25th July 2010 -28 July 10

We left camp Vili on Thursday. A friendly Slovenian family in the caravan park suggested a route for us to travel for the next few days. They also taught us a few basic Slovenian words. Rok , Jana and there two children were most helpful.

We made our way north driving along side the Soca River and then into the Triglav National Park. The scenery was spectacular and the roads were not very busy. We had lunch next to a small stream with views looking towards the mountains. We then drove over what is called the Russian Road which was built by Russian prisoners during World 1 in 1916. It is very steep and has 24 hairpin curves on one side and 26 on the other.

It was a slow grind up as the camper has a little problem [explain later]. After a slow drive up we made it to the Vrsic Pass and down the equally steep and windy road to the valley on the other side. Such fantastic scenery, made possible by the backbreaking work of the Russian p.o.w’s who had to endure the harsh conditions and the avalanches that killed hundreds of them. We had a brief stop in a wayside parking place to enjoy the view of the mountain before deciding it would be prudent to make our way to the campground that we had planned to stay at that night.

Campground Kamne, near Mojstrana was a typical holiday campground, full of Dutch, Germans, Slovenian’s and Belgians and although the pictures depicted it as a scenic campsite it was in the end pretty crowded and basic. We have come to the conclusion that the smaller, less promoted campsites are more friendly, relaxed and are often much more pleasant places to stay.

Oh well we were only planning to stay the night anyway so it was a pitch for the night with the convenience of a shower.

The next morning it was Friday, but somehow we thought it was Saturday, which would have been Jenny’s birthday. We somehow lost a day, could it have been that we received a Happy Birthday Message on the phone in the morning or was it that we are so relaxed that one day seems to blend into the next. (Or as Ewout tends to think maybe we were abducted by aliens and brought back to a different time zone?)

So thinking it was Saturday we decide it would be important to do a bit of grocery shopping and managed to find a supermarket in the next town. I thought we better do this as I had read that the shops closed on Saturday afternoon and we know that they are closed on Sundays.

After stocking up we then thought we should visit the tourist town of Bled, we had read that it was worth a look but after driving through and around the lake, where we couldn’t find a place to park, decided that it looked nice but better to get out of there. (we found out later that it was the Bled festival that weekend so no wonder)

We then drove on towards Ljubljana, the main capital city of Slovenia, it is a small place but very easy to negotiate even in Friday afternoon traffic. (which we thought was Saturday’s) After getting a bit lost we finally made it to the only campground in Ljubljana, 5kms from the city center and next to a rather resort like swimming center.

After setting up our campsite, which takes no time at all, we discovered it really was Friday.Ewout decided that it would be good to see if there was a mechanic close by to help with the problem with the car. The very friendly man at the campground desk organized an appointment with the ford Dealer in Ljubljana for first thing Monday morning. So we would spend a few days here.

After that we spent a bit of time at the pool and then retreated back to the relative quiet of our campsite. It was a pretty hot day and it was very crowded in the pool area with the music blaring out of the sound system. Not very relaxing.

We better explain now what the “problem” with the car is now:

We have no problems with the general driving on relatively flat ground, the problem occurs when we hit the hills and mountains. It seems that when we try to change from 1st to 2nd gear the motor over rev’s, this is when it gets to 3,000 rpm it then zooms up to 4.000 of it’s own accord before the motor cuts out and we have to turn it off again and restart it. Very annoying especially going up steep mountain roads when you cannot get out of 1st gear.’

Friday afternoon the clouds rolled in and the thunderstorm started, not to worry we were cos and dry in the camper. Saturday the rain set in for most of the day so we spent it on the internet talking to some family, looking up information about the route we wanted to take, downloading some poi’s for the tom tom,( :points of interest, eg. Lpg stations, camping grounds and other helpful sites)While going for a bit of a walk when the rain let up Ewout met an Australian couple that are touring around Europe on their push bikes. They were a very nice friendly couple from Tassie and we swopped some travel stories and impressions of where we had been. They were trying to get their dinner done over a small stove when it started to rain again so we offered the use of our verandah to get out of the rain. We then went out for tea at the restaurant in the campground for Jenny’s birthday. It was a nice meal and a good chance to try out some of the local food.

To be continued….