slovenia – we drove over for a 2 week camping/biking/lolling holiday. 26in and 29in hardtails.
Mostly stayed in the Soca valley (pron: soatcha) Did a few nose-following rides either side of the river – either trialsy rocky singletrack or double track.
We spent 3 days learning how to kayak with Prijon sports in Bovec (pron. Boavets). It’s a stunningly beautiful river – you need to spend some time in it! Went from almost complete novices to learning a bunch of different strokes and covering decent stretches of the river including some class 3 rapids. If you want to go paddling, go with Prijon sports rather than any of the agencies in town.
We drove up Mangart (medium terrifying to drive, more tiring but probably less stressful to ride up!), beautiful weather, really peaceful found they had a room in the hut, so we booked in and watched the sunset and the stars come out.
Back to biking – There’s a guide book. We bought that.
Buy it. Can’t find it on the web, but it’s in the local shops. Turn to the page on Matajur. 40km outing.
Drive to Livek, that buys you 600m, climb, climb, climb, enjoy the views. Take plenty of food and water – we expected a hut at the top, but it wasn’t open. we took 2 water bottles – 500ml + 750ml, not enough for a hot all day ride!
Descent is almost all single track, a lot of it buff, skinny, swoopy and steep. Nothing exposed really, but quite a few spots where you could do yourself a mischief.
You’re left with a 9km road slog up from the bottom to get the car, but you can play scissors paper stone to send someone up for it, while the other/others enjoy a beer outside the bar.
There’s loads of other routes from Matajur, and in the book in general. that’s the only one we did from the book and it was incredible.
