb up back to the ridge and descend from Vogel direct to campsite. Several alternative options were made up, but after a consultation with hut warden we decided to split for tomorrow - Pejlíci are taking the ridge path, the rest is wise enough to descend and relax.
6. den - Thursday - 16.8.2018
There might be a perfect sunrise view from our room, so we are awaiting the morning full of expectations. And we are lucky this time, so there is a small photoshooting contest around 6am :-) We say goodbay to the rest of our group after early breakfast and head up back to the ridge. The first part is quite rough, so we text back, that in case they want to make a small trip around the hut, they should definitely take another way. But as we get above the bush-line, then we get absolutely stunning view to the mountains back in the National Park around Triglav. We really enjoy this part and in about four hours we reach the summit of Vogel. We hide from the wind and have a lunch. After that we want to continue along the ridge line, but I suddenly feel terrible sick. The main suspicious is the salami with the leftover sausage-problem from yesterday, but who knows. Anyway, I am almost unable to climb back down. We descend a bit and then I need to lay down for like an hour and just relax and wait if my body-battery would jump back sausage-problem from yesterday, but who knows. Anyway, I am almost unable to climb back down. We descend a bit and then I need to lay down for like an hour and just relax and wait if my body-battery would jump back. Fortunately, I feel better, so we strike off the plan for continue along the ridge and we start slowly descending. Without any discussion, it was the most demanding section of the whole track - steep, rough and slippery - next time we are definitely going for the gondola. It was a big relief as we reach the campsite safe and sound.
Meanwhile Haníkovi and Kristi with Auke descend very easily from the Dom na Komni to Savica waterfall. They have to pay an entrance fee and push with many people on narrow track, but they survive and take some very nice picture of the waterfall. After that they enjoy pizza and swimming in the lake, where we find them.
We decided to go to Stara Fužina on the other side of the lake to buy some fruits and vegetables and to cook the dinner at the lakefront. It was a good decision and we can enjoy the sunset on the exact same place where we saw the sunrise, just from the opposite side :-)
7. den - Friday - 17.8.2018
We end up our nice expedition with last common breakfast in the campsite and return back to Czech republic separately in two cars. I hope that even though we could not conquer Triglav and the whole expedition was quite demanding, everybody find at least something positive and enjoy it a bit. And in case I did not discourage you from hiking at all, I'm expecting suggestions for next C5 expedition ;-)
