Bela Idrija River
The Bela Idrija is our favourite river for swimming in the whole of Green Slovenia and that is saying something!
On a warm sunny day there is no better place to have a dip than here, in the fresh, crystal clear, green tinted water under the tree lined mountains..
Bela sounds more like it would mean beautiful, but it actually means White in Slovenian and this is not the colour we would use to describe this river.. we would say tourquoise Fiji green.. maybe it is called "white" cos of the white beaches and the rocks & boulders in the river bed?
You could easily spend just an hour here, half a day or all day.. Many of our guests stop off here for a swim or a paddle en route or on the way back from visiting the amazing Idrija Mercury mine, or the secret WW2 Partisans hospital near Cerkno, or the beautiful Most na Soci Soca lake with the paddle steamer the uberbeautiful Tolmin Gorge or maybe the secret Partisans WW2 Printing Press hidden on the side of another tree covered mountain above Idrija!
We are also gonna make the point straight away that if you have someone in your group who is not brilliant at walking, for whatever reason, then this river could be the daytrip for you, cos you can go in and out of the car and only have to walk short distances.. This is not always the case in Green Slovenia..
There is one big main family area to park up and swim at the top of the river road, but also a few secret places to tell you about along this beautiful river that is directly 55 mins from the Lodge along picture perfect wiggly country roads.
There are multiple motorway routes easily accessed from the Lodge to whisk our guests off in all directions, but the trip to Idrija is one of those better done on the quiet country road network that also completely circles the Lodge..
There are so many other twists & turns you could take on this particular adventure, even just 15 mins into the journey guests must face the additional dilemma of whether to stop off in the pretty village of Planina to see Rapunzel tower, the Planina Baby Dragon cave and the Planina disappearing lake.
(But better to save these secret gems for another day and do all or some of them together, even by E Bike, as so close)!
30 mins further into Green paradise from Planina will transport you right to the doorstep of Unesco protected Idrija and you turn before the town at the little sign left for "Bela Idrija".. The river side road quickly narrows as you make your way up.
Arriving at the Bela Idrija River..
Our first suggested river stop comes up almost immediately with a very small car park on the right just after a one lane stone bridge and you MUST stop off here first cos there are THREE extra Green goodies to know about that you could have easily just driven past, if you didnt know!
1> The Shortest River in Slovenia..
Yep, the bridge spans the final few metres of a tiddly 50 metre long river.. the shortest in Green Slovenia, which springs up from the "Wild Lake" and flows the princely sum of 5,000 CMs or 50,000 MMs into the main Bela Idrija river.
Just walk back across the road bridge to find a stunning little forest path alongside the little river which takes you to the lake in less than two shakes of a dragon's tale..
Make the most of this first secret spot cos there are not so many places of such incredibly natural beauty right next to a road or car park for you to just pop out of the car and have a marvel at..
But this is the shortest river in Slovenia, so expect a short, relatively even walk from the car, especially good if one of your group is not so great at walking.
And there is another more secret path on the side of the bridge next to the car park too with some steep steps, which offers another amazing perspective of the other side of Wild Lake.. trust us, you will want to see both sides when you see this lake for the first time!
2> The most Dangerous Lake in Slovenia..
At the end of that lovely little green path is the lake created from the spring of the shortest river and frankly a scene which could not be more beautiful with dramatically steep curved cliff walls framing the perfect little, round turquoise coloured "Wild" lake, lined with trees like a Shakespearean stage with a Green audience.
The lake doesn't look in the least bit dangerous, but actually it is a very deep (over 500m long) spring with tight narrow underwater caves and passages that sadly claimed the lives of top Slovenian divers, so this is NOT a place to swim.. but you will certainly want to get a photo or two though!
3> The Wooden Swing Bridge..
If that is not enough excitement for this first stopette you need only go back to the little car park and take a a few footseps UP the road to find an uberstunning wooden swing bridge hidden from sight of the road..
You might first hear the local kids screaming as they leap off the bridge and splash around in what can only be described as a little turquoise river oasis!
If you saw this colour water in Fiji you would not bat an eyelid!
Surely there is no way these kids can know how lucky they are to grow up here..
But there will be plenty of time for you to also get your swimming stuff on and jump off this wonky Slovenian bridge later if you want..
(If there is nobody around jumping already, ALWAYS check the depth of the water first, as river levels can change)!
Or just go for a bit of a swim here!
But there is more, a lot more.. cos if you can resist not chucking yourself in the drink and cross the bridge instead, there is a fantastic forest path on the other side of the river that leads to a forest track through the woods, if you go right the path leads ALL the way back into Idrija..
If you go left, you can follow the river up on the other side.. well away from the road..
So if you have a driver in your team, who is happy to pick you up later, you could decide to do a cheeky hike from here later from the town or just go there & back..
Or maybe you will go explore the upper river now and do this hike later in the day..
But now you know about this secret path, maybe you will make an extra couple of hours in your day available to drive into the town and park next to the sports arena at the river end of Idrija and then walk to this bridge from the town for a fantastic hiking swimming kinda day!
Choices, choices.. With all these options and even more to come, if you had not thought you could spend a day at the river when starting to read this article, you might have changed your mind by the end of it!
And Idrija is a pretty little Unesco protected town surrounded by green mountains like a bowl, so there are other museums, a castle and a nice old town there to explore into the bargain too!
