I always loved cycling, especially on roads with less traffic or even walking paths (where allowed). I prefer shorter but interesting tours to long session in the seat. That’s why I (if I manage to get a ride) come to the place for the tour with a car and make a larger or smaller circle there. It always takes me a while to gather courage to dive down a difficult path. When I found out about the attractive mountain biking centre on Rogla, I was really thrilled. I knew the mountain was a hiking and skiing paradise, but Rogla offers much more! There’s the polygon and six additional trails belonging to the Bike park, with different obstacles and even adrenalin jumps. All together they are 7km long. And the best part is, that after going downhill, you can return with the cable cart. The hanging seats have special carriers that fit bicycles.
With no real experience I decided to gather the knowledge on the forest polygon. At the centre I rented the high class mountain-bike for downhill and the protective gear. I had a friendly and very patient instructor, who helped me master the basic standing positions on the bicycle and then I was off to the polygon. It’s made of various wooden obstacles and bends (banda) and in the end you have to manage the sea-saw. What seems easy at first was hard and the bends gave me problems, while the see-saw seamed really easy. An hour of training passed by in a flash and the ride with some bumps took a lot out of me, so I decided to take the actual downhill in nature some other time. One reason was also the wet terrain, as it rained in the past days. But I did want to test some of the knowledge, so I headed to the nearby lakes – Lovrenška jezera. There are several ways to get there, and one of them is a not too damaged forest road. Hikers take about 90 minutes to reach the lakes, but with my wheels I made it in 30 minutes, including a few stops along the way. The way was rather flat, just the last part was mildly steep, but I admit I didn’t manage it in a single goal. Well, during my break blueberries and cranberries tempted me too much. There was no trace of mushrooms though.
The lakes formed in the typical Pohore bog, where the lake beds were shaped by continuously growing moss and got filled by rain as there are no other water sources. We have to mind not to step on the soft ground as it can collapse under our feet. The small area features 21 lakes and there’s a wooden path between them as the ground is really soft. It’s best to see the area from the lookout tower. You have to leave the bicycle before the boggy area and the wooden paths aren’t really appropriate for cycling and are too narrow.
Rogla also offers many other trails for hikers and also many cyclists. One of the shorter one is from the hotel Planja to the lookout tower (30m high), from where you get to see for miles around. If the weather is clear enough you can even see Triglav! There’s also the dwarf’s learning path where a cute little gnome shows the 1 hour long trail with information boards explaining the attractions along the way. About an hour is also what it takes to get to the lodge at Pesek – one of the best visited parts of Pohorje, where mountaineers, hikers, cyclists, skiers… stop by and is reachable by car if there’s no snow.
A winter holiday
The tourist centre Rogla got its name by the peak of the same name, standing at 1517m and is covered by a forest, just outside the hotel complex. The ski slopes start right away! The grassy ground offers great skiing even on a thin layer of snow. But as winters tend to be unpredictable, there are snow cannons on Rogla as well. Most often they offer great skiing from December until April and many slopes attract beginners and advanced skiers alike. There are also cross-country skiing terrains and borders have their own polygon. There are also sledges, which you can use in the summer (and naturally winter) if you try the Zlodejevo! The metal rails take you between pines on a special sledge, and even the youngest can be there with their parent. You are hoisted back up by the cable in a romantic ride.
Even if the weather isn’t nice, there’s still the covered fields for basketball, football, handball, tennis, squash and there’s even a climbing wall and an indoor swimming pool at the hotel. If you fancy climbing walls, there’s one for all comers, from beginners to advance climbers, and an instructor makes sure everything is safe. The pool is the best choice for the evening, or if the weather is bad and next to it you can get various baths, massages or saunas. Rogla is, with its good climate, also a climatic health spa.
