The Boka waterfall, Slovenia's most powerful

What the Boka waterfall is like

Water gathers in the mountains of the Kanin massif and comes to light on a rock ledge. From there it free-falls 106 m and straight afterwards another 30, for a total of 144 m with a width of 18 m. Because it hits the ground so hard, erosion keeps deepening the spot where it lands.

The flow changes enormously with the seasons. In spring and autumn, with snowmelt and rain, Boka is at its best, loud and very photogenic, while in the dry summer months it shrinks to a trickle by comparison. The water is always cold, averaging just a few degrees.

When to go: spring and autumn

The difference between seasons is huge. With snowmelt it can carry up to 100 m³/s, and in dry summers it falls to about 2 m³/s, fifty times less, so the same waterfall looks like a different one depending on the date. Visit at the end of a rainless summer and you may find little more than a white thread on the rock face. The Slovenian Tourist Board recommends not stopping at the roadside but climbing to the lookout point, where you feel the full force of the water.

The Boka legend

Folk tradition tells a story that sits oddly with the beauty of the place. A boy and a girl who went up the hill for mushrooms knocked, hungry, at the door of a small house, where an old woman fed them. The boy caught her sharpening an axe outside and plotting to kill and roast them, so he waited behind the door with a stick, struck her and finished her off with her own axe. Her blood turned into the waterfall, which took its name from it.

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Getting to the viewpoint

It’s easy to spot from the Bovec to Žaga road, between Bovec and Kobarid. On the right side of the bridge a well-marked path leads to a panoramic viewpoint, a short walk away. The agile can carry on at their own risk along a very steep path with exposed sections, which opens up even better views until it reaches a viewpoint above the waterfall itself. The Soča Valley Tourist Board also suggests a longer route linking Boka with the Lipuc bridge. Times and distances are in the table.

More to see around Bovec

Boka pairs well with the Kozjak waterfall near Kobarid, which is almost its opposite, small and tucked into a stone chamber, and with Virje, next to Bovec. Falls elsewhere in Slovenia are covered in waterfalls in Slovenia.

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