My legs were already screaming for a hike, and the weather had settled enough that I quickly dashed towards Boskovec. Up past Gostečnik and further along the hunting path. Since the ground is soaked, one can walk really quietly. Therefore, I saw quite a bit of game and birds. How nice it is to observe them and not look through the sight on the rifle.
Yes, Golte are really beautiful and always offer me something new.
Nice greeting from under the beautiful Golte, Janez.
P.s.: explanation why no longer "Nice greeting from under the beautiful Mozirska planina, Janez" but "Nice greeting from under the beautiful Golte, Janez".
Šmihel forest warden Lovro Goličnik wrote memories in the book Moj šmihelski svet, which was published in 1992. Interesting is his description of the landscape under the Golte.
He wrote: In the last ten years, the name planina Golte has become quite well-known. Mozirska planina is not the right name. This planina has always been called Golte or Golčka planina, and rightly so, because it swallows all the water that nature pours on these peaks. Folk wisdom says that Golte was shaped by the Smrekovec volcano in ancient earth history; that this is so is proven by the fact that Golte slopes from south to north towards Zaloka and the source of Ljubija. This is because the volcano crater collapsed into its hollow and pulled with it part of Golte from the south and part of Smrekovec from the north. In this depression, now called Zaloka, there was a mountain lake for several million years. The water from the lake slowly carved a passage between the Golte and Brložki vrh under Smrekovec and still polishes and digs further in the depths and on the surface.
In Zaloka and the surroundings there is a whole labyrinth of natural sights. All waters that rush in fairly strong streams from the Smrekovec ridge disappear around Leskovšk and Zaloka in channels and underground caves. Rarely do waters emerge on the surfaces, as these underground channels, remains of the huge volcano, easily swallow them. Former inhabitants of Zaloka, where there was once a fairly large farm, told how during heavier rain it thundered and boomed underground, as if rockslides were tearing somewhere.
When the volcano, whose existence is also confirmed by geologists, on today's Smrekovec extinguished and stopped working, the throat wall collapsed and the volcano's throat somehow got blocked. Holes and cavities remained that drain water underground; it emerges only at the source of Ljubija. At this source, water that disappears underground on Golte, on the northern side of this planina, also comes to the surface. Therefore, on this side of the planina there is also no spring higher than the source of Ljubija. This fact somehow confirms folk opinion that there is indeed a lake inside the planina, like a giant collector or water reservoir.
Vent for the underworld
In the depth under the road leading to Zaloka, the water reserve is still very large. This could be ascertained by a kind of earth vent, which is now unfortunately filled with gravel. This vent during stronger rain blew quite strongly from the depth. When the waters in the underground lake fell, it sucked air back into the underworld with the same force. Really a shame that this nice natural phenomenon is now filled in. In the years after World War II, a fire—once started by lightning, another time by careless
people—destroyed more than 50 ha of forest. The storms that followed carried soil and gravel from the now burned bare slopes and piled up a layer of gravel up to five meters high below, thus blocking the mentioned vent of the underground lake. At the source of Ljubija, one can still see how during rain water gushes from the depths—on such occasions the vent must have worked diligently. The source of Ljubija and the mentioned vent are approximately 350 m apart.
Various springs
In Zaloka and at Leskovšk there are even more caves and sinkholes that can swallow all the water from the Smrekovec ridge, as well as from Golte, so it disappears underground and later appears at the source of Ljubija. Along the Ljubijski graben there are here and there small springs that mostly disappear underground. Further towards the Šmihel farms, farmers use all the springs for their water pipes. The Potočnik stream has a fairly strong spring, a bit higher is the Grohat spring, Zgornji and Spodnji Goltnik also have their streams. The spring at the former Kavčeva hut now serves eleven households for their water supply; in Radegunda, the southern part of Golte, on the eastern slope there is the highest spring in Planica, called Koratnica, then the spring at Juga and two springs at Kebru. The Koratnica spring is used for water in the hotel on Golte.
Today's situation
During the construction of the water pipeline for Velenje, there were significant changes and incomprehensible interventions in the natural beauties of the Ljubija stream and the Zaloka plateau. The road to Zaloka was relocated, so now behind it, viewing the Ljubija source and the nice gorge along the former road to Zaloka is no longer possible. The builders otherwise acted ruthlessly in the Ljubija valley in many ways, so the natural beauties about which Lovro Goličnik writes so nicely are in many ways only the past. Unfortunately!