Mountain Highs: Biking And Bivvying In Slovenia

Bikepacking – travelling light, camping wild and offroad climbs – is an adventurous and fully immersive way of exploring the Julian Alps

“I slept rough for eight days and climbed the height of Everest on a bike,” might not be everyone’s ideal holiday. But for anyone with a sense of adventure and a passing relationship with a bike, the West Loop of Slovenia’s pristine blue Julian Alps takes some beating.

This 260-mile (418km) circuit, plotted out by cycling guru Joe Cruz on the Bikepacking.com site, was spotted by some pals in Scotland with a bit of a habit for rather extreme outdoor shenanigans – wiry gents who spend winter weekends kayaking and bivvying in the Cairngorms, and so on. I recognised that it was not so much the distance that was the challenge – more the roughly 9,000 metres (29,000ft) of total climbing. But even as a mere amateur, it didn’t take much to convince me. The majestic Julian Alps, the eastern bookend of the range, looked fundamentally, spectacularly alpine, but with a fraction of the tourists of nearby Italy or Croatia.