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It's 30km from Bled to Lake Bohinj and buses run hourly through the Sava Bohinjka Valley - dense, verdant and often laden with mist and low cloud. In appearance and character Lake Bohinj is utterly different from Bled: the lake crooks a narrow finger under the wild mountains, woods slope gently down to the water, and a lazy stillness hangs over all - in comparison to Bled it feels almost uninhabited. BOHINJSKA BISTRICA , 4km before Lake Bohinj on the Bled-Bohinj bus route, has little except a few rooms. RIBCEV LAZ (often referred to as Jezero on bus timetables, after the name of a local hotel), at the eastern end of the lake, is where most facilities are based, including the tourist office (July & Aug Mon-Sat 7am-8pm, Sun 8am-6pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 8am-6pm, Sun 9am-3pm; tel 04/574-6010, www.bohinj.si ), which offers rooms (GBP5-10/$8-16/?9-18) and apartments around Ribcev Laz and in the idyllic village of STARA FUZINA 1km north. The main attraction in Ribcev Laz is the Church of Sv Janez (June-Sept daily 9am-noon & 4-7pm), a solid-looking structure whose nave and frescoes date back to the fourteenth century. Beyond the church, a road leads to Stara Fuzina, a traditional Slovene alpine village filled with the timber hay-drying barns ( kozolci ) which are particular to the region. There's a museum of highland pasture life (Plansarski muzej; Tues-Sun: summer 11am-7pm; winter 10am-noon & 4-6pm; 300SIT) housed in a former dairy in the centre of the village. The key to the museum is kept in the Okrepcevalnica Planesar immediately opposite, a snack bar selling local cheeses (including mohant , a sharp cream cheese made by only a few local households). Walking trails lead round both sides of the lake, or northwards onto the eastern shoulders of the Triglav range. One route leads north from Stara Fuzina into the Voje valley, passing through the dramatic Mostrica Canyon , a popular local beauty spot. Five kilometres from Ribcev Laz at the western end of the lake is the hamlet of UKANC , although the area is more popularly referred to as Zlatorog, after the local hotel. There are several private rooms (GBP5-10/$8-16/?9-18) and apartments here, which you can book through the tourist office in Ribcev Laz. The campsite (tel 04/572-3483), just east of the bus stop, occupies an idyllic lakeside position. An easy walk back east takes you to the cable car ( zicnica ; daily 7.30am-6pm, every 30min; closed Nov; 1500SIT return) at the foot of Mt Vogel (1540m). If the Alps look dramatic from the lakeside, from Vogel's summit they're breathtaking. As the cable car briskly climbs the 1000-metre drop, the panorama is gradually revealed, with Mount Triglav forming the crest of a line of pale red mountains, more like a clenched claw than the three-headed god after which it's named. An hour's walk north from Zlatorog are the photogenic Savica Waterfalls (Slap Savice; mid-April to Oct 9am-5pm; 300SIT). The falls themselves mark the start of one of the most popular hiking routes up Mount Triglav, which zigzags up the mountain wall to the north before bearing northwest into the Valley of the Seven Lakes - an area strewn with eerie boulders and hardy firs - before continuing to the summit of Triglav itself. Although steep in parts, it's not a hike of great technical difficulty, although good maps and careful planning are required. The Seven Lakes can be treated as a day-long hiking expedition from Bohinj, but the assault on Triglav itself requires at least one night in a mountain hut. The tourist office in Ribaev Laz will supply details and book you a place, although huts on Triglav are only open from late June to late September - the upper stretches of the mountain shouldn't be tackled outside these times. Finally, if you're around Bohinj in September, the return of the cattle from the higher alpine pastures is celebrated in the mass booze-up called the Kravji Bal or "Cow Dance" (held on the second or third weekend of the month in Ukanc).
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