| jerque3. 10. 2025 21:35:48 |
For a morning "escape" the valley of Kamniška Bistrica was chosen. Starting with the Orglice waterfall, about which enough has been said elsewhere and I have nothing essential to add. Followed by the Predaselj aka Predoselj gorge; both name variants are traceable, per one sign the second was used in the past. Surprisingly the forum search finds nothing for either, so I got to writing, which might help someone. It is a very narrow and fairly deep gorge carved by Kamniška Bistrica soon after its source. Since it is so narrow, it is not possible to make a path through it like in Vintgar, but it can be viewed at several spots, mostly from the top, and in the southern part one can safely descend right to the streambed. It is supposedly divided into the northern Veliki and southern Mali Predaselj; I do not know the exact boundary.
Start at the Firštova miza parking lot, which is reached by driving approx. 400 m further from the Orglice, Predaselj etc. parking lot and spotting it on the left, recognizable also by the small transformer. Anyway, this parking lot is free for now  . I didn't even know that from there a road leads over the bridge and immediately to the playground, tables etc., where parking is obviously also possible; there is also a sign about the gorge there. But if I had known that, I probably wouldn't have been able to learn about the nadvojvodova miza.
After viewing the mentioned table, we do not go along the previously mentioned side road but at the transformer look for the path that soon leads to the junction of official hiking trails. The directions given there do not tell the "gorge enthusiasts" much, so we go left; the trail gently descends to the wooden bridge that crosses the gorge. We could easily overlook it if we did not hear the rushing somewhere deep below. Right after the bridge there is a new split. Again we turn left and carefully (!) descend on steps carved into the steep slope down into a slightly wider "amphitheater", actually all the way to river level. For instagramers this is undoubtedly it; we can nicely see and capture how the Soča-like emerald river rushes out of the extremely narrow gorge and immediately afterwards flows under the short "natural bridge" or whatever. It is enough to easily "deviate" from the path all the way to the gravel; for even better pictures we can bring fishing boots with us and hope that the river level is not too high right after some rain . Immediately new steps follow onto a new rock and from it again down to the place where the gorge definitively ends. But the view here is somehow not so spectacular, also because of a rock that partly obscures the view towards the natural bridge. I did not go further; according to the map the path continues further along the right bank of Kamniška Bistrica, and the next bridge over it should be somewhere near the cable car to Velika Planina.
So I return back through the "amphitheater" to the bridge; although the official signs direct somewhere away from the river, at first I stick to the trail right along the edge of the gorge. Several times one can see over the edge to the bottom, but the gorge is so narrow and deep that the bottom is more guessed than seen. There are no safety features anyway, but with some common sense it is not dangerous. This trail suddenly ends with some "pedestal" literally on the edge of the precipice. I did not have enough "balls" to dare step onto it, no matter all the likes in the world up or down. There I of course turn around, then the first right turnoff leads to the path that leads to the previously mentioned playground and tables. The signs say that it is only about half an hour's walk to "Pri Jurju"; the official signs for the Mala izvirska pot do try to direct us somewhat away from the gorge, but right next to it there is also a path with some views down, likewise unprotected except for one small and monolingual warning sign about the deadly danger of the precipice, but even here there is not really any danger, except of course if we deliberately push too much to the edge of the precipice.
Thus we reach a noticeable bend, which also marks the northern end of the gorge, after which the path joins the official one and descends somewhat lower towards the river. The continuation is somewhat uglier for walking; we clamber over rocks, cross the beds of some side springs, until we finally reach the meadow near Pri Jurju. Just a little further is the former "weekend" place of Aleksander, which Plečnik designed on his order. According to the sign it should be a protocol object today, but somehow it does not look as "posh" as e.g. Strmol. From there it is not far to the source of Kamniška Bistrica and the hut by it...
As said, using common peasant sense the path along the gorge is not dangerous; the section to "Jurja" is somewhat more awkward, but in any case appropriate hiking footwear is mandatory elsewhere too. Around the hut itself at the KB source I met more like a sample of other people; on the way back a father with a child at that previously mentioned playground, and that was it; in the side valley to Orglic there was not a single living soul. I assume that this was more of a coincidence on an icy cold off-season weekday at earlier hours...
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