Kolišča na Igu and Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
433 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 21
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Ig it runs 433 km to Ig; allow about 6 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa, Škocjan Caves, Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba and back through Škocjan Caves. It crosses from Slovenia into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kolišča na Igu
The oldest wheel in the world was found in a peat bog in Slovenia, and the bog is the Ljubljana Marshes. Archaeologists working here in 2002 pulled out a wooden wheel with its axle, dating from around 3100 BC, which is now in the city museum in Ljubljana. The find was made close to the village of Ig, a few kilometres south of the capital, where for centuries people built houses on stilts above the wet ground. The pile dwellings at Ig, called Kolišča in Slovenian, are one of the settlements that UNESCO lists among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kolišča na Igu is where the day begins. Next is Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa.
2. Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa
Idrija sits at the bottom of a narrow, steep-sided valley in western Slovenia, and for about five hundred years the town made a living from the red mineral cinnabar, the ore of mercury. The mine at Idrija was one of the largest mercury mines in Europe, second only to Almadén in Spain, and the two sites share UNESCO World Heritage status. The Kamšt is the best monument to that history: a huge wooden waterwheel, more than thirteen metres across, built in the late eighteenth century to drive pumps that kept the mine from flooding.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is Škocjan Caves.
3. Škocjan Caves
Underneath the sleepy stone villages of the Slovenian Karst, a river called the Reka plunges into the earth and carves one of the largest underground canyons known anywhere. The Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO site since 1986, are the reason the word karst became the scientific name for this kind of limestone landscape everywhere in the world. Inside, a narrow footbridge spans the Reka gorge far above the roaring water, the chamber walls disappear into darkness, and the scale is so huge that your mind struggles to accept it is all underground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Škocjan Caves. Next is Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba.
4. Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba
Aquileia today is a village of fewer than three thousand people in the flat farmland of Friuli, near the head of the Adriatic, but two thousand years ago it was one of the largest and richest cities of the Roman Empire. Founded as a Latin colony in 181 BC to guard the northeastern approaches to Italy, it grew into a great trading port, connected to the sea by a river and a canal, through which amber, wine, oil and glass moved between the Mediterranean and the lands beyond the Alps. Attila sacked it in 452, and many of its people fled to the lagoons, where their descendants helped found Venice and Grado.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kolišča na Igu closes the day.
Leg by leg
Kolišča na Igu to Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa
Kolišča na Igu → Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa to Škocjan Caves
Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa → Škocjan Caves is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Škocjan Caves to Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba
Škocjan Caves → Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba to back through Škocjan Caves
Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba → back through Škocjan Caves is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Škocjan Caves to back through Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa
back through Škocjan Caves → back through Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa to Kolišča na Igu
back through Idrija - Kamšt water pump with the Rake wa → Kolišča na Igu is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.