19/7/2010. – 20/7/2010
Campsite Vila, near Tolmin; Slovenia.
Since our last blog, the weather for last few days have very much been a mixed bag.
The weather has ranged from 36 degrees and humid to stormy, rain, very windy with trees blown over the road to today which is a very pleasant low 30 c balmy summer day.
Since leaving the lakes area we have driven through mountains, and had a night camped next to a picnic area at Ponte di Legno next to a swiftly running river.
There were many people there picnicking, sun baking and walking and though the day was hot Ewout was surprised that no-one was swimming, until…. He decided to try the water, he got a rude shock as it was run off straight from the snow capped mountains and was very cold.
At the park we met a friendly Austrian couple Hans and Ute, who asked us to join them at their campfire. We happily accepted and spent a very pleasant couple of hours exchanging pleasantries and enjoying some potato’s cooked in the coals.
They were a very nice couple, though we had some difficulties with conversing, we managed to understand each other with their halting knowledge of English and our struggle with the little school German from 35 yrs ago. Of course their English was way better than our German so thanks to them we managed pretty well.
We left the next morning and headed up into the Mountains again, we were very close to the Austrian border and the scenery was spectacular, Mountain tops tinged with snow and alpine forests interspersed with lush meadows. Everything here is so green and the rivers and lakes are prolific.
We were trying to head in an easterly direction towards the Slovenian border, also trying to avoid the Italian motorways with their incessant tolls. This made for a very divergent trip, up and down hills, through small villages and around lakes and rivers. It was a very scenic drive and as we were not in any hurry it didn’t matter too much.
We eventually made it to a town called Treviso, just north of Venice. It looked to be a very interesting town, a walled city and we found our camperstop near the middle of the town near the sports stadium. At first is looked like it could be a secure and quiet place to spend the night. There were lost of campers spread over the car park and we had no trouble finding a spot in the allotted area. It was a very hot and sticky day and the even showed no sign of relief, we found that someone had attached a shower host to the water tap and observed a procession of people availing themselves of the relief from the heat. We decided it might be a good opportunity to do as well and it was good to have a bit of a hose off.
Here we met a nice Englishman who was living in his camper and spending some time exploring the continent. He was very helpful sharing ideas and giving us some information about where to go. We exchanged information that we have found helpful and hope to continue to keep in contact. It is random contact like this that makes our trip more enjoyable as we travel into unknown territory.
Unfortunately it ended up being a very busy car park for the night with people coming and going until very early in the morning. The Italians don’t seem to be able to be quiet and being hot and sticky we found it hard to settle and go to sleep. Then about 4 am a storm decided to hit with very strong wind that blew the large industrial bin that was next to us ..over. We were a little concerned as we were side on to the wind and shaking quite violently, that Ewout decided to move the van to a spot where we were head on to the strong which mad it a little more stable.So back to sleep again, but our slumber was not for long as the early bike riders started to fill the car park getting their bikes off their cars and the noise of their social interactions stirred us from our sleep.
We in the end decided that it would be prudent to get an early start and make our way out of the town before it got too busy. We decided that it was a very good idea when we saw that a lot of the roads were filling up with club cyclists and it seemed that there could have been road closures for a bike event.
We made our way down to the major motorway as we decided it would be quicker and easier to get to the border via the tollway. In the end it was another good decision as it started to rain heavily and it was a good straightforward road to our destination.
About 11.00 am we crossed the border after stopping at a Lidl,a basic, no frills supermarket.(no service, limited range, cheap prices.) what we would encounter in Slovenia we had no idea so thought it would be prudent to stock up a little.
The first thing we bought over the border was a vignette, a motorway tax that will cover us for travel on their roads for a week. It cost us €15 so we hope that we will be able to see as much as we want in the time; we don’t really know much (nothing) about Slovenia so we will see what we find as we go.
We made our way along a very nice picturesque road to a camping ground near a place called Tolmin which had purported to have internet. We had no idea what the place was going to be like, the price or what it’s facilities would be so we had made the decision purely on the internet availability as we were hoping to be able to have contact with our son and daughter in law as they were about to have their baby.
After winding our way through a small village along a country road we have ended up at the most delightful small camping ground.It is a campground that is mainly catering for adventure/ outdoor tourism, with mainly young people who are here to mountain biking, fishing, Para gliding, hiking, canoeing and white water rafting.
It is a very casual kind of place, with rustic country atmosphere, ducks roam freely, chickens and roosters and chicks roaming freely. In the paddocks nearby there are sheep and there is a very friendly dog that visits with the campers.
It is a very restful place next to a small river that is crystal clear and a bit cool to swim in.We are enjoying it very much, so much so it will be hard to leave; it is an oasis after spending the last few weeks on the road.It has been good to settle here for a few days, catching up with the washing, doing some cleaning, reading, and spending some time on the internet with the family.
News flash, News flash
This morning we were awoken at 5.30 am by a phone call from our son Luke to announce the arrival of his son Riley Antonie Ewout Snel, 10lbs a healthy baby the delight of his parents.
We were able to go back to sleep for a few hours and then contact them on Skype and spent a hour or so being part of the celebration in the hospital room. We talked to the proud parents, cooed over the gorgeous baby and talked to Ewout’s father (Opa).
We are very thankful for Skype to make this possible as we are very disappointed that we could not be there in person.
We look forward to meeting and cuddling little (not so little) Riley in about in 10 weeks time.
So on we will go exploring Slovenia, as we have been advised of some lovely spots that would be good from our new Slovenian neighbors here in the campsite:; Jana & Rok.
That’s enough for now, I have enjoyed a bit of homemade apple spirit from our neighbors and a bit of bubble stuff to celebrate Riley’s arrival and I should go.
Cheers.