What to do when you have little time, the bora wind is blowing from the north and you are not far from Duino?

Easy, go and see one of the most beautiful spots in the area, reachable only with a small and manoeuvrable boat such as a kayak: the springs of the Timavo.

This “mysterious” river actually rises in Slovenia, on the slopes of the Snežnik mountain on the border with Croatia, and after diving underground at the caves of Škocjanske jame travels 40 kilometres before re-emerging at San Giovanni di Duino, less than 2 kilometres from the sea. The fact that for many years its course remained unknown has given it an aura of mystery aura that still survives.

I claim aboard my the kayak and, starting from the concrete slipway, here called a “squero”, I begin to paddle between the moored boats in the direction of the Duino Castle and the Dama bianca, a rock standing in the sea that legend claims is a petrified princess.

At the exit of the channel, I turn right almost 180 degrees, turning the bow to the north. Now I start paddling up the river. Amongst the reeds, I can hear and see the “locals” of the place, herons, mallards, swans, grass snakes, and even turtles.

After another turn to the right, before the paper mill, and after leaving the last fishing boats moored along with their nets, we come to an opening half-hidden by the vegetation that makes us enter a green tunnel of trees and shrubs. Some branches beneath the surface look almost like arms trying to grab us.

At the end of the corridor, the space opens out and finally we reach our destination, where the river water, after about 40 kilometres underground, reappears clear and cold as it were long in the bowels of the earth. The landscape is made even more mystical by the Gothic church of San Giovanni in Tuba. The Indiana Jones who lives inside each of us could not be happier.

After paddling around a bit to play with the current, it is already time to go back along the same route. Who knows what awaits us in our next adventure.