We haven't even got to the main swimming bit of the river yet and already there is so much for you to enjoy here at the start of it all!
So if you can drag yourselves away from this first part of the river, we suggest you continue up the road where you will go through a very small village with a few houses and continue to follow the road upriver.
It only takes a while to drive up this road, so make sure that as you go up keep one eye on the river to your right and maybe spot a little white beach or bridge or another place that takes your fancy to stop off at on your way back down..
You will definetely need to keep your other eye firmly on the curvy narrow road ahead cos the Locals drive up & down here like an episode of the "Streets of San Francisco", knowing, (or thinking they know) the road so well..
BUT YOU DON'T, so don't be afraid to just stop if you meet another local car and let them deal with the angles & dangles.
By the way, after that very little village the road crosses to the other side of the river and it is not long before a small school camp like place will appear in the trees on your left next to the river, with a few wooden buildings and a small car park, but continue over the thick wooden bridge back over the river again and turn right into the big main gravel car park.. we suggest for ease you park here!
Best Place to Swim on the Bela Idrija River..
The river opens up beautifully by here into a deeper wider channel and this is a really great place to swim with a few beaches too. It feels like a large forest oasis here.. the only thing missing is a few coconut trees! The water will be cold at first, but once you get swimming, we would take this over an artificial swimming pool any day.
There is also a longer straight stretch of crystal clear river that runs downriver from this oasis alongside the camp that ends in a dam, so it has the look of an olympic swimming pool, but this one is surrounded by green mountains and forest!
There is a little pier half way along where if you feel the need to throw yourself in the river, you can, oh yes and a cute wooden bear statue watches proceedings.
And now.. AT LAST.. there is actually an advantage of rocking up in Green Slovenia during the school hols, cos maybe the riverside cafe might be open here, so you can get some really tasty Slovenian fast food and some drinks too!
The Idrija region is famous for it's "Zilikrof" which is like ravioli filled with potato and served with a cheese, mushroom or gulasch sauce.. (why didn't someone else think of that)!
OK, we strongly recommend you try freshly made "Zilikrof" in a local restaurant, but it won't do any harm to have a snack next to the river.. If you are coming here outside mid July to mid Aug, then maybe bring a sarnie as back up in case the cafe is closed!
There is more car parking in this river camp area next to the cafe and a decent toilet block.. so you don't have to go in one of those portaloo things are are all too common in the great Slovenian outdoors!
By the way, you MUST pay for the parking and whenever we come here, we ALWAYS make sure to have a swim along this beautiful stretch, it is heavenly.
So maybe this will be your main place to swim and hang out or maybe you will head back down the road again and find your own little private riverside paradise! We also have our little secret spots back down the river too..
Just before you do head back, it is also worth knowing the riverside road DOES continue up into the forest, turning into a stone track and rising up above the river bank, but you could STILL continue driving, biking or hiking up here for even more adventures!
If you do keep going you will get to a big, big antique dam at the top of the river that looks like something Isambard Kingdom Brunel (a Victorian engineer dude) could have built (but didn't).. it is so impressive! This dam was used to control the power of and the water flow down the river in the earlier days of the Idrija Mercury mine..
You see Idrija had the second largest Mercury mine the world has ever known, deep under the ground and in need of a constant supply of timber for the frames that kept the roof and shafts from caving in as the mine expanded..
Those trees were supplied from the massive local forests above Idrija which were cut to size and floated down the river directly to the mine, so the river needed to be controlled and this dam became a massive tap to be turned on and off..
So you see EVERYTHING in nature.. in history and the urban area in this Unesco protected mini region of Idrija is totally INTERCONNECTED and if you can make the time to visit the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Mercury Mine OR the Idrija Castle Museum you will get to know more of this fascinating picture!
We had to visit up and down this beautiful river several times before even we found even these little secret places to stop off and explore alongside the river and every new time we return, we are pleasantly surprised to find another secret spot or feature that we didnt know about before.. so explore!
There are small, narrow parking spaces all along the river side, but look ahead for the few picture perfect bridges and maybe make your stop near one of them.
The river has bits where the waterflow cascades around a bed of stunning white boulders and rocks that you can also hop around or sit on and we have our own special place where it is possible to hop into the middle of the river and sit on a big rock as the water thunders past you and maybe have a picnic.. What about that!
So the Bela Idrija river is just amazing and we urge you to make enough time to find, explore, respect and enjoy this Green wonder of nature and find the perfect spot or spots for you!
We completely understand that now having maybe seen these photos of such a stunning secret place in Green Slovenia that you had never even heard of before, let alone considered visiting, that you might be in a mild state of shock or even gentle panic about your forthcoming visit to the Greenest country in Europe and you might be thinking.. hang on a minute, what else didn't I know about?
Well, we have to inform you that despite Slovenia being so tiny, there are places like the Bela Idrija EVERYWHERE around here and the smallness of this country works in your favour, cos it is SOOOOOO EASY to get around and see so many of them IF you know where they are and how to link them up into daytrips..
There are sooooo many natural water places too around Green Slovenia in every direction where you can swim or paddle in rivers, lakes and the Mediterranean sea..
But there really is no need to panic, a lot of these secret places to visit are included in our own SECRET PLACES TO VISIT section, so maybe have a bit of a click there, but deffo get a bit of local help with your logisitics and have a great swim!
French Connection en Slovenie
