Thurs 6 April 10° Bohinjska Bistrica Slovinia to Gorizia, Italy

Watched the car train unload, checked again restaurant our measurements,  ever hopeful, but definitely 3m max height and too wide, oh well, we will just have to hit the road Jack!

Beautiful warm, sunny day for our drive over the Julian Alps.  The 2 men from the train came over to check again our measurements, but shock their heads and confirmed again, too high and too wide for the tunnel, nice of them to double check though. They must know what the road is like........now triple confirmed, get over it, and get on with the drive.

No one on site when we left so 2 free nights, too early in the season,  every little helps to balance the budget after our expenditure in Austria.

Narrow, winding and steep, very high, so high at the highest there was thick snow both sides of the road. Very heavily forested with piles of huge logs piled up off side of road.

We reached the plateau  1270m, there were 3 motorhomes parked and a chair lift up the mountain, possible skiers or snow borders.

 

We started going down, and passed 3 ladies walking, apparently great area for treks. 10% gradient going down, with more spaghetti roads .....must be going to Italy.... haha Hair pin bends as we drive round and down the alpine roads.

Through Sorica after road diversion, we still came to roadworks, men fix a slip. The wooden structures seen in the fields are for the stacking of winter logs for village firewood. Our ears popped on way down.....must have been  very high, at one point almost the same height as the mountain across the valley eeekkkk.  Now driving much flatter and we have a white line in middle of road, two lanes wheeeww as we now drive between the cliff walls soaring above us now. Down again at Podbrdo, more hair pin bends and spaghetti roads, must be getting close to Italy now.....big Guesthouse Petrovo  Brdo seemingly in middle of nowhere then sat nav said route recalculation!!! really.....we are on a mountain road...one way down and we sure ain't turning back now baby!  Must be the high mountains either side confusing the poor girl . 

It was quite a big village and as we continued on we sang,  we'll be coming round the mountain, when we come.......Trees getting green now with new, young leaves, very fresh and pretty.

 

 

This town is where the car train ends

We find ourselves talking to Bessie saying ,good girl, and patting the dashboard telling her what a great job she is doing....as sometimes we hold our breath, we may have had our good work out yesterday but today it is certainly her turn.  Good job Bessie .

Close call with a red racer round a bend. Stopped for coffee and a Bessie break, at Grahovo ob Baci,  tree with blossom very pretty. A board depicting the Partisans journey to Trieste about which a movie was made here by the Slovinia film industry.

We then passed a tour bus and a petrol tanker at very close quarters bit too close for comfort. Quite a lot more traffic now, trucks and cars with road works in several places.

The view from down at Kneza of a river under a bridge, pretty little village.

Through a tunnel cut out of the cliff, solid rock, very thick,  past a viaduct and power station at Kanal, to Nova  Gorica alongside the Nadiza River .

Then there it was, the unmanned border crossing into Italy and just around the corner our stop for the night, a search for sites free carpark nestled under a hill with a castle looking down us. Here we are arrived safely in Gorizia Italy.

A well earned break this avo  for the skipper after his amazing mountain driving skills, but he insists on cooking the chicken fillet and chips with salad for dinner, after we plan our next couple of days.