Canyoning - Grmečica Canyon

Today was our last full day in Bled.  We decided to do something incredibly awesome to celebrate the end of an amazing visit to Slovenia.  Kati spent the last few days considering the options and deciding if she wanted to go canyoning.  Late yesterday afternoon, she decided that she definitely wanted to do it.

Canyoning is a unique "high adventure" sport.  It leads you into areas that you can't see any other way and that are almost completely unaffected by people.  Essentially, you put on a wetsuit, climbing gear, and a helmet and literally jump into a pool in a canyon.  Then, you jump, slide, climb, and repel (or absail as they say here) your way down the entire canyon, following the flow of the water the entire way.

While Kati had been excited about the trip yesterday afternoon, with the morning came the sinking feeling of fear.  Yet I did my best to convince her that there was nothing to worry about and that everything would be fine.  We'd talked to the lady in charge of booking the trip and thoroughly discussed the specifics and told her of Kati's concern regarding heights, etc.

Our crew consisted of a guide and six other people.  There were two young Slovenian brothers who were "training" to become canyoning assistants/guides; a 29-year-old Slovenian couple from Ljubljana; and two 21-year-old Dutch guys who had just spent three weeks doing extreme sport activities in France in preparation for going back to Holland and enlisting in the marines.  One of the Dutch guys was pretty funny, he had already served in the Dutch army and kept making fun of the people he knew in the US Army because when they trained together the Americans always "complained of the walking because they're only used to riding in cars while we walk everywhere."  Disregarding the stereotypical invalidity of that statement, he was still pretty funny.  Everyone was really nice and made the trip a lot of fun.

We drove out to Grmečica, an intermediate canyon, which is about 25 minutes from Bled and suited up.  We were each given a standard-issue 5mm-thick full wetsuit, shoes, a helmet, and a climbing harness.  Then we started hiking up to the start of the canyon.  It took about 20 minutes or so to reach our point of entry.

The first jump is always the worst because it takes your breath away, literally.  The water, coming from the mountains, is ice cold and the first time you hit it your chest immediately contracts and it sucks the air right out of your lungs.  Yet after the first time, it gets less shocking.  Our first jump was only about 3 meters (9 feet), so it wasn't too bad.

Kati did great.  Over the course of two hours or so, we did a number of jumps anywhere from 3 meters to 12 meters (almost 40 feet).  Kati really got into it by the second or third jump and even opted to jump where it wasn't necessary.  We also had to absail/repel down a 15 meter cliff which was actually the hardest part because the guide insisted that we put our hands out and not touch the rope or the wall, which felt entirely unnatural.

By the end of the trip, we were all shivering from the icy water to the point that it took some real skill to lock and unlock our carabiners.  The last jump was about 12 meters high into a pool that was only about 2.5 meters deep.  As the guide said, it was vital to have "soft legs" as your feet barely touched the ground before you started to surface.  All-in-all it was a fantastic trip and a great way to end our week in Slovenia!  Kati absolutely loved the canyoning and even said she wants to do it again sometime.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on a grassy beach by the lake.  Finally, to cap off the night we got a kremna rezina, a cream cake (Bled's specialty), from the local shop that created this town-wide craze.  It was delicious.

Tomorrow we leave for Croatia.  First we're stopping over in Zagreb for the night before heading to Plitvice Lakes National Park and then to Split to enjoy the beach.  As a forewarning, I'm not sure how reliable our internet access will be in Croatia, but we will keep you updated as technological access permits.  Until next time.