Slovenia

29/8 

Jeff slammed a run at 12+ km/hour (lucky bastard) whilst I walked and shuffled still in the rehabilitation phase…….will it ever end?!!?

After our morning motions, we packed up, headed for a large Interspar, sent some post home and set the TomTom for Slovenia!

Over the border in no time, we entered a beautiful land (no real idea of borders apart from changing letters on number plates; no more “ausfart” signs and directions to acquire a Vignette - a motorway pass) with more alpine topography.

Notably is a German/Austrian influence on older housing design as it was part of Austria until 1918 but also the stamp of years of communism with decay of previously grand buildings & old bomb cars spewing out their exhaust.  But, their literacy is high, they are incredibly welcoming hosts to travellers (unlike our experience of Czech Republic) and their adult obesity figures are higher than Germany.  Despite it’s proximity to & history with Austria/Germany the main language and ethnic group is Slavic with 92 % Slovenes speaking 91 % Slovenian. The biggest slab of the remaining figures are Serbo-Croatians, Hungarian and Italian.  The countryside is very pretty with small working farms bursting with crops, fruit trees and cows. 

Our short drive passed a small sign to Vinta Gorge which we took.  It proved to be an unspeakably beautiful gorge carved by aqua water collecting in exquisite pools, some so small, intimate and delicate and others enormous, endlessly deep and inviting and cascading in petite as well as thundering waterfalls.  The path of the river is followed by a rickety old wooden board walk and the waters are criss-crossed a number of times by bridges offering mesmorizing view points.  

Kel’s imagination ran wild thinking as she does of her Utopia, BK Land and Wil kept exclaiming which pool he’d ‘mark’ if he were a resident territorial fish.   We walked a few addictive hours around bends and turns that offered unquenchable beauty. What a stop!

Only a few minutes on however,with our retinas dreamily swimming in their sensory overdose, we took a sharp turn to Camping Bled and just raised the visual bar another notch.  

A small road led us down into a valley occupied by the most exquisite blue/green jewel, Lake Bled (only 6kms in circumference) decorated with a castle on a sheer rock face, a small central island occupied by an old pink church with my favourite onion-shaped spire and brilliantly contrasting red buoys marking a rowing lane!!

We gasped in disbelief all the way down to the amazing campground situated just behind the lake beach.  No discussion was needed to decide on the actions for the rest of the day.  Togs on and we jumped, dived, snorkelled, noodled and did handstands until water-logged.

  

It took me a while to figure why we seemed so interesting to look at……. the only ones with hats, long-sleeved sunshirts and camped in the shade.  A sharp contrast to the purple-brown large bodies hanging out every mm of flesh possible and all lined up facing the optimum direction to put another layer of pigment on. Europeans south of the English Channel have such incredible smooth, evenly coloured forgiving highly enviable honey-brown skin.

30/8

A bike ride took Jeff & I up over the fluffy farmed valleys and mountain-ward.  We set the watch for a 45 minute climb up.  I don’t think I turned the peddles once on the way home.  As always, breakfast tastes sensational after a start like that.

We’d set a heavy school morning as the campsite has free WiFi througout - that means in our camper!   We’ve not had this since France!   So research dominated Wil’s timetable & Kel did usual maths and writing.  We’re experimenting with all sorts of different styles now including poetry which she loves.

After a heavy feed of German bread salad & wurst sandwiches (clearly a favourite), we cycled what Jeff describes as the most beautiful 45 minutes of riding he has ever done around the world’s most spectacular rowing course. 

Thereafter we hit the beach, hired a kayak (E15 for 3 hours) and that describes the rest of the day…… Wil played Venetian gondola man, Jeff & I paddled serenely until we ‘found’ ourselves in the rowing lane and pounding down the finish straight imagining the thrill, pain and glory of our Aussie rowing crews winning the gold here last year.

31/8

Soft rain pattered through the night forced us to rise early to pack away the matting & towels. Reluctantly,we decided against a morning ride - slippery,poor visibility and cold. Instead we snuggled back in for a delicious 30 minutes. Up for a last walk around the pretty lake, and home a bit wet via the shop for fresh seedy bread.

Wil woke a bit crook but we did a NAPLAN & maths test anyways.