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Introduction

I first visited Slovenia in November 2014 and stayed in the Bohinj area for a couple of weeks on a short holiday to tour around the north of the country. 

I was very impressed by the beautiful countryside of Slovenia and in that area especially, around Bled and Bohinj, which I am most familiar with, having spent most of my time in Slovenia in that area.

There were lakes and mountains, in the Bohinj and Bled are and a lot of natural beauty. The area is natural and largely undeveloped. There are a lot of tourist attractions in the area.

In fact, having travelled throughout the Balkans from East to West, Slovenia was the most attractive country that I came to. This was because of the hills and mountains in Slovenia, and in the Bohinj and Bled area were many lakes and rivers too which differentiated it from other areas

 Wintertime is particularly lovely in Slovenia when there is snow on the mountains and covering the countryside.

I was so impressed with the beauty of Slovenia, despite having never visited before 2014 that I also bought a holiday home there, which was another first for me. Previously, I always stayed in hotels or rental cottages in countries that I visited rather than have a holiday home that I would return to whenever I liked. I liked the idea of travelling to lots of different countries and seeing the much-varied countryside, rather than returning to one place repeatedly. Since 2014, I have spent a lot of time in Slovenia, much of it within the perimeter of the Triglav National Park.

i looked at various holiday properties in the vicinity of Bled, where the prices were relatively expensive since it is a popular tourist destination, before choosing the holiday home that I have within the Triglav National Park.

Triglav National Park

Here are some of the statistics for the Triglav National Park: https://www.tnp.si/en/learn/, which comprises 80k acres of protected National Park, the biggest such asset within Slovenia.

I visited the Triglav National Park, which is a vast area of protected forest, mountains, hills, rivers and lakes. There are some farms also located within the Triglav National Park, where there are sheep and cattle being farmed.

There is also nature, flora and fauna within the National Park, all of which are protected by Slovenian Law.

There are many places of interest within the Triglav National Park and some of these are listed on the following website:

https://www.burger.si/TriglavNationalPark/TriglavskiNarodniParkENG.htm

Triglav Mountain

Mount Triglav is the highest peak in Slovenia at 2956metres above sea level

https://www.burger.si/TriglavNationalPark/Triglav/uvod.html

My Holiday Home

Eventually, I decided to buy a property that was within the Triglav National Park at Zatrnik, which is around 15km from Beld on the road to Pokljuka.

Pokljuka is a famous ski resort often used for international competitions for cross country skiing, the Biathlon competition. Pokljuka is located at the foot of Mount Triglav which is the highest peak in Slovenia, in the Julian Alps, which border Italy and Slovenia.

Interestingly Zatrnik was used previously for skiing and recently the ski slopes locally have been re-opened.

It has been possible during the last winter 2020/21 to use the ski slopes at Zatrnik. A temporary small scale ski lift has been installed by the landowner, and many locals and visitors have been using the ski slopes daily.

The Triglav National Park is the biggest National Park in Slovenia. and consists of more than 80k square kilometres of land within its perimeter.

Triglav National Park  (in the Slovene language this is called: Triglavski Narodni park) is the only national park in Slovenia.

The Triglav National Park was established in its modern form in 1981 and it is located in the northwestern part of the country, which is the southeastern part of the Alpine massif.  Mount Triglav, which is the highest peak of the Julian Alps, stands almost in the middle of the national park. From it the main river valleys spread out radially, supplying water to two large river systems with their sources in the Julian Alps: the Soča and the Sava, flowing to the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea, respectively.

The idea or proposal for the protection of the Triglav Lakes Valley area was first put forward by the eminent seismologist Albin Belar in 1906 or 1908. However, the proposal was not accepted, as there was no legal base for it and the then valid laws prohibited any restriction of pasture. The strategic basis for the protection of the area, which is entitled The Memorandum (Spomenica), and which explicitly mentioned the proposal of Belar, was submitted to the Provincial Government for Slovenia in 1920. The idea was finally implemented in 1924. Then, at an initiative by the Nature Protection Section of the Slovene Museum Society together with the Slovene Mountaineering Society, a twenty-year lease was taken out on the Triglav Lakes Valley area, some 14 km². It was destined to become the Alpine Conservation Park; however, permanent conservation was not possible at that time. The name Triglavski Narodni park was first used in 1926 by Fran Jesenko.

In 1961, after many years of effort, the protection was renewed (this time on a permanent basis) and somewhat enlarged, embracing around 20 km². The protected area was officially designated as Triglav National Park. It was named after Mount Triglav, a symbol of Slovenia and of Slovene character. However, all objectives of a true national park were not attained and for that reason over the next two decades, new proposals for expanding and modifying this protection were put forward.

Finally, in 1981, Triglav National Park was officially established in the modern form. A rearrangement was achieved and the park was given a new concept and expanded to 838 km². In 2010, the park expanded to include the settlement Kneške Ravne (Tolmin), according to the wishes of its inhabitants, thus the new park area amounts to 880 km², which is 4% of the total area of Slovenia.

Biodiversity Within the Triglav National Park

Flora And Fauna

There have been a number of Systematic surveys of plants, especially of ethnobotanically useful species, carried out within the limits of the Triglav National Park by Chandra Prakash Kala and Petra Ratajc. These systematic surveys covered various microhabitats, elevations, aspects, and terrain types, which as you can imagine was a massive task over such a large National Park. The Triglav National park has more than fifty-nine species of ethnobotanical values. Of these 59 species, there are 37 species (ie approximately 62%) of which fall under four major categories of medicinal plants as per the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. 

Some important species, for example, Aconitum napellus, Cannabis sativa, and Taxus baccata are not allowed to be collected and used as per the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, because of their protected status.

Hydrology

The main Waterways in the Triglav National Park consist of two watersheds: the Sava River watershed and the Soča River watershed. Many waterfalls can be found in the park, and most of them are located in the valleys of the Soča River and its tributaries. The highest waterfall within the Triglav National Park is the Boka Falls (which is situated at an elevation of 106 m). The Tolmin Gorges on the Tolminka River are also located within the national park.

The lakes in the park are all of glacial origin. The largest among these lakes is Lake Bohinj. Other lakes are the Triglav Lakes (which is ocated in the Triglav Lakes Valley), Lake Krn, and the Lower and Upper Križ Lake.