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before the dam. We take out on the right and take to foot, walking around the dam in single file on the busy regional road. We are forced to miss about 1.5 km of the Soča here, as access to the river is scarce, and the water levels are not conducive to paddling. Below the petrol station, just before the town of Kanal ob Soči, we are back on the water, and the Mediterranean feeling is apparent, paddling under the high arching bridge with colourful houses leaning over the river. Gravel bars, pools and shallow stretches alternate, and I start to get the feeling that the river is coming alive again after the dams when the scary silhouette of the tower and factory of the formerly socialist asbestos( currently capitalist cement) production facility comes into view. A few quick paddle strokes and the unsightly smear on the river and valley are behind us, but the reminder of what human greed and narrow-minded thinking can do to nature sticks with us.
About 10 km of flat water awaits us after the town of Deskle( where a short break for pizza or ice cream is perhaps warranted). The paddle is far from peaceful, with train tracks on one side and a road on the other, but we each find our flow pulling through the flat water. Branko passes the time whistling complex tunes while Bor scans for birds. Rok is far ahead, zooming along in his longboat. And I’ m somewhere in the middle, daydreaming and enjoying the sun on my face and the burn in my forearms. We take out and walk around the massive Solkan Hydropower Plant and walk around on the sidewalk to drop our boats back in the water upstream of the Solkan Bridge, an 85-meter stone arch and the largest stone arch railway bridge in the world.
THE KAYAKING TOWN OF SOLKAN
We end the day in the kayaking town of Solkan, clumsily dodging gates in the whitewater of the slalom course, which hosts junior slalom races each year and even hosted the junior world championships in 2006. We leave our boats by the kayak club clubhouse and
sleep indoors for a change at the local hostel, also owned by kayakers, who provide space in the bike storage cage to hang wet, stinky gear.
Italy-bound on day five, we put in at the kayak club and drifted across the border just a few hundred meters after the new pedestrian bridge that connects Slovenia with Italy. It’ s hard to believe it’ s the same river that we paddled yesterday, the flatwater and inundated shoreline replaced by a sense of remoteness with deeper water, rocky outcroppings and lush vegetation hanging over the water. Here, the river changes names and is now called the Isonzo. We take out at the Puima Park well before the Piuma Dam and the hydropower plant in Straccis, which diverts huge amounts of water into irrigation canals on the left bank – which we want to be sure to stay far away from.
PIEDMONT DAM
In the next 2 km, there are three dams, each of which can be dangerous or tricky to bypass, so we choose to enjoy a coffee and some sweets before driving around to the put-in below the Piedmont Dam. We weave with the river amongst the gravel bar with high water shapes. A bit downstream, the deep green of the Vipava River flows in, and we paddle up the river, which originates in Slovenia, to see if we can catch a glimpse of the massive catfish or pike it is known for. We navigate over the Gradisca d’ Isonzo and Sagrado Dams, which require significant knowledge of the area and the water levels to navigate safely.
The day was characterised by the challenges of navigating dams and barriers that were unfriendly( to both paddlers and wildlife). Without knowledge of the area and details on put-ins and take-outs, this section can potentially be more dangerous than the grave IV whitewater of the upper Soča. We take our time, stop for good food at locally-owned riverside trattorias and always maintain awareness. And yet, even between
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