Springtime walk in Goriska Brda 🍒🍃🍇🍃🍑🍃

It was a mild winter this year and we had many nice occasions for walks in the neighbourhood, but nothing can be compared to spring time walks. The awakening of nature is magic and very relaxing, and we took the opportunity of nice sunny weather and had a walk around Goriska brda. The Goriska brda region is located in the western part of Slovenia, on the border with Italy. Italians call this region the Colio region.

We were walking among cherry trees with white flowers. Cherries are one of the symbols of the region. They are very popular and valued, mostly because they are the first fruits that ripen (beginning of June) and also present the first income for the local farmers. The branches full of white petals with a celestial background are just magic, aren’t they?

The elegance of the white cherry flowers is suddenly interrupted by the bright pink flowers of the peach trees. If the cherry is the queen of June (there is also a very nice Cherry festival that takes place every second weekend of June), preaches are the queens of the summer months.

The trees brunches are not the only ones in flowers. The meadows and vineyards are full of primrose flowers and violets. Many times, I’ve seen their use in culinary recipes, but I haven’t tried them yet. The funny thing about primrose flowers (that we call “trumpets”) is that they can whistle. You just need to hold them gently between your lips and blow slowly. It is a fun game to play with your kids.

The absolute king of the meadows is the dandelion, with its sunny yellow flowers. Well, dandelion is frequently present in our cuisine, especially in early summer (when it is not blooming yet) when we make a very tasty salad. It is also very common to make syrup from dandelion flowers. I’ve tried to make it once, but apparently, I had the wrong recipes, since it turned out as a complete disaster. Will have to try it once again and will let you know. The syrup is great for refreshing beverages or to be used in desserts.

From cherries, to peaches we complete the circle with the grapes. The king of autumn that transforms into excellent Goriska brda wines…but this is another story and will talk about it in one of my posts for sure. In early spring the wines are just starting to push small green leaves.

Our walk brought us to Krcnik Gorge with its natural bridge. The gorge consists of troughs that are about 40 m long, 0.5 to 6 m wide and up to 6 m deep. These spherical basins, located on the bed of the watercourse, were created by the water current that rotates stones and sand, and with them constantly digs into the bend. The stream falls for about 1,5 meters and create a small waterfall.

Approximately in the middle of the gorge, a natural bridge spans, nicely rounded and smooth. Another creation of the rushing water. The arch of the bridge is about 5 m long, 1.5 m thick and up to 1 m wide.

After the bridge, the gorge continues into smaller troughs, and it is very narrow (only half a meter wide), but slowly the gorge opens in a narrow valley of stream Kozbanjscek.