About a month ago, while Eppu was in Romania, I took myself off to the Julian Alps up by the Austrian border to do a few days walking. It’s a really pleasant range for walking - not so high that the altitude hurts, no glaciers to worry about, and with beautiful forests as well as high mountain scenery.

The only problem is that it’s all made of porous limestone and as a result there’s hardly any surface water - you can walk all day up and down mountains and valleys without seeing a single stream, and getting very thirsty. The only source of drinking water is bottled water sold in the mountain huts, water which the bottle claims comes from - you guessed it - springs in the Julian Alps! So this water fell as rain outside the hut, flowed down through the rock, emerged at a spring and was bottled, driven around the country a few times and finally flown slung under a helicopter back to where it started - 3 pounds for a litre? I’ll stick to beer.

No streams, but there are a series of beautiful green and blue lakes in a valley just above the tree-line under Triglav, the highest mountain.

It looks like it might be a good place for winter mountaineering as well, with some great looking ridges (and popular judging by the crampon-scratched rock). Also, there are loads of high huts and they all have winter rooms. So I might be calling for climbing partners in a few months - you know who you are!