“Never go hiking in the mountains unprepared” – that was what we learned again! on this hike.
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| Črni vrh – the first peak we reached |
Today we had packed our 100mm macro lens and when we spotted flowers covered in butterflies and bumblebees we had to stop and try to capture them.
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| Mohrenfalter or Ringlet |
But then the hail started, which was not so funny any more. The grains were only 5mm in diameter, but they hurt! We were hiding under the trees for a bit, but it got cold and staying in the woods was no solution. So we walked on, but then the lightning started and didn’t stop. The thunder was extremely loud and coming from close. I jumped every time and started to walk as fast as possible. We stopped in the forest for a couple of times on the way back waiting for the worst to pass, but it seemed the thunderstorm didn’t move and was just circling above us. The scariest was to pass on top of the mountains over open land while counting the seconds between lightning and thunder. I was already happy when I could count to two, still very close for my taste. But often they came just one after the other with nearly no break, which meant the lightning was striking very close to us.
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| Next time I will wear contacts 😉 |
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| Finally back |
We had passed other hikers crouching under trees and not even having a rain jacket with them. It took us an hour through the storm until we reached our starting point, where we jumped into the camper and threw all the gear into the shower, as we were soaking wet from top to bottom. We felt very lucky compared to other hikers, as we could jump into dry clothes and prepare a cup of tea, while others had to get into their cars with probably nothing to change into.
We left the mess in the shower and drove down the mountains to a great camper parking near a river and a lake where we spent the night, after hanging everything outside to dry. The hiking boots got stuffed with newspaper again. Luckily, we had some left from our last rainy hike.
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| Happy to be dry again |