I love winter. I love everything about it. The light snowflakes filling the whole sky and the world turning calm and beautiful. However, when March rolls around, bringing the first warmer days and delicate little flowers, it’s next to impossible to go back to the cold. More likely than not you’ll see me exploring flower-speckled hills than snowy mountains. And when larger parts of hills turn purple from the blooming heather, you can count me in!
The hops-drying valleys and gently rolling hills of eastern Slovenia conceal an extraordinary sight: carpets of wild heather blooming across the landscape. The first sight of the area feels like nothing special, charming but not exactly fascinating, however, once you hit the lonely trails in the forested hills, you’re into a huge surprise. Every March certain slopes of various hills just a few kilometers outside of Celje (the fourth-largest city of Slovenia) burst with blooming heather and the otherwise end-of-winter dull brown forests turn magically purple.
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I planned my trip to Celje’s countryside based on some posts on social media. Following the suggestions where the blooms could be found, I tracked a 16-km route with 900m of ascent and descent to visit three most promising hilltops: Mali Slomnik, Veliki Slomnik and Vipota.
After quite a lengthy drive, I left my car in an empty parking lot in Tremerje, a small village between Celje and the traditional beer producing town of Laško, and started the hike. One would expect at least a few cars for a natural attraction like a blooming forest, but there I was on the first sunny day after a week of rain hitting the trail alone. Walking uphill in a brown forest with only occasional patches of heather along the way, I honestly started to doubt the existence of the abundant purple shrub.
And then half-way to the top of Mali Slomnik, my first hilltop of the day, I saw it: the first bigger patch of blooming heather. The strong morning light glistened on the spiky stems of purple, which under the smooth beech trees with long trunks reaching towards the blue sky, and the ubiquitous blueberry shrubs around them looked magical.
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From Mali Slomnik I continued towards Veliki Slomnik and that’s where I accidentally stumbled upon a whole side of the hill blooming with purple heather and not long after that yet another one. Truly spectacular and a real find outside of the alpine area of Slovenia! Take it from the person who runs a touring agency and does the whole photography for it. The beauty of the vibrantly blooming slopes of Veliki Slomnik can easily compare to the blooming crocuses of Velika Planina or the daffodils of Golica, yet set in the charming lower hillside rather than the rugged mountains.
The top of Veliki Slomnik opened up to beautiful views of the surrounding green hillside and white mountains in the distance. Pretty pleased with how the day was developing, I headed for the last hilltop of the planned flower trek: the 532-m Vipota on the other side of the valley. I descended back down to Tremerje and headed back up on the other side of the Savinja River (the same Savinja River that I fly-fished on a few years ago near the Logarska Valley).
The hike soon opened a secret door to the curvy green backcountry with endless cute little hilltops where I could see myself returning one day and continue to explore one hilltop after another. I passed a remote hamlet and could see a few more dispersed around the curvy landscape.
Vipota on its own turned out to have no bigger patches of heather, nevertheless, a lushy blooming carpet of the purple shrub greeted me further along the scenic forest trail towards Rifengozd. Moreover, the thin beech forest around it unveiled the gorgeous view of the Savinja River snaking down in the valley surrounded by undulating forested hills. A blooming spot straight out of a fairytale!
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As I sit now in front of my laptop thinking about my Celje heather adventure, it just seems like an experience from another world and dimension. Ever since my visit I’ve seen more intriguing photos of the blooms from the area, and the pull to go back is strong. Another hike in a purple forest with a glass of good Laško beer afterwards? Yes, please!
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