Slunjčica

When it comes to natural beauty, the Slunj area has it in abundance. The best known is certainly Rastoke, where the Slunjčica River flows into the Korana over countless waterfalls hidden among the watermills. Since Rastoke was in the middle of major construction work and preparations for the season (I sincerely hope the plan for a circular trail comes off), this time our goal was the Slunjčica itself, along which a beautiful footpath leads all the way to its source.

There is plenty of parking around the market. From there you just have to walk some 200 metres down Frankopanska street to the river. The trail starts before Moćan’s bridge, which stands right below the old town of Slunj. It is about 7 km long and fairly easy. There are a few climbs, mostly up wooden steps. Take care, because it can get slippery, especially in autumn when everything is covered in fallen leaves. The railing is broken in places.

At the second kilometre of the trail you reach a water pumping station through which passage is not permitted, so you have to turn right uphill along the road to the first turning on the left.

If you find yourself in this part of the country, the trail along the Slunjčica should definitely be on your list. If you want to shorten it, you can also come down beside the restaurant on the main road here 45.10067944115039, 15.590024312899319. That cuts 2.5 km off the walk in each direction. The source can also be reached directly, by the track that leads off the main road. Once you have parked the car, there is another 500 m or so of footpath to the source itself.

Autumn and its colours work real magic in these parts. The weather was ideal, sunny and warm. And once again it was people who made sure things were not quite so idyllic.

Typically us

We had already lost ourselves completely in this beautiful landscape when some sort of “trash” music, garnished with adverts, began to reach us. At first we thought some day-trippers were playing music on a phone, but it kept getting louder while the source of the sound was still far away. It looked fairly grotesque to be walking through these beautiful surroundings polluted by a noise like that. In the end it turned out that the music was coming from a football pitch beside the road above that section of the trail. We could hear it from a few hundred metres away. It literally echoed through that whole part of the canyon.

That was not all, though. The worst part was still to come. On the stretch of trail below the football pitch there was an unpleasant stench of sewage, evidently from a cesspit. Whether waste water is being discharged into the river (we saw some kind of pipe) or the cesspit had overflowed down the slope makes absolutely no difference. That is certainly not the way tourism should be developed.

The trail could also be better maintained. Some benches and railings are broken, little bridges are submerged… I understand that small municipalities do not have large budgets, but we are talking about investing in something that brings in revenue and also shapes the picture foreigners have of us.

Conclusion

However, ugly as all this may be, it is completely trivial compared with what the beautiful nature of this region will give you!

The Slunjčica delighted us and has gone onto the list of places we will definitely be coming back to!