Lake Bled, Under AND Over The Alps

Road Trip!

On a sunny August day (I know it’s now October) 3 friends decided to take a trip to a little place called Lake Bled. A 3 hour drive north east of where we had been living for 5 months and we found ourselves searching for a campsite within walking distance of the water. We settled at a 4 star campsite which was situated on the lake front, had a pet pig, who was a little moody, and free WiFi. We set out our stall for the night.  Now this is my third (and maybe final) trip to Slovenja in maybe 3 months and I have to say I really quite like it. On this trip I’ve learnt that in English the country is called ‘SlovEEnia’ but locally it’s called ‘Slovenja,’ a far better pronunciation, so I’ve decided from now on I’m going to call it Slovenja instead!

Good enough map?

A little drive around and a visit to a local supermarket (Slovenjian supermarkets are brilliant) we stocked up of food which didn’t involve pizza, or pasta. Our evening meal would be in the form of a bbq with the embrace of the mountains behind us to keep us safe. Turns out that when one wants to use a bucket bbq there are a few important items which need to be present; you know bbq, charcoal, grill etc. You can imagine our horror when the grill had been lost in transit, it’s at times like that that you wish you had flown and could blame someone else, as it was we had driven so the missing grill clearly had decided it didn’t want to come to Slovenja and taken a much needed rest away from us. Not to fear though, when in camping, it’s possible to acquire a grill for the night and all one has to do is swap it for a cheap bottle of red, it wasn’t like I could drink red anyway (I didn’t have my red wine drinking vest with me). BBQ grill borrowed, food cooked (and eaten), tents built, beer drank, WiFi connected (and promptly disconnected) we all fell asleep after a hard day of well pretty much doing nothing, 

The next day we woke and it was really apparent that we were high in the mountains, the air felt cooler, and the mosquitoes could not get quite so high. Basia decided to head off to Ljubijana as this was her first trip to Slovenja, Ali and I decided to head of around the lake and discover what was on offer. Overlooking the lake is a dominating castle, Slovenja is great at building Castles (or Grads in Slovenjian) so we jumped in the car and drove up. Once at the top we realised that there was a photo shoot going on. There was a lady wearing a white dress and veil, it may have been her wedding day as she was sat on the wall next to a man wearing a suit, when I noticed the shiny new wedding ring on her finger, well the penny dropped. So we had our picture taken and did a runner.

I swam to that!

As we continued our drive around the lake we saw an activity that I had only ever watched on TV before, namely on ‘coach Trip’ (I do miss Brendan). We found a dry tobogganing run. Deciding if it was good enough for Brendan it was good enough for us. We paid out 6 Euros and headed straight for the ski lift to take us to the top of the hill. I’m not going to lie, as soon as I saw the size of the run I wanted to change my mind, but never one to waste money I perceived through and kept my mind distracted with thoughts of other things. As the ski lift creaked we moved slowly but surely (at times) towards the top of the hill. There were many points during this little ride that I thought the wire was going to break or much more likely, I would drop a flip flop and forever be known as the English boy who lost his shoe. Luckily neither of these things happened but the worry of them did distract me from the task at hand.

Is it too late to change my mind?

Once  at the top the views were amazing, not that I could enjoy them because I was petrified of going too fast on this tobogganing thing and go flat on my face for the second time in a month, (for those who don’t know a few weeks earlier I had come off my bicycle head first over the handle bars and had to have stitched in my chin, I was impressed with the standard of Italian hospitals, well some of them) anyway trying unsuccessfully to hide my fear I climbed into the toboggan and posed for the obligatory picture.  The toboggans had breaks so that it was possible to control how fast (or slow) you wanted to go, I’m not sure anyone has had an experience as dramatic as what was about to unfold.

Yes it is!

Then I was off, ‘racing’ down the hill I could hear Ali shout words of encouragement to ease my fear, unfortunately for the her, it didn’t work and I continued to stop and start my way down this hill. It took forever. When I began to hear the conversations of souse tourists above me on the ski lift I knew I was going a little slow. If I hadn’t of realised it at that point then I certainly did when I came to a complete stop and had to use my feet to push against the floor just to get me around the final corner. I think my time came in around the 5 – 6 minutes mark, when I looked on YouTube for the clip from ‘Coach Trip’ most people did the course in less than 2 minutes. I’ve never been one for speed. Ali actually had to stop and wait for me on the final corner because having waited a good 3 or 4 minutes she had caught me up.

