We spent two weeks with the guys to explore Slovenia going down on the E6. Two years ago we were there, but this year we wanted to accomplish the whole Slovenian part. It was a journey full of positive and negative experiences; Slovenia itself was the cause for the positive while the condition of the trail was the negative.

  But what the hack is E6 anyway? There are 11 hiking trails in Europe, that have names from E1-E11. They cross many countries, and are intended to provide international connections between these countries and hikers. Unfortunately it seems like nobody cares about their existence these days. Most of the hikers do not even know about them. Then what does ERA do? Good question. However my present thoughts are not to criticise ERA so get bact to the E-trails. They usually well known in a region or in the whole world, like one of the paths of El Camino is part of the E3 or the Hungarian Countrywide Blue Tour is a part of the E4. So these trails usually make use of the existing trails, and have some interconnecting parts in between.

   E6 crosses Slovenia from north to south, later at Snežnik mountain it turns to west, and reaches the Adriatic Sea. This way you get a really interesting cross-section of the country. In the northern region it feels like in Austria. In the middle it is unique Slovenian, and reaching the sea, it starts to look like you were in Italy. Obviously this the result of the history and past of the regions. What is common in all regions? We loved them all. And probably anybody would do the same. Slovenia is a well developing, friendly country, which is much closer to the western parts of Europe regarding mentality, than to the Balkan or the former Eastern Block's countries. A really lovely country.

   In Slovenia half of the land is covered by forests, so hiking is not so boring as it is during the El Camino (wheat all the way). There are many hills that you have to climb. The inhabited places are rather relatively close farms, than real villages. Going south they start to get denser, and near the shore you can see small mediterranean villages.The prices are usually not so high, but that need some investigation in details. The food itself is cheaper than in Western Europe, and the restaurants usually are also cheaper. In contrast the accommoditation in general is rather expensive. The reason for that is the fact that along E6 there are only a few apartments or hotels. The existing rooms not of the cheaper kindbut they are not more expensive than in the western countries. Only there are no cheap rooms whatsoever.

   Now let's get to the drawbacks. The main drawback is that E6 in Slovenia was forgotten in the beginning of the 90's. Possibly the quick changes in the world, the Yugoslavic Wars are the main causes. The old registers of the trail contain many useful information. It would be interesting to process them statistically. My memories may cheat me, but according to the register in Mačkovec (where the E6 and E7 have a common part) the heyday of these routes was in the 80's. In those years there were annually hundreds (possibly over a thoursand) of hikers on these trails. At the end of the 90's the annual signatures in the register are below 20. Where did the poeple go? The majority of the hikers were from the German Democratic Republic and Slovenia. Those years they had the opportunity to travel to places where they could not go before. Hiking was also out of fashion. So the decline started: those who had small restaurants and provided accommoditations shut the business.

   That's why these years you cannot enjoy the Slovenian E6 like for example El Camino as an everyday hiker. Shops are far from each other (2-4 days), and restaurants or bars are only at the same villages as the shops. There are som mountain huts, but their opening hours are various. Some of them is closed on Mondays, some are only open on weekends, etc. If you want to sleep somewhere, you have to bring your tent with you. If you find a nice hidden campsite, you can put up your tent without being disturbed. I suppose if you ask someone for a campsite in his territory or a bed the people will help you happily, but we did not test this as we planned the trip with tents.

   The trail itself is disappointing sometimes: the signs are often worn off or completely missing. Sometimes they are substituted with other trails signs where they go together. It is not a problem in itself, the problem starts when you miss the disjunction and you do not even notice. Sometimes there is no sigh for kilometres and you have to guess in many crossings. Our maps were at least 6 or 8 years old (the newest we could get, one of them was from the UK, because only they had it), and we found some placeswhere the trail was different from what the map showed. This problem can be resolved with the us of GPS tracks I have recorded and refined. I will publish them in a later post in a few days.

   The other major drawback of the trail is that you cannot visit many places as they are practically not open when you get there. There is no information about these places, and when you see that there is an interesting cave you can onlyregret that you did not arrive at the right time. Just an example: we were looking for a stamp at Dimnice cave. We wer quite impressed with the entrance of the cave which is a spiral road descending into deep. The entrance is blocked with bars. There is a board with the opening hours (just on weekends or on demand), and phone numbers (one of them can be contacted in english). If we had the number a few days earlier, we could have arranged a tour for ourselves. This way we did not have the chance. This is one of the great attraction potentials that are note taken advantage of. There are many interesting old churches, but most of them is closed. That is understandable as they are usually far from the inhabited parts, but I think with more information exchange church visits could be arranged. I got some ideas but I will write an article on it later, so I do not share them here.

   Despite all disadvantages, I loved the trail, and Slovenia. If you want to visit a place that is not so crowded, calm and has beautyful prospects, don't hesitate to visit Slovenia and the E6 trail. You will need your usual hiking equipment and the will to see it all. I think with 3-4000 visitors a year, the trail would be prosperous and could take care of its own evolution. We could mention it as a healthy active recreation. It is sure, that you lose some weight during the trip, and develop your circulatory system, and detoxify your body with sweating at the same time.

   If you have questions or you plan to hike on this trail partly or completely, do not hesitate to contact me! I am sure we have some really useful tips.

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