Village of Vojsko in winter

I have posted various cross-country skiing photos from the highest lying village of Slovenian Primorska region (i.e. Slovenian Littoral) before - you can check out my previous post if you are interested.

Vojsko is a small village near the town of Idrija and since it lies more than 1.000 meters above sea level it usually gets loads of snow. This winter is no exception.

On my way to the cross-country skiing center I always pass by the church in the little village. The other day I made a short stop and took a few photos. Although some snow has already melted, there was still about a meter and a half of it left. In my book that is still a hardcore winter. Since in the past decades they often had to deal with more than twice the amount of this year's snow, some locals might disagree with me.

I will let you check out these photos and judge for yourself.

Regardless of all problems snowy winter brings along, I always love to visit Vojsko plateau. Nature is so beautiful around these parts and there is a great variety of wildlife preserved for a visitor to admire. Among other things this also makes it an excellent destination for photo hunting... but that is a different story for another post.

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Cross-country skiing class

Winter has been quite generous with snow so far in Slovenia and it looks like we are getting some more this week. Snow usually brings along some trouble but it also enables us snow sports enthusiasts to have lots of fun.

I have been lucky enough to spend quite a few really nice and fun days on skis so far this season and I do not intend to stop just yet.
Apart from alpine skiing I also like to go cross-country skiing from time to time. Last weekend I had a great opportunity to improve my skills at a training course. It was led by a friend of mine, so I knew pretty well what to expect.

We chose a great location - Vojsko cross-country skiing center. It is located near the town of Idrija in Slovenia (you can check out its location here). I posted about this great activity before - you can check out what I wrote about a great day I spent cross-country skiing on this same location roughly 3 years ago (you should probably click on the link if you like this post).

We were a group of eight and considering there were some first-timers amongst us, we all did great. We started with some warm-up exercises and continued with an introduction to skate skiing. After more than three hours of improving ours skills and doing quite a few kilometers of skating through a section of available tracks, we enjoyed a brief break.

Weather was quite nice. Apart from a foggy morning we had a nice and sunny day. Snow was still on trees, providing an idyllic setting for spending a day in the nature.

The afternoon was reserved for a cross-country trek. We changed from skate to classic style skis and ventured off the track into the forest. Wading through nearly meter and a half of snow wearing only boots would be almost impossible, but with skis on, it was quite easy.
It took us around two hours to do a ten kilometer track. Views and natural beauty were just breathtaking. Almost every one of us preferred this part to our morning skating exercises. There were however a few who had trouble with deep snow - I guess being overweight does not actually help with this activity.

Since we really enjoyed this day, we will try to repeat it as soon as possible. I also intend to go on a bit more serious cross country trek as soon as possible.

If you ever find yourself in Slovenia and would like to try a winter activity like this, do not hesitate. If you need an advice or help in organizing such an event feel free to contact me through email or simply leave a comment on this post. I will gladly help you out.

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Wordless Wednesday: Buried under the snow

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Cross-country skiing center Vojsko

Cross-country skiing is gaining popularity again in Slovenia. It was already quite popular over a decade ago, but then lost many supporters due to a rise of alpine skiing. In my opinion it happened because of better and better equipped ski slopes. Modern and fast ski-lifts were being installed on almost every ski slope.
Besides all that, Slovenian professional skiers are some of the most popular public figures in the country. They have been continuously achieving good results in the World Cup series for many decades.

Nowadays both sports are very popular again. Cross-country skiing is gaining supporters by the day.
Excellent results of Tina Maze (Slovenian alpine skier) and Petra Majdič (Slovenian cross-country skier) have a great deal to do with that. They were both also among this year's Vancouver Olympic medal winners.
Petra was also awarded the Terry Fox foundation award for incredible courage and determination after breaking several ribs and puncturing her lungs and still finishing third.


All that made us think and after a couple of years long break, M. and I finally decided to go cross-country skiing again. We are both beginners in this sport. Three years ago we attended a beginner level training and have not been practicing very often since then.

That is a pity, because there is an excellent cross-country skiing facility nearby. It is called Cross-country skiing center Vojsko.
I have to say I like this sport - it is really cheap. Once you get your hands on some equipment you can do it literary for free. The equipment itself is also relatively cheap.


Besides the financial side, getting in touch with nature is not to be ignored as well. It is also not very time consuming - I can feel every muscle of my body (usually on the next day I tend to find even a few new ones I didn't know I had) after an hour of exercise and if I may add... I think I am not in such a bad shape at all.
We chose a really beautiful day for doing this. It was sunny and quite warm.


As we had expected, after 8 kilometers we were pretty exhausted. We saw a few people on the track but mostly there was just nature and the two of us.

I stopped from time to time to take a photo or two. It was just the right day for a photo session but this time it was only on the second place. A good quality exercise came first this time.


In the end I found time for both and we were pleased with the results. We were both glad we finally did it. We really got to enjoy a great Saturday morning!

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Wordless Wednesday: Chapel cowered in snow

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