The Soca river - the emerald beauty (Slovenia)

Hello Hive travellers, I hope you spent a wonderful Christmas wherever it was, under the hot sun or on the snowy slopes,... 🌍🏝️⛷️

It's not because I’m a local but this is, in my opinion one of the nicest rivers in Europe. The emerald beauty, as we call it. The Soca river flows in western Slovenia, it starts its journey in Trenta valley and enchants everyone with its emerald colour.

But as beautiful as it is, it is also very cold (also in summer months). The river offers many opportunities for water sports like kayaking and rafting, but only the bravest decide to take a swim in the upper part of the riverbed.

There are many hiking trails going along the river and passing over wooden bridges – very scenic paths that attracts nature lovers.

Surrounded by many mountain peaks the river bank offers many pleasant shadows and refreshing breeze to all exhausted hikers. Running through the limestone the river created many fascinating gorges – the biggest one in the Lepena valley.

Verry playful in the upper reaches it becomes calmer and of a darker green in her lower reaches. Slowly running into the Adriatic Sea, it creates a picturesque background to many towns. One of them is the small town of Kanal ob Soči, famous also for its bridge over Soca. Every year, in August, there are traditional dives from the bridge into the river.

Allow me to conclude this post with the extract from the poem »To the river Soca«, by the great Slovenian poet Simon Gregorcic. The historical background of the poem are mainly the events of 1866, when Austria was defeated in the war with Prussia and Italy and lost the region of Veneto, and the Austrian-Italian border moved to Soca River.

… How beautiful you are, lucid daughter of the mountains,
so graceful in your natural beauty,
your diaphanous depths are not troubled by the tempests rage!
Yet, alas, you poor one,
Fearful tempests, terrible storms are threatening you.
From the warm south they will come
raging across your fertile plains.
Alas, not long away is that day.
Clear sky above you,
hail of bullets around you,
and rain of blood and stream of tears,
thunder and lightning.
Swords will cut here,
blood will run knee deep,
our blood will feed you,
enemy blood will spoil you! ...

Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply to.
Best regards,@miljo76