RIVER TOUR 5

Po poti rek: BALKAN RIVER DEFENCE Balkan River Tour 5

Day 2.1

On the second day of descent Rok and Branko were faced with strong contrasts. Sava Dolinka around Jesenice is heavily regulated and impounded, but below Bled there are still some incredibly intact stretches to be found.

At dawn they portaged the freshly upgraded dam in Javornik, just to paddle straight into the reservoir of Slovenia’s tallest dam – HPP Moste.

Paddling in a stinky, litter-packed reservoir next to the iron factory - which has been depositing tailings on its banks for decades - they could see the effects of heavy metal pollution and intense water level fluctuations. Getting around the Moste dam was a challenge, and once below the dam, the riverbed was almost dry all the way to where the bypass pipes bring water back to where it should be.

But just kilometers downstream of all this destruction one of the most amazing stories in river protection rolled out in front of their

eyes. Floating into the region called Brje (meaning wetland) they stopped and explored the travertine sources and wet meadows that host a rich variety of plant and animal life. This section of the river was supposed to be flooded with a new big dam in the early 2000s, but a group of determined locals organized under NGO Zavest, društvo za varstvo okolja Bled made an amazing effort to start a municipal referendum at which locals decided to stop this nonsense and permanently get the area

protected. Hats off!

Impressed by what they saw, they paddled last 7 kilometers to the confluence with Sava Bohinjka, where they met with the prettier half of the crew and shared stories of their little adventure long in the night.

Day 2.2

The second day of kayaking for Carmen Kuntz and Bor Mihelič on Sava Bohinjka brought an early morning portage around a Soteska dam and then one of the whitewater highlights of the trip – the Sava Bohinjka gorge. A tight valley with numerous rapids in perfect snowmelt flow and deep green pools inhabited by Huchen and kingfisher in between was something to remember.

Once they were through the gorge they enjoyed views of the thick forests of Jelovica plateau on mellow whitewater, all the way to the Cajhen dam. Just 300 meters downstream of it they met the confluence with Sava Bohinjka – a special place where the Sava becomes Sava. Since they were the faster half of the two crews, they set up camp and waited for the cousins. By sunset they floated in, the crew was finally united and the evening was spentrecounting the team’s (mostly Bor’s) mishaps and stories of the past two days.

Piše: Rok Rozman

Foto: Katja Jemec in Katja Pokorn