Kočevski rog is a wild forest area in south Slovenia. It has a sad past during and after ww2, but I am looking at it with neutral eyes.
It has hosted German farmers until WW2 that were forced to escape, leaving their settlements behind. Many of them vanished, destroyed by war or time, some remain as surprising scenarios while driving on an unpaved roads in the middle of nothing except wilderness.
Until GPS spread among all mobile phone users, Kočevski rog was a big adventure (no phone coverage in many areas) and the risk of getting lost was very high. Forest workers and hunters were among the few running around. A pretty big area was military zone and therefore not accessible. But nowadays it is much easier and anybody can have his personal wilderness experience with no fear.
In the previous century the forest had a wide network of railways for the transport of wood to the sawmill. Now you can find its remains here an there along the way.
The sawmill itself is not looking better either, unfortunately. Its remains fight with the forest to remain visible.
To experience a jump in the past, we stopped for a drink at the pub in the village of Koprivnik. As it was getting dark (days are short now) we were wondering, where to go for a pizza as a happy end. Meanwhile, we still had some light off-road fun on the way.
The options for dinner were either the town of Kočevje or Črnomelj. We decided for Črnomelj, as it was closer to get home later. Among the few options we choose Strgar, which we know is serving a good and thin pizza. It was a good decision.
In a total of 5 hours we drove less than 100 km and had really a nice time.
I was hoping to see some wild animals, but this time only a deer showed. I was a bit disappointed, but it was not late enough to see more wildlife. I would however not be very eager to spend a whole night in a forest full of bears and wolves, so it was fine for me and the rest of the group anyway.
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