Easter Hike to Mala Gora

This traditional hike from the village of Kamnje to Mala Gora traces the paths tread by those who produced feed for livestock on the plateau. The trail winds along the slopes of Čaven, the prominent summit that towers over the Vipava Valley.

Locals and visitors have been setting out on this traditional hike, organized by the Kamnje alpine association, every Easter Monday since 1998. The starting point is past the cemetery and across the wooden bridge, which is the pride of the right stoneworking tradition here. The well-marked trail leads across clearings in the woods, under the tall pines, and up a steep section toward Mala Gora, a small plateau on the slopes of Čaven. In the 1900s locals made feed for livestock on this plateau, making the ascent at the beginning of August, when the hay in the village had already been stored for the year. The men slept on the plateau so that they could begin cutting the grass in the early morning, while the women brought food up and helped in storing the hay. The trail this hike follows is the very path used by these farmers to take hay down to the Valley.

Along the way visitors will have their breath taken away by the rocky precipices of Kucelj and the crumbling wall of Črna Peč, and soon by the views of the entire Vipava Valley. Somewhere in the middle of the slope you will reach the hunter’s lodge of Črna Peč, where members of the Čaven alpine association will treat you to a hot tea. It is just half an hour’s hike from here to the hut on Mala Gora, where the traditional Easter hike comes to an end with a few words and a fresh bite to eat. After the ceremony hikers head back down to the valley past the church of St. Paul, where there are still remains of a wall and water tower from Roman times. The water tower is the tallest infrastructural building preserved from Roman times in Slovenia.

Information
TIC Ajdovščina, +386 5 365 91 40, ajdovscina@vipavskadolina.si in www.kamnje.si