SLOVENIA: LOG OF A JOURNEY BY MOTORHOME FROM THE HUNGARIAN TO THE CROATIAN BORDER

Barry and Margaret Williamson

Hungary, Dolga Vas, Murska Sobota, Maribor, Prebold, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Kranj, Postojna, Rupa, Croatia

Extracts for the Diary of a Journey by Motorhome

Day 1           MARTIANCI MOTEL, MURSKA SOBOTA

The road to the border from Camping Zalatour near Keszthely on Lake Balaton (an excellent place for a few days stay) was narrow, badly drained and not designed for the lorries and border traffic it now carries, twisting through farmland and villages. After 35 miles we stopped at the only town, Lenti, tempted to leave the wet roads and stay there, but Camping Castrum Terme turned out to be by a thermal pool, packed bumper to bumper with Austro-Germans, overpriced and closed for 3 hrs from noon. We shopped at the Penny Market back in town (very like Lidl), lunched in its car park, topped up the LPG (warned that it's less common in Slovenia and Croatia) and continued another 5 miles to the border, entering Slovenia at Dolga Vas in about 2 minutes flat - a quick glance at our passports and a wave of the hand! Both countries are lined up for the EU in 2004 and they've obviously lost interest in the Grenzspiel. We changed our remaining Hungarian Forints into Slovenian Tolar (320=£1) and were on our way. The country looked even more prosperous and Germanic than Hungary, the towns very orderly, the roads smooth; traffic controlled, bike paths - only the language telling us we were not in Austria, just to our north.

It still rained as we drove to the town of Murska Sobota, the largest town in eastern Slovenia. We continued a few miles north-east to the spa-resort of Moravske Toplice with the only campground in the area. Here a large health resort, with golf course and thermal pool complex, proposed to charge us €48 to stay until tomorrow, squeezed in amongst hundreds of Austro-Germans! (They charge per day, not per night, making 2 days to pay!) M told them where to put this idea (in German) and we drove back towards M.Sobota, stopping at a nice little motel/restaurant we'd passed. They were very friendly, spoke some English and were delighted to offer us their car park for the night if we were customers: the dining room opened at 7 pm.

Without a hook-up, M did some baking in the gas oven, which also warmed the van - the first day we've felt the need for heating. Then we ate in style (soup, turkey roulade for B and gypsy-roast pork for M, with veggies and salad) for about £12 total, followed by coffee and gingerbread buns chez nous.

80 miles. Free parking.

Day 2           KAMP PARK, PREBOLD

The rain had stopped and the fields were blanketed in mist as we returned to Murska Sobota. Shopped here at the large, well-stocked Eurospar and looked in the adjacent Big Bang (electrical chainstore) for a new kettle, as the old one is leaking badly. They had nothing appropriate (we want a large one with low wattage), but we came out with a super little vacuum cleaner, Swiss-made, called the 'Edel Beetle' - a real bargain, much more powerful than the rechargeable 12 volt Campy-Vac.

The anticipated motorway from M.Sobota to Maribor wasn't open, so we followed the old highway 3, touching a border crossing into Austria at Gornja Radgona. Maribor, a wine-making centre, is the country's 2nd city, straddling the Drava River. With no camping and nowhere to park we just had a glimpse of the old centre before getting onto the motorway E75, which runs SW to the capital, Ljubljana, and on to the coast.

Lunch in the first parking area, then on through increasingly hilly country, including 2 short tunnels just after the toll-point at Tepanje. At the Prebold turnoff a sign lured us to this delightful little campsite, just 250 m from the motorway. Tucked behind a restaurant, among trees by the Savinja River, it is EMPTY (no hot smelly pools nearby!)

We unpacked the new cleaner, got to know the 2 campsite kittens and had a quiet evening with a roast chicken.

94 miles. £8.75 inc 10-amp elec

Day 3           CAMP PARK, PREBOLD

B wrote to Pat Cue at Comfort, as promised, with information on cycling in Australia for Keith Brewster, her friend's son, enclosing our account of the round-the-world cycle ride and the map of the Nullarbor crossing. We'll also add copies of our notes on riding Perth-Brisbane when we find a photocopier. M did the dhobi and used the new vacuum cleaner - much quicker and more powerful, able to do the whole carpet and seats in one go instead of 3 recharges!

