Vast, deep forests of Zaplana plateau, some 30 km southwest of Ljubljana, are a mysterious place. A place where dragons live – and are born. So where better to fly a kite – incidentally, the Slovene word for kite, zmaj means dragon (as it does in many other languages) – than here! Do dragons really … Read more

Ljubljana Old Town in all its medieval glory … This kite aerial view of Stari (Old), Gornji (Upper) and Levstik Squares, and Rožna (Flower) street encompasses the heart of Ljubljana’s Old Town, the centre of the medieval settlement that begun in around year 1000, was first mentioned in Nomina defunctorum parchment between 1112 and 1125 … Read more

In the middle of the fertile plain below Ptujska Gora, south of river Drava, stands a group of burial mounds or barrows. They date to the 7th and 6th century BCE – Early Iron Age – and are a part of a wider Lower Styrian Hallstatt culture. The burial complex as seen from a kite. … Read more

In the south of Drava plain the land rises from the rich fields to the hills called Haloze. This is a poor, underdeveloped region of Slovenia, but one can find two treasures here: the people, and the fascinating Minor basilica of St. Mary the Protectress at Ptujska Gora. Built at the end of 14th century … Read more

In our last post we showed you Ormož Basins Nature Reserve, an extremely important bird sanctuary that was created on the former wastewater disposal pools of Tovarna Sladkorja Ormož (TSO; Ormož Sugar Factory). Now we’d like to show you the former factory itself. Ormož Sugar Factory today, with “Ormož Sea” – a hydroepower reservoir on … Read more

A rare – and sweet – story of a fruitful cooperation of nature conservationists and heavy industry. The fertile fields of Prlekija by the river Drava are perfect for growing sugar beet, so a sugar factory was built in Ormož in 1979. The processing of sugar beets into sugar requires special wastewater disposal pools (those … Read more

Prlekija is a region of Slovenia that’s not defined by physical borders, but rather by language, the Prlekija dialect; a melodic, dreamy language that reflects all the different landscapes, its rich and tumultuous history, the sun and the wine (and that all the other Slovenes can not understand at all). Prlekija has hills and vineyards, … Read more

In the immediate vicinity of Ljubljana city centre there is a vast park at the foot of Rožnik and Šiška hills, called Tivoli. Tivoli City Park is part of the larger Tivoli, Rožnik, and Šiška Hill Landscape Park, 500 hectares of protected nature right by the city. While most of the landscape park is covered … Read more

The so-called “urban KAP” is an attractive and rather difficult part of kite aerial photography, for flying a kite among tall buildings and within small parks is not for the faint-hearted. But it can give you the views of the city that were never seen before… So we let the kite fly from Tivoli park, … Read more