Well that was a bit of a turmoil.Sorry I've been so lax about updating,my tech skills are legendary for their absence so Ness has been the blogmeister..Well that was a bit of a turmoil.Sorry I've been so lax about updating,my tech skills are legendary for their absence so Ness has been the blogmeister..
I've missed a chunk out so here's a recap of the first week...
Abroad there's the different road etiquette.In England there's a fast/med/slow lane approach to driving where there's not much passing - more a case of cruising in whichever lane is at your speed.In europe they pull back in after overtaking so there's masses of indicating and headlight flashing occurring with accompanying jostling about matching speeds. Took some getting used to.Made sense on autobahns where the high max speed with 2-lane carriageways counted out the 'laning'approach.
Fairly drab mile eating existence until mid-Austria and my first idea of Alpine country.Gorgeous.Wished I was pillion.Fantastic roads and scenery went past too soon.Went through Eisenerz with the Erzberg mountain of offroad racing fame(yes it is bloody impressive)and on for maybe 100 miles to the Loibl tunnel and into heaven.OK so maybe I'm slightly biased towards Slovenia....
Worked our way down through Bled to a campsite at Bohinjska Bistrica(Bohinj)having ridden about 2000 km so stayed 2 nights.On the day between these Ness got her strolling kit on and went for a mountain hike(oh what joy..)while I was drawn to the lesser Alpine roads for a dam good scamper,though cresting a rise at 30 mph or so to face a full gravel stretch did dampen my enthusiasm somewhat(though not necessarily my shorts)as I was wearing my minimum protection gear of brain,skin and optimism/blind faith.If it's too hot for leathers they've got to go otherwise I get just ratty and ride badly so we make choices..........Ness had her hike for 7 hours and saw....next to nothing thanks to the tree cover!She was not a happy bunny when I collected her,possibly due to her having walked a mile down the road and I rode straight past to the rendezvous where I waited patiently only to reap the gathering storm....
Thurs 29 Meandered off heading for Italy.Anticlockwise around these beautiful alps and through the pass into Italy only to suffer more amazing scenery,roads and wild strawberries.... As we emerged from the lumpy country rain clouds gathered and started rolling over the mountains we were skirting so on went the leathers for a bit of rain as the roads were polished smooth and v.dodgy in the wet.The rain arrived.The rain intensified.The motorway overpass beckoned as shelter.Time for waterproofs - off with lid and gloves just as the windspeed trebled(yes,my anemometer readings will be published)and took one of my gloves back down my traffic lane.Guess a few Italians will dine out on the one about the half dressed mad Inglese traffic dodging for 100 yards(yes,laser measure) back down the road in a slamming storm.Back at the bike we were thankful for the bloke who,seeing our efforts to turn back,stopped the road with his hazards on so we could tiptoe round on the glassy wet road to seek shelter.When we did emerge there were roofs off and trees down so yes it WAS rough!
Churned down through boring flatlands with arrogant(even for Italians)drivers everywhere.Drab touristy miles and miles at 30 mph until by Trieste I got impatient and even some of the moped loonies were out driven by the nutter on the touring bike!Shades of'Japan Highway Return' from the YOUTUBE website - go on,look it up......and so to end the day of 12 hours on(and nearly off)the bike we heard of a campsite at 9.30 pm and were led into the maw of Camp Lucija,on the short Slovenian coastline.Definitely never going there again!Got about 4 hours sleep between the late party mob and the still blathered early risers tripping over tents - ho hum,some you win... Up and away for Croatia!
The top lump of coast is tourist central so we chopped across this to Rijeka(via a stunning tunnel 8 billion miles long) and went down the coast a bit,meeting a Croatian enduro rider who said if we didn't enjoy this bit of coast(we didn't)there wasn't much point going loads further south for a bit better scenery so we bailed out and went back to..................Slovenia!
Back through heavenly countryside again to camp in a heavily wooded but beautiful valley at a quirky campsite where volleyball and oompah music was the order of the day and very flat frogs were the roadkill items.We had a beautiful evening walk along the river hoping to catch sight of a castle(ain't no carstle round here muy luvvies...)but muchly enjoyed the environment anyway.And so ended June
Next morning we got all determined and found the castle but it was a 20th C rebuild that had been left unfinished so was disappointing.Back to camp,packed and left for Novo Mesto where we zeroed in to the Int.cafe Ness reported from earlier and had a good socialising do with 2 local chaps who told us of a campsite not far off at Doleniske Toplice where we ended up camped next to a chap,originally from Lancs but now living in Berne.A rainy evening and a midge fest followed! Nuff for now,more later....