After lunch we set out to walk to the nearby village of Sempeter in search of its Roman necropolis, but turned back as the road was too dangerous - a typical Slovenian/Hungarian road - very narrow with no footpath or shoulder and cars and lorries pushing by, presumably avoiding the toll on the parallel motorway. Instead, we turned down to the Savinja River for a short walk along its banks, watching the grey herons. For a bowl of cat-bix and a saucer of milk we have 2 new friends, lively kittens, one black & white, one tabby, each with a matching mother!

Day 4           CAMPING JEZICA, LJUBLJANA

A short drive along the motorway, with small toll (a special rate for campers and caravans), 2 more short tunnels and an unfinished section, to meet the Ljubljana ring road. The GPS was useful in following the altitude rise and fall - 2,000 ft at Trojan - and in identifying the right direction, exit and route to the camping, about 4 miles north of the city on the south bank of the River Sava (a tributary of the Danube). The site is large and grassy with lots of autumnal trees and plenty of space. By 11 am we were settled near the only other British residents (Lancastrians Brenda & Jim, who own a caravan park on the Isle of Arran and are out in their pristine American Trek RV).

After lunch we took a bus into the city (too far to walk, no pleasure to cycle such a busy highway and the motorbike isn't insured for Slovenia). But it was simple - bus no 6 or 8 from the gate straight to the centre every 10 mins for 250 tolar each, cash. You just stuff it into a box in front of the driver, no tickets, no stamping, no inspectors, nothing - most people had a pass to flash, a few had a token.Tourist Info at the railway station supplied a map and advice on where to photocopy and email, at the Student Services Centre in the tunnel below the rail lines! We copied the Australian cycling notes, no problem, but the internet place turned out to have a 15-minute limit for non-students, albeit free of charge.

We then went in search of another free (?) internet place recommended by Student Services for longer use, but found it a busy, smoky, noisy cyber-cafe in the modern city center (sic). We walked across the famous Triple Bridge over the river (the Ljubljanica which joins the Sava) and into the old walled town, clustered below the castle hill. Here the main tourist office directed us to another cyber-cafe on the opposite river bank, expensive but quiet and well-equipped. We settled down with a coffee, Barry wrote a long reply to Ian, then tried to send - it failed to go and disappeared into cyber-space without trace! The person in charge was rude, unhelpful and insisted we paid in full for our wasted time, losing our further custom.

We set off to look at the old town, passed the large DZS Bookshop offering email for a fair price and had a third attempt at dealing with our correspondence! Another reply to Ian, and also notes of thanks to Alan and to Tim, were finally sent though it was very slow and difficult and crashed several times - problems with the server, apparently. Leaving exploration of the old town for tomorrow we returned to the main street, Slovenski (renamed from Titova), for the bus home.

41 miles. £12.57 inc 10-amp elec.

Day 5           CAMPING JEZICA, LJUBLJANA

Another bus ride into the nation's capital (pop 280,000 in a country the size of Wales). We posted Pat Cue's letter with enclosures and a PS about Tim Guy, and found we could get bus tokens (in the form of small green tiddlywinks) at the post office for 170 tolar, a small saving over paying the driver the flat fare (53p versus 78p).

Back across Plecnik's Triple Bridge to the bookshop to use the email. Then we walked round the well preserved/restored Baroque quarter, enhanced by the Art Nouveau Dragon Bridge and mansions, and the buildings and bridges of the renowned architect Joze Plecnik, who transformed his native city in the first half of the 20thC. His colonnaded market place, along the river behind the cathedral, was very impressive, bright with flowers and produce as well as craft stalls and live music and dancing in the square. St Nicholas RC Cathedral was freely open: a very ornate Baroque interior with Italianate frescoes and gilded organ (built 1701 on site of earlier churches). Very impressive if you like that sort of thing. We specially liked the heavy bronze side and main entrance doors, done by 2 modern Slovene sculptors in honour of the Pope's visit in 1996.

Next a short stiff climb up Castle Hill for the view and a history lesson. The hill had been fortified in Celtic times, was a Roman military post for the settlement named Ermona (until Attila the Hun invaded in 452 AD), then a medieval castle, first mentioned in 1144, and rebuilt after the earthquake of 1511 as the seat of the rulers of the province. By the 19thC it was in poor condition and used as a prison and garrison. Restoration began in the 1980's and is still ongoing, with lots of concrete and underpinning. We poked round the foundations and courtyard, weren't impressed at all by the graduating students' art exhibition and didn't pay to climb the tower and see the Virtual Museum - the real thing was interesting enough. We walked back to the old town below, across the Dragon Bridge and on to the railway station. The DZS bookshop had no printer and B wanted to print the GPS manual (held on CD), so it was almost completely done at Student Services (100 pages, not free of charge!) Finally, we ate at McDonald's before catching a bus to the campsite.

