Via Alpina Stage 9

It rained over night and then off and on most of the day.  Just enough to keep our socks and shoes wet.  Our climb today was nice in the woods.  Our only wildlife sighting was a red deer this morning.  We normally don't see much wildlife here, although I read there are brown bears and Lynx in the area.  Our climb lead us to a large hut built in 1913.  Half of it was unlocked for hikers to stay.  The climb continued to ridge walk along old pastureland.  The views were beautiful, but tough hiking in the thick tall grass.  Sometimes I think we are the only ones hiking these trails.  The trail down the steep ridge was the same.  Over grown and hard to find in most spots and other spots the trail was more of a drainage ditch.  It started raining again so lunch was delayed until we made it to the next village.

I was sick of trail bashing by the time we made it to town.  Shadow said he was too, but I always seem to be the first to complain.

Village maybe be the wrong word to describe this place.  It was more of a ghost town with 2 cars and a restaurant with 2 tables.  We wouldn't have cared if it was a roach coach.  It was raining and we were starving.  The lady was nice and said she had chicken and ravioli.  We ordered one of each to split.  She came out with a plate with one piece of chicken with slices of tomato and cucumber.  My ravioli came out in a broth with dill.  She sat them down and said.  I'm Russian.  This is Russian food.  Great we both said.  We are on the Italian/Slovenian border.  Why would we be surprised.  The food was good and a warm cup of coffee sent us back on the trail.  My mood was slightly better since my belly was full and we got to see the coolest refrigerator ever.  Seriously,  a door opened into a cave!  Her refrigerator was a cave that was attached to her house in the middle of town.  She wanted us to take a picture of her sign and "Google" her.  She was very excited about being googled.  

We followed the original stone road out of the village.  Some areas were in surprisingly good shape while others looked more like a ravine for water drainage.  Nettle covered most of it.  I'm not sure if it is actually Nettle though.  We first found this plant in New Zealand.  It has super fine stickers on the edges that make it look fuzzy until you touch it, then your skin burns for about 5 minutes.  

We found a spot on a rivers edge where one bank is in Slovenia and the other is in Italy.  I can't believe we started in Western Austria a month ago.  

Shadow did a good job clearing the river rock to make a spot for the tent.  There really wasn't another option.  Dinner conversation topic was if we really wanted to spend our last few days in remote Italy.  I mean, we might as well be in Slovenia.  I don't have a clue what our Eastern European hike (Via Dinarica) will be like, but I do know that it's not going to be like Italy.  

Hut

Hut

Cave Fridge