Tour description:

For those who will arrive at the starting point by car, a parking space will be available in front of the Village Hall (directions to pizzeria Levada).

We will cycle across the border on an asphalt road, but immediately after it, at Col, we will turn right to the old road connection, called the “Path of Poets” – a more than 500-meter-long walking path that leads under the Tabor hill, on which is the famous church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ascension. Tabor has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the church in which, among other, the Kras wedding (Kraška ohcet) takes place every second year, has been standing there since the beginning of the 16th century. There is a short but steep path to the viewpoint next to the church, but the view outweighs the effort on the climb.

The descent will take us along the road that is used by the wedding procession in national costumes as well, and it ends at the Kraška House in Repen. This beautifully restored traditional house, as our ancestors lived in, is now an ethnological museum, where we will also stop for a short time. Even earlier, our curiosity will be piqued by the Repen rocks – a wonderful example of a water erosion of karst rocks.

In the following, we will ride on numerous cycling and hiking trails that cross the “tongue” of the Italian territory of the Karst, which extends to Trieste, – along Gemini, the Zorko Jelinčič trail, the Old Carsic trail, the Alpe Adria trail... and after visiting the Škaljunc Lupinc Park we divert to the north, on the track to Brje pri Komnu.

By then we will be very hungry and the delicious Karst delicacies in Kosmina’s “osmica” will be more than welcome! Invigorated, we will return to the forest and field paths, and in between, we will switch for a short time, while crossing the settlements, to asphalt roads. We will return to the main road by the “ancient” trade link – Maria Theresia road, and from there we will soon divert through the village of Vrhovlje, back to the starting point.

Overall Tour Level:: 

Irena Hlede is an architect by education, but has also worked in the fields of graphic design, journalism and sustainable mobility. She has been engaged in many sports activities, from sailing to skiing or badminton, but the common thread throughout remains cycling. She regularly collaborate with the non-governmental organization Slovenian cycling network and with the European Cycling Federation ECF, lectures on cycling and remains loyal to long-distance cycling at all times. In this field, she completed trainings for the Assessor under the scheme “Cycling-Friendly Employer”, Development of Mobility Plans and for the EuroVelo Route Inspector. She obtained as well the title and knowledge of a tourist guide at the national level and is the founder and owner of the travel agency GremoZeleno – GoGreenWay. In addition to “her” areas of architecture and art, she is also keenly interested in ethnology, geography and history with an emphasis on everything related to our tradition, especially some “silent” areas, such as the existence of pagan religions. She researches as well many “borderline” skills, such as dowsing or geomancy. She is a convinced environmentalist and an opponent of violence and wars.

She speaks English and French and, of course, Croatian and Serbian.