This gave Ali a great laugh and the rest of the day was spent out by the side of the lake and on a wooden swan which we hired to row across to the island in the lake. I always thought I’d be good at rowing, it’s one of the few machines I used to enjoy at the gym, it turns out that the rowing machines in the gym don’t prepare you for steering or being around other lake users, I think they’re very misleading. I think I will bring this up with the gym next time I join one. However we managed to get ourselves to the island and had a little swim.  On the island there is a load of steps and a church with a tower. We decided we had done enough physical activities that involved going high today and instead appreciated the view of the steps from the comfort of our private swan.

Evening came, Basia returned from the big smoke and we swapped stories of our day. Standard camping night followed, BBQ, beer and wine.

So after an early morning swim to the island with Basia we dismantled our tents and headed off for a drive around Slovenja, hoping to find a campsite a little closer to the Italian boarder so our drive home in the morning wouldn’t be so long. I don’t think any of us thought that the day would turn out the way it did. Armed with a road map out of the back of a Berlitz guide to Slovenja it was an inevitability that we would get lost. The extent of which will soon present itself.

We drove around some little villages and tried to imagine how dramatically the landscape would change when the winter’s winds arrive. We visited canyons and valleys and once again re-established that Slovenja is an amazing little country and very much underrated which I feel is where the charm lies. Deciding we wanted to drive through the Triglav national park and armed with Basia and her Berlitz travel guide’s map a direct route was bound to occur. The navigating was going perfectly until we stopped at a toll point and paid our 8 Euros, out of morbid curiosity we asked the toll worker a simple question which would begin our demise;

Us ‘What’s the toll for?’

Toll Worker ‘The tunnel’

Us ‘Tunnel? Where does the tunnel go?’

Toll Worker ‘Austria, go’

Us *Gulp*

And so it was decided we were going to Austria. Once in the Tunnel we began to ponder our position, we had plenty of time to do this the tunnel was 14 KM long and it really was a concrete miracle. Once safely through the tunnel and stepping out on Austrian soil for the first time we used the facilities of the service station and set off to a) buy a pass to drive on the roads here and b) find a map which was a little more comprehensive than the Berlitz attempt. To this day I am still unsure as to why we didn’t buy one, but instead, using Basia’a German skills, we (I am using the royal we) spoke with a fellow driver who happened to have a map. We studied the map and planned a route, then just to be safe; we took a picture of the parts of the map we thought may be useful. Now we had a more comprehensive map, but could only see it on the small screen on the back of Basia’a camera. I’m not sure which was better. Either way we drove around and around the Austrian countryside for a few hours. We visited St Nicholas, Fauk em an’see and (my least favourite) Kocnah.

Merry Christmas!

A visit to an Austrian supermarket (not a patch compared to their Slovenjian competitors) we had lunch and attempted to cross back into Slovenja through some mountain trail which would lead us directly into the national park. After a lot of driving and becoming a little friendlier with some roundabouts more so than with others. Despite our lack of decent map Basia found our way back to the Austro-Slovenja boarder. It was a definite photo opportunity.

We found it!

The drive that continued was amazing, and I was very pleased I was not behind the wheel. We drove to the top of one of the highest points in Slovenja. The mountain rose to over 2000 meters and the road which led to the top is only open part of the year due to bad weather rendering the road impassable in winter. The road was hair pin bend after hair pin bend but some of the views were amazing. 

I'm king of the world!

The drive to the top took an awful long time and the road down took an equally long time, having arrived at the top and seeing nothing but a car park, I do question what point this road now serves, except to scare Ali halfway to death and provide us with some good pictures. We eventually got out of the national park and found a campsite about 20 KM from the Italian boarder. 

'Where does the road go?'

The next day would see us drive home. But we would have a brief passing into one of the regional cities I really wanted to visit, Udine. I actually only wanted to visit this place because it looks like urine and presumable is pronounced in a similar fashion alas. You can imagine my huge disappointment when I discover that it’s actually pronounced ‘ew-din-ay.’ It’s a nice city but the urge to revisit has gone.