Učja pools at Žaga
The Učja flows in from Italy and joins the Soča at the hamlet of Žaga, and its last few pools right above the confluence are the only easy ones to reach. The dive starts under the road bridge on a gravel bottom that drops quickly to about 4.5 m, then works upstream through smaller pools to a small, deep pool below a waterfall. There the sheet describes big round boulders, a strong eddy right under the fall and a metre-long Soča trout that usually holds in it. Water is crystal clear but cold, around 15 °C in summer.
Facts
- Region: Slovenia – Lakes, Rivers & Caves
- Area: Soča Valley (Bovec – Kobarid – Solkan)
- Depth: 0–5 m
- Level: beginner
- Current: low
- Type: drift, channel, night
- Coordinates: 46.30951, 13.48032
- Highlights: clear pools below the road bridge, plunge pool under a waterfall with a whirlpool, large round boulders, shoals of fish of all sizes, very large marble trout (Soča trout) in the waterfall pool
- Tips: Drive the Kobarid–Bovec road to Žaga; park at the small lay-by by the road past the football pitch (the Pri Mostu inn car park is for guests only) and enter under the bridge from the left bank. Go only at low water; the only noticeable current is in the shallows between pools, where you may have to take off your fins and wade, and in the eddy under the waterfall, which is for experienced divers only. Above the bridge the banks are sheer, so exit back where you started. The pools fit one buddy pair at most and divers easily stir up the silt; take a torch. The sheet dates from 2012 – river gravel moves. Žaga is outside Triglav National Park (the park boundary near Bovec runs north-east of the town per ZTNP-1), and no diving rule for the site was found; check locally.