Lakes and canyons

Back in the countryside and ready for another mountain, but first lets join the masses.

Come late September, Dora is up for sale.     If you or anyone you know is looking for a reasonably priced motorhome then please check out the following link; https://www.2wanderers.com/dora-for-sale/ or if you have any questions email us at; info@2wanderers.com Thanks

We leave the capital and it seems like everybody else has had the same idea. Well I suppose we are getting into the holiday season, this however is difficult to appreciate when your whole year is the holiday season.

We are in Bled, right on the eastern edge of the Triglav national park. Triglav is Slovenia’s highest mountain, but that is for tomorrow.

Bled is about as touristic as it gets, think Cornwall or the Lake district.

We spend a good half hour queuing to get into the village, we shouldn’t have bothered. Once there, we leave, heading around the lake. We stop in various places, looking for places to park. Either they don’t want Dora’s or they want you to park all day. We just want a swim, €10 is too much for a swim. We move on.

Eventually we find somewhere, a rowing club, parking is by the hour, official, I don’t think they want Motorhomes, but there is an overspill field and it doesn’t explicitly prohibit them here.

The lake is lovely and the waters are clear and warm.

In the middle sits a little island, a bit too far to swim.

You could go there by oversized gondola, but the island is tiny with just the church and a museum, so we are going to give it a miss.

Susana is shocked when I dive in off the jetty, none of this gently easing myself into the water. Susana is soon off doing serious swimming, while I go off looking for fish, and see some quite big trout, which I find surprising with all this activity going on.

It is lovely watching her swim, so elegant. I wish I could front crawl like that.

That’s it, swim over. Lets move on.

We drive around the rest of the lake ending back in Bled. The traffic isn’t so bad now and we find somewhere to park so we can go to the tourist information.

We only found out about Slovenia’s highest mountain when passing through last time, when I picked up a trekking leaflet.

Our research to date suggests that Triglav will need two days to climb, up to a refuge, sleep and then the next day the summit and return. If this is the case we will need to book the beds, and get all our gear organised before we head off, but tourist information says you can do it in a day, along day, but it is possible.

Well we are up for the challenge, and at least we won’t have to book the beds.

They also point out a gorge to the north of Bled we should visit. It is in our guidebook and sound interesting so we follow the recommendation.

The car park is packed and we have difficulty finding a spot for Dora, except a precarious position right at the end, half on grass, half on gravel but at a steep angle. I am reluctant to leave her like this. Someone leaves, so we grab their place , but we have a nervous few seconds, will her tires grip. A little bit of burning rubber but we are out and in a much safer spot.

An Asian tour group is crossing the car park. I suppose the umbrellas are really practical in keeping the sun off, but they always look so comical.

The gorge is narrow, at times dark and deep and is packed with people. The river is a violent rush of water.

We are constrained by little timber walkways that cling precariously to the canyon walls.

Most of our fellow tourists amble away, stopping every few centimetres to take endless photographs, mainly then in front of; rushing water, the bridge, rocks, moss, each other. Are any of these photographs actually kept? Do they ever look at them?

The problem is, there is so many doing the same thing and it is almost impossible to pass them.

We could be here all night!

And why cannot they just photograph the wonder of nature. Is that not beautiful enough. Is it really improved by have the family slap bank in front of it.

Just pontificate the power that carries that tree trunk down river.

Amazing.

Wouldn’t be much good for our kayaks, we would be pulverised!

 

The boardwalk is some engineering feat.

Occasionally there are calmer bits, with less people and tranquil waters.

And occasionally the sun manages to penetrate deep into the gorge.

Then, the colour of the water is beautiful.

Is there any water in the UK of that clarity, and you cannot count mineral water out of a bottle, which is probably from France anyway.

Around the next bend and a fairy-tale landscape, as numerous people have constructed hundreds of cairns. Some are over a metre tall and inspiring structures.

You would think a breath of wind could topple this one.

No, we don’t add our own contribution, maybe we should have.

What we cannot quite work out is how we will end with a waterfall, we are walking with the flow of the water.

Surely this artificial attempt cannot be the finale.

The path continues.

Eventually the boardwalk turns a corner and a bridge crosses above the river.

Below the bridge a cacophony of water.

Crashing amongst the rocks.

An impressive amount of spray and noise. Down below people are looking up. How did they get down there?

Of course a few minutes later and we are down there with them.

Stunning.

We head back up stream. It is getting late now and there are less people.

We still have a short drive further into the park where we hope we can find a spot for the night so that we can make an early start. Tomorrow is likely to be a long day.

The road ends at a car park and some sort of sports facility. It appears that Slovenia is really into the biathlon, where they cross country ski and the target shoot with a rifle. An athlete comes around the corner with skis on, but they are shorter and have wheels. He stands, fires five shots, all hitting their target. Applause from the overlooking gallery. He is only training, but some spectators run down for an autograph. This guy must be good. The sun sets and we retreat back to Dora. We should get an early night.

7.9 kms

1.5 hrs

GDR