JULIANA TRAIL: stage 13 Kobarid – Bovec

You always walk on the left bank of the Soča; up to the village of Trnovo on the new path over the Soča, which widens into a forest road near Trnovo, which you follow to Log Čezsoški and then further along the cozy side road through Čezsoča and to Bovec.

From Kobarid you walk downhill to the Soča and cross it via the Napoleon Bridge or the next suspension bridge behind the Lazar campsite. You follow the signs for the Kozjak waterfall and soon reach the Kozjak creek and the gorge on the other side, which leads right to the waterfall (10 minutes, worth a visit). You walk downhill to the mouth of the creek into the Soča and look on the other side for the only path that leads you over natural crossings sometimes closer to the river and sometimes higher uphill.

Soon after the only rope-secured spot (also a trough and a water source), the path joins a forest road for a while. You follow this to the left to the end where you find the path again, which takes you higher above the Soča, along the terrace edge to a large open meadow. Here you have two options:

• The more beautiful, but about half an hour longer path: on the other side of the meadow at the lower edge is a path that takes you downhill to the Prosja suspension bridge; there you continue to the other side and further through the village of Trnovo. On the other side of the village you will find a road that leads to the exit point for rafting and kayaking and to the upper bridge that takes you back to the left bank of the Soča;

• The more boring, but faster way: on the other side of the meadow at the upper edge you will find a forest road that takes you through the forest to the upper bridge in Trnovo.

From the upper bridge in Trnovo, you continue along the forest road, over meadows and through the forest, always above the Soča, under the steep slopes of Polovnik, to the village of Log Čezsoški. From the village, a road leads on the left bank, first past the bridge over the starting point for the Soča – behind which opens a wonderful view of the mighty Boka waterfall, high above in the steep slopes of Kanin on the other side – and further forward across the open plain into the village of Čezsoča and finally to Bovec.