Day 6           CAMPING BLED, LAKE BLED

Before getting onto the motorway for Kranj/Bled, we drove round the ring road aided by the GPS to the BTC shopping mall, where we believed the capital's branch of 'Big Bang' would sell spare bags and filters for our new vacuum cleaner. They had none but rang round and advised us to go to Murska Sobota (where we'd bought it and were told to come here!) or Kranj. We did buy a 1-litre Tefal kettle, usefully less powerful than the big leaking one which often trips campsite hook-ups. Lunch in the car park, then back round the ring road and onto the toll motorway E61, north-west towards Austria (via the Karawankentunnel).

Turning off at Kranj after about 25 miles we soon found the Mercator shopping centre and bought 2 boxes of bags and filters at their Big Bang store - success! Still raining as we continued to the turning for Bled, a busy village at the east end of the 2 km-long Lake Bled. Tourists with umbrellas shopped, took horse-carriages round the emerald-green glacial lake, were rowed in gondolas to the tiny church on Slovenia's only island, sat in the expensive restaurant outside the fairytale cliff-top castle or arrived in luxury Austrian coaches at Vila Bled, its grandest hotel, once the summer residence of Tito, with its own tennis courts and boathouse (some animals are more equal...) We continued to the campsite at the western end of the lake, sure it would be far too crowded or expensive to stay, and were pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps because it closes soon (15 Oct), it wasn't overpriced and had plenty of space, with excellent facilities including centrally heated showers. We settled in on the hardstanding (grass pitches were becoming soft), made dinner and watched the rest of last night's video. It rained most of the night, along with thunder and lightning echoing round the mountains. The peaks will have plenty of fresh snow.

53 miles. £10.43 inc 16-amp elec and CCI discount.

Day 7           CAMPING BLED, LAKE BLED

Rain poured in showers and thunder rumbled through the night and day, reminding us we're on the eastern edge of the Julian Alps, in the Triglav National Park (Triglav is Slovenia's highest mountain at 2,864 m or 9,451 ft), with the Karawanken range forming the Austrian border to our north. The camp is in a little valley by the lake shore, with magnificent tall trees towering above us. It's wet but at least it remains warm. A day for porage and sheltering indoors. We printed the September diary, updated October and started filling in the gap left in August, when the WP stopped in a heat wave on the Bulgarian/Romanian border - those were very different days. But we are enjoying the time to read - B just started on 'Captain Corelli' and M on 'Snow Falling on Cedars' and B is busy with maps and GPS plotting future routes.

Day 8           CAMPING BLED, LAKE BLED

An easy ride into Bled along the north shore of the lake on a quiet lane, the main road following the southern shore. Bled is a modern artificial summer/winter resort, like a miniature Monte Carlo with hotels and a casino, but at least the development is limited to the eastern end of the lake and no motor boats are allowed. We shopped at the only supermarket and had an hour's free internet at the friendly library. We searched for info on Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia, with varying success. There was no information on the availability of insurance for Rosie and varying accounts of safety - from 'Fine' to 'Don't Go'. At least we confirmed that no visas are needed, just a $US5 entry tax each into Albania. Also phoned Endsleigh Insurance to extend our health/travel policy till 3 November.

Back home for lunch, then a cycle ride in a different direction, south-west to Bohinjske Bistrica. A gentle climb up the Bohinj Valley, following the river up towards another, larger glacial lake. We rode through meadows and small dairy-farming villages, sheltering under an example of the unique local hayricks to don our waterproofs half-way. At Bohinjske Bistrica, the only town up the valley and about 4 miles before the lake, we stopped for hot drinks then turned back to avoid dusk falling, with the roads already wet and visibility poor. We did enjoy the ride back despite the rain, downhill with a back wind, making it home by 6 pm with half an hour's daylight in hand. Not the climb we'd expected, but beautiful alpine pastureland in a broad valley between peaks which are gathering a little more snow each day.

Day 9           CAMPING BLED, LAKE BLED

A beautiful morning's cycling and walking to see the Vintgar Gorge, a ravine 4 miles north of Bled. An uphill ride, past Bled Castle and through the village of Spodnje Gorje to Vintgar (from its old name of Weingarten), at the western end of the mile-long gorge. We locked the bikes outside the ticket office, paid £1.80 each and strode out, to be amazed. The Radovna River cuts through steep sides flanked with beech forest. The tourist trail, opened in 1893, involves sections of boardwalk clinging to the rock walls, 4 wooden bridges crossing the roaring rapids below and narrow paths along the bank when the fettered river slows its pace over wider sections. At the far end the torrent escapes down the Sum Waterfall, Slovenia's highest at 43 ft.

