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Karstic Weekend ’23
3 August 2023 from 13:00 to 6 August 2023 from 17:00 Europe/Ljubljana
An event by EGEA Ljubljana organized in the heart of the Slovene karstic region surrounded by the forested Dinaric mountains. Participants will discover this unique area of Slovene geography and all of its characteristics, from caves, poljes, dolines, its history, settlement, bears, forests and everything inbetween with the help of karst researchers and experts in the field.
Applications have closed but keep a close eye on our Instagram page for any updates and possible last minute spots!
LOCATION
The event will take place in the village of Nova Štifta, 10 min away from the town of Ribnica located about an hour south of Ljubljana by train. The area is famous for its centuries old woodenware tradition and, of course, for its karstic plateaus, poljes, dolines, rivers and forests, which hide populations of all three of the large carnivores living in Slovenia – wolves, bears and lynx! Participants will be staying in a monastery right next to one of the most important pilgrimage churches of the area, perched on a little hill overlooking the karstic Ribnica polje and on the edge of the forested Dinaric mountains. The event will start in Ribnica, which can easily be reached by train and bus from Ljubljana; the rest of the transport until our goodbyes in Ribnica on Sunday will be taken care off by us and is already included in the participation fee!
PROGRAMME
We will work together with institutions and societies connected to karst to give you an insight into this interesting and maybe lesser known field of geography and other connected sciences. After arriving to Ribnica and getting a feel for the local culture and geography, we will organize an introductory lecture on all things karst given by one of the researchers from the Department of Geography of the University of Ljubljana. Next day, a karst researcher from the Department will guide an excursion to the poljes of Clasiccal karst and the Križna cave. Stay tuned for more details, but there will definitely be plenty of caves, dolines, poljes, karstic rivers etc. involved! The scientific theme will continue on Saturday with workshops organized by even more geographers and other karst scientists on various topics (The management of large carnivores in the Dinarides, Wind power production possibilities and limitations on karst, others TBA), while there will be another half day excursion held in the vicinity of the accomodation in the afternoon. Of course the whole weekend won’t be just karst and science, EGEA classics and plenty of Slovene experiences will also make an appearance!
Some sights from the area which we will probably discover during the weekend 🙂
HOW TO GET TO RIBNICA
Ribnica is easily reachable by public transport from Ljubljana, while reaching it from other cities in Slovenia or Croatia without transfering in Ljubljana will be quite a challenge. Ljubljana is well connected to other European cities by frequent Flixbus connections, nightrains and other international train connections (use the Deutsche Bahn website to find connections), while arriving by plane to Ljubljana airport might not be the cheapest option due to a lack of low cost carriers (consider Tarvisio, Trieste or Zagreb instead if flying is a must).
Ribnica is easily reachable by train, since it lies on the trainline between Ljubljana and Kočevje, which was completely renovated in the past years with brand new train stations. There are 11 trains a day from Ljubljana, with most journeys requiring an easy transfer in the town of Grosuplje. You can check the timetable and buy tickets on the webpage of Slovene railways.
There are hourly buses to Ribnica leaving from the Main bus station in Ljubljana (often called Ljubljana AP on the bus timetables), right in front of the Main train station. You can use the website of the Ljubljana bus station to check for the bus timetables. Unfortunately you cannot check for journeys which require a transfer, so if you are coming from Bled for instance, you have to check separately for the connection first to Ljubljana AP and from there to Ribnica. The two main bus companies in this part of the country are Arriva and Nomago. The correct name of the bus station in Ribnica is Ribnica na Dolenjskem.
Most buses to Ribnica are bound to Kočevje, so look for signs to Kočevje and/or Ribnica on the bus station in Ljubljana. You can buy the ticket directly from the bus driver, but beware, it’s cash only and the bus drivers might not accept 50€ bills.
If you are travelling by car, there is ample parking space available in the centre of Ribnica, most of it free, so finding a place to park before heading to the accommodation shouldn’t pose a problem. There is also a large parking lot next to the Rokodelski center if the parking spots in the centre will be taken. There is also enough parking space next to our accommodation in Nova Štifta, where you can park after the opening ceremony in Ribnica.
For any questions regarding getting to the Karstic Weekend or tips for things to see in Slovenia before or after the event, don’t hesitate to contact us on Instagram or write us on Whattsapp (+386 64 150 086).
