Up, packed, loaded and on the road nice and early. Fifteen minutes later, I'm nonchalantly waved through the south-western border post by a bored customs officer into Slovenia; a small country you can ride across in 3 hours (via autostrada) and has a population of only 2 million people but boy, nice things do come in small packages.
Initially, the glorious Dordogne-esk look of Istria, Croatia continues across the border but soon Slovenia stamps its own mark. Incredibly green, magnificent landscape, steep-sided valleys, some with large farmed plains, most with rivers and yet it still has that spread-out, uncluttered feel. I have the GPS heading for the lake and gorges of Bled, in the north-west, close to the border and I'm so glad I
answered "No" to the "Do you want to avoid unpaved roads?" question. The alternative was to go round the mountains but I was going over them. Regularly placed road signs showing a motorcyclist falling off his bike as a reminder, warn of winding roads that often climbed rapidly and narrow at the same time before descending at a similar rate. According to the GPS stats, I covered 363 kms today with a 'moving-time' 7 hours 16 minutes; that's basically an average speed around 30 mph which gives you an idea of today's terrain. Proper adventure motorcycling, with at least a third of that distance on gravel mountain tracks, standing on the pegs, gripping the tank with my knees, dodging rain-cut channels, as the bike slides and snakes constantly looking for grip, it was fantastic. I was very tired last night after the days ride (hence the blog this morning) and I can certainly feel the after-effects of the ride in my forearms and legs. Not just the riding but the extraordinary topography of the place; the elevation from one valley to the next can be anything up to 700 metres, like a huge staircase but you don't know if the next step is up or down.
Each valley has its own small, spread-out community; chalet style homes and farm buildings flecked with small, shuttered windows, each with boxes overflowing with red and pink flowers; every dwelling has a fruit and vegetable garden, some with vines; small herds of cattle dotted everywhere, the road included, vintage farm machinery working the land, their drivers smile and wave ... it was perfect, a land that the technological, rushing West has left alone, a place where time has stopped ... I slowed to a snails pace, at one point, free-wheeling, not wanting the sound of the engine to disturb the rich peace ... I took it all in, it made me smile and feel contented ... Slovenia is wonderful.
The people are so friendly, like Frank, a road-worker who introduces himself, interested in where I've travelled from, I chat with him while waiting for him to flip his lollipop sign from 'stop' to 'go'.
I stop for lunch at the sweetest restaurant. I ask the incredibly friendly Marino what should I eat and of course, that freshness that I have experienced all morning is about to become a culinary reality,
the trout from the river that flows 10 meters from my table, the coarsely mashed potato mixed with onion and the crisp, mixed salad all from the garden in front of me. We talk about the 1,000's of food miles that our supermarket products have travelled, well I'm looking at my lunch ingredients that collectively couldn't qualify for the London 2012 Olympics 100 metres event ... my lunch wouldn't make it to the finishing line! It had taste, it was delicious in it's simplicity.
As I continue to head north on mountain roads the temperature drops a little as I get closer to the Alps and remember Marino's comment of "we had snow in June on some peaks which is very unusual", thinking I may have to stop and swap my jeans for my bike trousers, but soon after "You have reached your destination" says TomTom.
The lake at Bled is liquid delight and an obvious tourist attraction but its church supporting island and surrounding hill-top villages were a pleasure to behold as I sipped coffee with a rolly. I rode round the waters a while, stopping on occasion, then pointed to the centre of Slovenia and its capital Ljubljana where I intended to stay for one night. On arrival I am slightly surprised at the cost of the rooms given that everything else had been so cheap, so I rode around the city for a bit to get a feel and then headed east, toward Hungary until I found somewhere to stay, which I did in Lasko.
Much more to say about yesterday but I'm off to Budapest, Hungary today and it's over 500 kms away so I will have to get going soon.
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