Impressed, we sat outside the little buffet drinking coffee right above the falls. An exciting 30-min walk, to be repeated, climbing gently back to rejoin the bicycles. We cycled home to Bled through the picturesque little farming villages of Podhom and Zasip, reaching the campsite for lunch just as it began to rain again - another dusting of snow for the peaks.

After lunch we updated the diary; reviewed and deleted some digital camera shots, as B had filled the smart card at the waterfall; and prepared to move on. Talked briefly to a couple in a camper from Stroud, on their way home after a 6-month tour of Europe with their 2 young boys. They'd come up through Croatia and recommended it as friendlier, cheaper and less organised than Slovenia - sounds like Greece. Dominic is an artist and gave us his website address, Mundusloci.

Day 10           CAMPING PIVKA JAMA, POSTOJNA

A bright dry day, the sky and air clear as only mountain air can be, with that chill promise of winter coming and Alpine passes closing. Warm and comfortable in Rosie, we retraced our GPS track to Kranj, detouring to shop at the Spar, then on the toll motorway to Ljubljana. Round the ring road and another toll motorway south-west, turning off at Postojna, in Slovenia's famous Karst region of limestone caves. The Postojna cave system was well signposted from the motorway and highly organised. We had lunch in the enormous, mainly empty car park, then took the 2 pm tour. A long open train whizzed us through 2 km of well-lit tunnels, the roof just skimming our heads, and into caverns with more stalactites, stalagmites and stalagmates (joined columns) than we'd seen in our lives. Guided groups (sorted by language - German, Italian, Slovenian or English - the English-speaking group was mainly Japanese) were walked through 1700 m (just over a mile) of fantastic 4-million-year-old formations, finishing by a pool with 4 bewildered specimens of Proteus Anguinus to look at while waiting for the train back to the daylight. (These amphibians are a type of salamander, pale pink in colour and totally blind, which live up to 70 years in this chilly environment - a constant 48 degrees F). We emerged into a warmer, more colourful world after 1½ hours underground.

The campsite, about 3 miles north of Postojna, is high up (2,000 ft) among the woods by the smaller Pivka cave, which can be visited in the summer only. The whole limestone area (the Karst Region) is riddled with holes!

73 miles. £10.25 inc elec & CCI discount.

Day 11           AUTOCAMP SELCE, SELCE, CROATIA

Another fine day for travelling. We called at Postojna's Spar supermarket, then drove due south on a narrow country road for about 40 miles to the Croatian border at Rupa. We stopped en route at the town of Ilirska Bistrica to make coffee, ring Mum (who was out) and spend our remaining Slovenian currency on diesel (precision filling to get exactly 15,941 Tolars' worth - about £50, at 51p a litre). The border crossing was quick and easy, just a cursory passport check. Barry answered 2 test questions from the Croatian policeman: 'Are you a famous filmstar?'(!) - B replied 'Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger' - and 'Why is your steering wheel on the left?' 'Blame the Americans' and we were allowed in! Sitting in the next scenic layby for lunch, our first impressions of Croatian drivers were that they take more risks and are less law-abiding - a touch of Italian/Greek compared with the orderly Austro-Slovenes, requiring skilled defensive tactics. At least daytime dipped headlights are not compulsory here, as they were in Slovenia and Hungary.

After 15 miles we got our first glimpse of the blue of the Adriatic as we dropped down to Rijeka, Croatia's largest port. A dual carriageway carried us past the town, through a series of tunnels and over viaducts, looking down on blocks of flats and docks, cranes and shipping. We climbed high above the coast, eventually joining a newly built link road to reach the E65 coastal route at Bakar. Our road ran along a narrow shelf between steep mountain sides on our left and the Dalmatian coast on our right, with a view across to the island of Krk. We followed the road SE for about 20 miles, past the resort of Crikvenica to a smaller one at Selce. Squeezing through the narrow main street we found the large Autocamp open, steeply terraced above the water's edge. Just a handful of other motorhomes here (Belgian, Danish and German) and we settled in under Mediterranean trees (figs, olives, tamarisk) - we've not seen the sea since Turkey and it feels good. It's much warmer than up in the Alps at Bled (where we even put the electric blanket on) and we got our shorts out before the 10-minute walk round the sea-front into the village.