About Walking Nanos
Nanos is described as the most popular hiking trail in the Vipava Valley. It is a Karst Plateau, which provides stunning views of the Vipava Valley and Adriatic coast. The summit, at the Vojkova Koča hikers hut, is notable by the plethora of television transmitters, which can be seen from the E61 Motorway.
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| Nanos - view from motorway bridge at the start of the walk. |
It is located on the edge of the Vipava Valley, less than an hour’s drive from the airport and just off the E61 Motorway at Razdrto.This makes the walk very accessible.
Those wishing to scale the 660m to the 1240m summit can choose the difficult, steep route, or a longer but gentler path. The walk is described on the Vipavska Dolina website (see below) as being 7.3km long and taking 3 hours.
I completed this walk with my friend Nicole in April 2019, on the first day of our holiday in the Vipava Valley. It took us two hours to reach the summit by the steep route and one and a half hours to return by the gentler path.
Getting started
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| Start of Nanos walk |
A parking area at the start of the route is signposted from the village of Razdrto
and is located just in front of a bridge that goes over the motorway.
Just over the bridge are some information boards about the Mast Road and
history of professional Carters who used the road to transport goods since
the 18th Century.
Refreshments
The Guesthouse Mirjam, a 2 star hotel with camping, is a good place to get refreshments (and possibly stay) before the walk. It is in Razdrto, on the left by the signpost where you turn off towards the walk start.
The Vojkova Koca Hut on the summit provides food and shelter in season. It was closed in April ( low season) when we visited but was a nice spot to picnic.
Our walk up Nanos
Having driven from my holiday home in the Prekmura, Nicole and I
started by enjoying the hospitality and garden at Guesthouse Mirjam,
before setting off around midday. Suitably refreshed, we started the
walk at the car park, crossing the bridge, then turning left and then
right to enter a meadow. After crossing the meadow, the path climbs
through the trees.
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| Starting the ascent through the trees |
Decision time
After around 20 minutes we were faced with an intersection, with the choice of going left on the gentler (polozna) path or right on the steep (strma) path.My walking partner Nicole, coming from the French Alps, was keen to tackle the steeper route up. Whilst I, coming from flat Essex, was less sure, but decided to give it a go as I didn't want to appear a wimp. Nicole clearly found it a breeze, but I found it quite challenging as it did require quite a bit of climbing, particularly near the summit. However, by then I wasn't turning back, particularly as Nicole had made short work of it and had disappeared into the distance. (So, if you have vertigo or don't like rock climbing, I would recommend sticking to the gentler path).
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| Trees became shorter as we climbed |
Upwards and onwards
We
continued on following a rocky path through the forest. The trees are
mainly deciduous and in April, there was little foliage, so we could see
the views opening out as we climbed. There were also wild flowers and
it was clear that a few weeks later the flowers would be even more
spectacular. Although we were content to be able to enjoy the
breathtaking views.
Trees
became shorter and more stunted as we ascended, bent and sculptured
into interesting shapes by the Bora wind that famously batters the hills
in this area. As we left the tree cover it became necessary to climb
more and more. Steel cables and rods were provided
in more difficult parts to assist hikers. There was one short area that was exposed
with a significant fall risk (see photo).
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| Exposed area |
The final climb
Care was needed on the final steep climb, as rocks were looser and some areas were marked Pozer! (Danger!) and so to be avoided. However, we were rewarded with spectacular views both on the route and on reaching the transmitter antennas. |
| View from summit |
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| view from summit as we started our descent |
We stopped and ate our packed lunch on benches outside the Vojkova Koca Hut (closed at the time of our visit in April, but providing food and shelter in season), which is tucked amongst the trees.The ground under the trees was carpeted with wild garlic shoots, promising a fine display a few weeks later.
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| View looking back to the telegraph tower as we made our descent. |
Our descent
From the hut there is a gentle descent along a ridge, with fantastic views over the rolling Vipava hills. It was late afternoon when we made our descent and the shadows and highlights created by the mellowing beams of light were particularly attractive.
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| Beginning our descent |
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| First views of the Vipavska Brda as we descend |
A lonely church
After 20
minutes we came to a point which overlooked the church of St Hieronim. nestled
in splendid isolation amongst the hills.
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| St Hieronium Church |
Soon we were back into the forest, following the attractive, tree lined path. At one point the trees were interspersed with massive boulders, which looked like they had been thrown there by a giant.
As we neared the bottom we briefly entered a meadow, which gave a good view of Nanos to the left and was carpeted with a variety of wild flowers. Then back into the forest, where we re-joined the path we had climbed at the start of the walk for the final 20 minutes.
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| Last part of the journey, returning through the meadow, wih Razdrto ahead. |
On returning to the car, we had a 20 minute drive
along the motorway, to our accommodation in a pretty village called Slap, close
to the town of Vipava. We stayed at Na Hribu, a tourist farm offering a very
reasonable dinner bed and breakfast. This proved to be a great budget choice
and we enjoyed eating the locally grown fare and sampling the farmer’s wine.
Please read my Vipava Valley blog for more information on this region.
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