End of Drought

For over one MONTH (!) the weather conspired against our core business, Kite Aerial Photography. The draught finally came to an end - over an aptly flooded Planina karst field.

But it wasn't just a kite aerial photo op that brought us here. KAP Jasa Kite Society was invited again to represent Slovenia's kite flying prowess at the International Kite Festival in Gujarat, India in January - with three flyers from our club. - we had to practice. In a soft, turbulent and changing wind it was quite a challenge to handle the Nighthawk delta and the gliders ... only after we downed a couple of cups of delicious coffee from our first sponsor Café Cokl (the BEST coffee in Ljubljana!), the kites begun their glamorous ascents into the sky ;-) ...

After the practice we hurried down to the flooded karst plain to catch the last rays of the sun - and do our stuff ... finally.

Planina karst field is a magical place. A classic example of a karst polje it is about 5 km long and 2,5 km wide, having a 10 sq km flat bottom over which the river Unica meanders.

Unica goes underground when it encounters limestone at the northeast corner of the field, and right here the modern science of speleology was born, with Wilhelm Putick establishing the subterranean flow of Unica towards the springs of Ljubljanica near Vrhnika, and, more importantly, trying to alleviate the persistent floods Planina karst field was subject to every year.

Those efforts were futile and Unica still regularly floods the field after the autumn rains and spring thaw, the sinkholes being unable to deal with the flow. Thus the field becomes a lake of mesmerising beauty, with trees lining the river banks protruding from the still waters.

Due to regular flooding and - apart from grazing - very low human impact Planina karst field is a unique habitat of numerous endangered plant and animal species, a protected ecosystem included in the Natura 2000 network. There are more species of butterflies fluttering across its meadows than the whole of United Kingdom!

Anyhow, the drought is over, and kites are back where they belong - in the sky.

All kite aerial photos shot with Nikon P330 on a Delta and a Rokkaku kite. And many thanks to Café Cokl!