Slovenia? For many, if not most passengers on any international airliner, Slovenia is easily missed while crossing its territory in less than ten minutes. A hiker on the ground, however, would be forced to explore, within an entire life-time, the stunning variety of natural monuments, scenic landscapes and wildlife lined up along a one-hundred-mile transect from sea to summit – from the olive gardens of Slovenia’s Mediterranean coast to the snow-covered peaks and high pastures of the Julian Alps. Connoisseurs have described Slovenia as “a world in a nutshell”, and with some justification: nearly two thirds of the country’s area are greened by unbroken woodland that reminds of Canada. Ancient Mediterranean oaks, beech forests with canopies like cathedrals, hanging pine woods clinging to near-vertical, inaccessible mountainsides up to the treeline harbour more pristine habitats than countries ten times the size of Slovenia.

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