After last year’s fun summer soujourn into the deepest, darkest Austrian Tyrol we jumped at the chance to make more memories with our bestest camping buddies the Bencinis on their early summer camping tour of Slovenia. And we weren’t disappointed!
Eric and I had visited Slovenia on our very first European van trip back in 1997 but it was October, the very end of the season. After six plus months on the road we were tiring of Vanlife and it was getting colder and wetter by the day. It might be just age or it might be the fact that the conditions were so unmemorable that we can’t actually remember much of our trip so it was really fabulous to revisit Slovenia with a fresh pair of eyes, and a new set of experiences.
After collecting our trusty Fiat camper from Munich, we hit the road and raced through the southern Bavarian countryside and on through Austria to reach our first destination – Postojna Cave where the Bencinis were already parked up and sound asleep.
here last
The Postojna Cave was in fact one place that we had visited back in ‘97 and although the memories were vague, it was quite a surprise to see how commercialised this attraction had become… I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an intense concentration of fridge magnets in one small space.
I choose?
And the official cave photographer positioned at the cave entrance was waaaay too snap happy!
But fair play we are comparing with 27 yrs ago, and these caves ARE something quite spectacular.
24 kilometers of 2 million year old karst-ness, this is one of the world’s largest cave systems. Full of giant stalagmites, stalactites and “columns” – that’s where the ‘mites & ‘tites kiss – it’s a cool, moist and calming environment – well except for the electric train hurtling in hundreds of visitors such as ourselves each hour.
Still, being blind and deaf the local residents don’t seem to mind. The Olm – or Baby Dragon as the locals like to call them – are a fleshy pink amphibious salamander, which lives in the subterranean dark. With its pear shaped head, long snakelike body and a lack of pigmentation it is also sometimes referred to as a Human Fish and vaguely resembles, well you can guess! It apparently can go for 10 years without eating, and can live to 100 years old! Very thoughtfully they’ve installed a few of them in an aquarium at the end of the tour so we can all get to have an ogle.
Human Fish
The interesting thing about this very small country – the 45th smallest in the world – is that it seems to have a bit of a split personality. You could basically slice the country into 4 quarters each is so different and influenced by its next door neighbour. The north, nestling up to Austria, is much more Germanic and pragmatic in its outlook and its food, the east much more goulashy and Hungarian, whereas the south west where we were headed next was far more like a southern European cousin – extravagant, flamboyant & fun – a little piece of Italy on the Adriatic.
Wait, Italy is on the Adriatic. Anyway, think more wine & seafood, less schnitzel and beer!
Piran is described as the ‘The Crown Jewel” of Slovenia’s coastline which is a bit unfair really as Slovenia actually has only 47km of coastline. Despite being only a stone’s throw away, Trieste actually belongs to those dastardly Italians, who snatched it off the crumbling Austria Hungarian Empire at the end of WW1.
Evidence of the Italian influence are everywhere from the beautiful architecture to the menu boards and to the numerous gelaterias lining the main square. In fact Piran was once claimed by the Venetians who came here for its abundant salt pans and abundance of seafood, as evidenced on our lunchtime plate.
After an evening luxuriating in Piran’s Portaroza Marina soaking up some salty adriatic vibes and rubbing shouders with the well heeled Mediterranean yachting community it was time to say farewell to the coast and head inland for the start of what would become the real green Slovene experience.
Slovenia is known for a few things – namely extreme and outdoor sports and good food & wine (who knew?), and here camped up in the middle of a vineyard alongside the meandering Vipava River we certainly got to give both a go!
Yes please!
To say the river water was cold would be a bit of an understatement but perfect for cooling our wines while we got up the (Dutch) courage to wade, float, jump and swing into the the 9c water.
Venturing further into the green, green hinterland we reach the Soča River Valley. It’s hard to imagine it now given just how calming and serene this gorgeous valley is today, but it was actually the frontline of a particularly vicious chapter of fighting during World War I between the Italian and Austria Hungarian armies. Remnants of this sombre part of Slovenia‘s history are evident along the wooded paths where you can see (restored) former observation towers, trenches and caves, together with military cemeteries with their rows and rows of unmarked gravestones baking in the sun.
Story has it that between the years 1915-17 this beautiful river ran red with the blood of fallen soldiers. Kind of hard to believe now when you stare back at this incredible cerulean coloured river – so crystal clear and fresh.
The colour of the Soča River (pronounced “socha”) is legendary. Stand on the bank opposite the white stone beach or walk over one of the many swing bridges, blink and you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d been transported to the Maldives. Well, maybe for one split second!
It’s nicknamed the “Emerald River”, although if I was to choose a gemstone for a metaphor I’d probably go for “Aquamarine”. It’s beauty is due to the white limestone bedrock which reflects back an insane aquamarine shade of bluey-greeny-turquoise, enhanced by the white stones lining the banks. You don’t need any instagram filter on this!
It’s fair to say that the Soča was even colder and tastier – and saltier! – than the aforementioned Vipava but that did not deter the more intrepid amongst us from whiling away the hours and days in 7 degree alpine water wading, floating and jumping, not even deterred by an apparent case of hypothermia setting in.
And what’s even more interesting is that while most other rivers are fed by melting snow from the mountains, this one actually starts from a spring, and so naturally we went to find it…
extra-terrestrial!
Slovenia is all about the green. Clean green to be more precise. The local legend has it that when God was distributing beauty around the world he forgot all about Slovenia, and then feeling guilty decided to take all the best bits from all the other countries and concentrate them right here. Yes we’ve all heard this one before haven’t we? But there’s no denying the pristine beauty of this little country, and the amount of effort the Slovenes are putting into keeping it that way… rubbish is recycled into every substance imaginable, wild camping is not allowed anywhere, the use of the prefixes “bio” and “eco” are rampant, and the threat of suffering from a case of “green guilt” is everywhere. It obviously works though as we didn’t see a scrap of rubbish except our own.
– the Tolmin
In fact Slovenia was the very first country to be declared Miss “Green Destination of the World” back in 2016, and its capital Ljubljana declared is routinely on the list of the world’s greenest cities.
The final leg of our epic summer sojourn took us to the famous Lake Bled. After the serenity of the last few days it was all a bit of a shock with the pretty little lakeside town absoutely teeming with northern Europeans on holiday. We had been wondering where everyone was during the past 10 days and the answer was Lake Bled.
A wallop around the lake on our electrically assisted bikes helped to provide some context – people on all sorts of leisure craft such as SUPs, kayaks, tiny row boats, and anything inflatable were bobbing around on the an incredibly blue and invitingly lush lake, and people jumping off jetties, spashing around on the stony beaches or lazing in groups under the mid July sun – it was quite something to behold.
And as the old saying goes, if you cant beat ‘em, join ‘em…. and so we did!
And we were all very glad that we did for the water was absolutely delicious! After the searing cold of the alpine rivers of the last few days the beautiful “warm” waters of Lake Bled came as a delightful surprise – still fresh and cooling but absolutely perfect under the early evening sun.
This was to be our last day in Slovenia (and also a certain someone’s birthday) and by this stage there was just one thing missing… We continued on our electrically assisted way around the lake to find a nice spot to settle in for that famous good food & wine that the country is meant to be known for… and now we know why…
The Desert Diaries Part 3 