The Soca is a river 136 km long that descends quickly from its source in Trenta towards the sea.
Its typical green-blue colour does not fade away completely even in Friuli, as if it would tell us that its heart belongs to the mountains and that is where it reveals itself in all its beauty, childhood liveliness and original purity.
Already its birth is turbulent and picturesque; it springs crystal clear from a dark karst crevice below Velika Dnina and after a short time it descends in a 15 m high waterfall, which breaks at the steep foot and then continues unbridled along its steep way to the valley.
On its journey towards the south over the millennia, the Soca has broken through the rocky obstacles that were in its way and in some areas created deep gorges that are so narrow in some places that it is impossible to jump across them.
One such gorge can even be seen from the road just before the village Soca (10 km from Bovec), when one gets the impression that the river has at once sunk into the rocks.
From the wooden footbridge across the river, there is a beautiful view into the valley and it is difficult to decide which of the two things is more admirable:
- the play of colours in the water which pours through the gorge or
- the smooth and curved arabesque walls of the gorge which the natural elements carved so patiently.
Another such gorge is at Krsovec (immediately after the village Kal-Koritnica, there is a sign that marks the entrance to Triglav National Park and there is a pathway branches off descending steeply to the riverbed), which is just as interesting, if not even more so than the first, just that it is a little farther.
For people who live by the Soca, this river has a symbolic meaning - somewhere deep within the human spirit it occupies the place of an immortal memorial, representing natural perfection.
One could measure the depth of its straits and the breadth of its pools; one can talk about its shades of colours, about its numerous rapids and waterfalls; but it is difficult to capture in rigid and unmoving words its total presence, which is not represented only by the flow of the water, but by its natural environment as well.
We can simply write that the Soca is beautiful, untouched, pure and perfect in its mountain current.
Visitors have to find out the rest by themselves from wherever they approach the river, be it by kayak or as hikers or observers, or even with the intention of capturing one of its famous Soca trout; visitors should always bear in mind that they are discovering a part of nature which was given to us to protect and which we have managed to preserve in almost the same state as it was in ancient times.
