| jerque8. 11. 2026 16:07:25 |
Because the sour Saturday weather thwarted my plans, a much more weather-independent idea for plan B appeared: the Turjak castle, which is historically and culturally very important for Slovenia.
First quickly something about the freshly renovated castle. If someone happened to miss it, the renovated castle was opened to the public at the end of this August. Until this December 3 it will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 10am and 5pm, and the visit will be free until then. What will happen after that date, apparently even JGZ Brdo who manages the castle doesn't know right now. They haven't prepared information materials etc. yet, in the rooms for the ticket office, information etc. there will probably be no one and they are open only because of the toilet; if we need someone, it will be best to ask in the castle cafe (from the entrance we go straight across the courtyard, when it widens, left). During the opening we can freely walk around the castle where it is of course allowed and open; with some luck we might just come across some announced guided tour and maybe even be allowed to join, as happened to me. To enter some interior rooms where there is parquet, you need to put plastic bags over your shoes, which are available at the "ticket office" at the entrance. Regarding parking, they are apparently arranging a parking lot a little before the castle driveway; currently everyone parks in the castle area, either at the castle farm (first building on the right on the driveway) or in the linden avenue left of the driveway. Apparently in the future they will only allow parking there for employees, hotel guests (when it opens) and exceptionally for less mobile visitors.
I didn't know about the parking yet, so I parked on the larger arranged parking lot right by the main road Škofljica - Kočevje, where they haven't thought of those "popular" pink additions for some "15%" application yet  . Because the hour was still early, I first set off towards the mentioned waterfalls. Only now did I notice that there is no trip there yet, so I also didn't photograph everything possible along the way and geodetically measure altitudes, path lengths etc. and we will have to be satisfied with an approximate description in the continuation.
So, we set off on the road towards Želimlje; in the village core itself the signpost directs us right to the cemetery, the waterfalls are also mentioned. To the cemetery a bit outside the village leads a narrow asphalt road, "marked" also with "Kropa" candelabras. At the cemetery the road ends; there is also space for a few cars. But since there are two tombs of the Turjak lords Auersperg at the cemetery and therefore they intend to include it in the tourist offer, in the future I wouldn't rely too much that there will always be space. Anyway, at the cemetery the signpost directs us to a forest path, which is here and there even marked with Knafelc circles or arrows, but if we stick to it, we really can't get lost. The path is still quite nice at the beginning, but it drops quite concretely to the bottom of the ravine (gorge?) of the Bajdinc stream, where a wooden footbridge awaits us. Quite raised, probably the stream is a typical torrent that can suddenly rise quite a bit and "go wild" during a downpour. As some kind of warning for the continuation, a lit candle was also at the footbridge; probably someone has already fatally injured themselves there. On the other side of the footbridge another path joins from the left, at first glance also nice, which according to the maps should come from Ščurke, i.e. where the serpentine road from Turjak reaches the Želimlje valley. Here we turn right and walk along the stream upwards against the current. But soon the nice part ends, the ravine narrows and the TD Turjak sign warns us that we continue at our own risk. If up to here it would still go in sneakers, for further hiking boots with good grip are necessary and the poles also came in handy. The "path" is more like stepping on rocks in the stream; twice in this way we cross the stream, somewhere on the rocks we carefully cross a very steep slope of the ravine right above the stream. Now, when the water levels are still low due to the summer drought, I even made it with dry feet; in more normal conditions it would probably be necessary to test the waterproofness of the footwear . If we get through all this, we are rewarded with two consecutive waterfalls (or is it one double-cascade waterfall?). To the pool between them you can still get, further at least for non-alpinists not. If I don't take into account the help of poles, I managed to get there without grabbing rocks, so according to forum criteria the path would be classified as easy. Except for the footbridge there are no other protections or aids. Maybe also an approximate timeline, estimated from image metadata. From the parking lot at the main road it took approx. half an hour, including a short viewing of the tombs at the cemetery; at that fork in the village it says it should be 20 minutes, from the cemetery itself I needed approx. 15 minutes at a more "pensioner" pace.
Since nowhere else to go, I return to the footbridge and then a concrete ascent to the cemetery. Or already a bit before the cemetery another path branches off to the right, which quickly drops to the road between Turjak and Ščurke. In some friendlier time one would have to watch out for "pogačarji" and hope that they regularly maintain the brakes; in the autumn grayness there was no one. When the road makes a very sharp 180° left turn, a new signpost directs us right to the Old Castle. The sign warns us that we should fear archers more than bears, who have their shooting range there; luckily the hour was still a bit early for them . A shorter exposed path slightly upwards leads us to some remains of castle walls. Maybe there would even be some shortcut from there to the "new" castle, but I'd rather not risk a close encounter with some projectile and rather return to the road, from where the castle driveway is quickly reached.
I was a bit disappointed though, because somehow I couldn't find a suitable place for some ideal viewpoint photo of the castle  . Either trees bother or electric cables or one would have to disturb private courtyard property... Only one bare hill with a church and transmitter somewhere south of the castle promises something; according to PeakFinder it should be Veliki Osolnik and maybe once in more suitable weather I really drag a tripod and telephoto lens up there...
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