Sat 8 Apr 6° Adria to Calderara di Reno, West of Bolgna

The 4 places at our free site soon filled with 1 having to drive off, definatelt pays to arrive early, another came and parked outside a house then another parked over side of road. Sunset from our park.

A perfect clear blue, cloudless sky overhead as we continued south to Bologne and our free site in a restaurant car park West of city in Calderara di Reno. Long straight roads again, excellent,  with a new crop on one side of ....solar panels....haha a field full of them, with dry, ploughed fields on the other side. Then fields of yellow, rape seed for oil.

We lost count of the roundabouts taking us around Ferrari,  but at least she kept us out of the city ( she is the sat nav). We have seen the most motorhomes since we began our adventures, all going the other way,  maybe the weather has brought them out, 17° at 11am.

Over this bridge, note the pot hole and crack in the road surface.

Must say they have a good warning system here, about 100 metres prior to the traffic lights, the have an orange light flashing when they are about to turn red, so you can prepare to stop. Mixed road surfaces,  generally pretty good,, but some giving Bessie a real bumpy shack up. We drove past several old, crumbling brick houses, covered in ivy, that would have been lovely in their day, just abandoned, presumably as young generations leave the countryside to find work in the cities.

Reached our site for the night,  a massive car park with dedicated motorhome parks, with services that have been closed off for winter. Expect the will start again soon.

After lunch, we walked into the town, blocks and blocks of apartments, with resident motorhome parks. 20° now and the few shops were all closed for lunch, one vegetable shop  roasting little chickens was open but not much else than blocks of residential property.  Very quiet, no one around, maybe siesta bit strange for a Saturday.

Back at Bessie out came the chairs for our first major sun bathe, good dry heat, got first bit of a colour up without the burn. Very different from NZ sun that's for sure.

Fri 7 April 8° Gorizia to Adria Italy

Leisurely morning, emails and catching up on news. Walked into the town through the pedestrian and cycle tunnel, very quiet and clean, one large old building all borded up at windows.  The double onion dome church being cleaned so Tony just popped in and out.

Drove south with flat, ploughed fields on both sides, looks very dry. Then couple acres of tall , slender trees with long bare trunks and tops of pale green foliage in meticulous straight rows.

Then we saw the first Italian vineyard with early bud growth, long straight roads,, seems very flat after our steep, winding mountain roads. Lilac wisteria in bloom between the new green, weeping willows  over a babbling brook in a little town, then back out between the flat agricultural fields on both sides. New green growth of crops one side, vineyards the other as we drive south and the sun comes out to warm the day.

Our lunch stop by side of canal.

A green tinge appears on the dark brown soil, as new growth starts to break the surface, a sure sign spring has sprung.

Drove on what looked like the coast road on the map, but couldn't see any water as took many trees between the Adriatic and the road, we had to settle with the canal on other side.

Huge roundabouts,  well laned and signed, more long straight roads, so far so good with with condition of surface, fresh tarmac in places. Some maniac drivers with a death wish overtake on double white lines in the face of massive lorries,  more than once did we witness this craziness, Tony  had to pull back to let one in it was so close, Madness!

Found our free park for the night, another good search for sites,  bit tricky to find at the end of a short residential road, backing onto a park, with electric hook up and water, but looks like the waste dump has been closed off.

Relaxing afternoon,  Tony cooked sausages and stir fry veg, washed down with an Italian rose.

Wed 5 April 8° Bohinjska Bistrica, Lake Bled, Slovinia

Low cloud shrouded the mountains this morning, quite cool after a rainy night, but stopped now. Watched train pull in and cars drive off. The train goes through the mountain to Italy, to save driving over the Julian Alps.  Great idea, wonder if they take Motorhomes? Went into the info office, Daria was very helpful, excellent English, advised us to take the train as road very narrow and very winding not good. Get train to Most na Soci and then drive into Italy from there €20.60 for van and driver plus €2.60 per extra person. Leave at 9am or 4.50pm.

We drove to Bled Castle, another very steep climb up. Then to Camp Bled car park €10 all day and €10 overnight, great spot right on the lake. The sun came out for our walk up Ojstrica 611m to get aerial shot of the island in lake Bled as requested by Elliot. Another goat track,  very steep, worse than yesterday and to top it off a massive rock to climb before you got to the top for the view. I got lots of encouragement from young  English girls coming down and from a group of 3 English women who must have been early 50's.

Clinging to the side of the rock face, I almost stopped, but grandad Ian was in my ear, slowly, slowly catch the monkey and Andrew, one step at a time, I gave myself a good taking to and decided I couldn't stop now so close to the top, Tony said not far now, you can do it, so on hands and knees I clambered up, rock after rock. Amazingly I actually did it. Tony was already up there catching his breath and chatting to 3 English lads on school break.

Elliot Steel, thank you for the suggestion to come to Lake Bled and asking for this photo....it was breathtaking...physically as well haha. We took heaps of pics just as you asked.

After quite a rest the lads took our photo for us and we took one for them, we gathered ourselves for the down hill. Strangely and with much relief it was actually easier going down. Clinging on to the rock face again but with aid of an umbrella someone had left up there, I was able to steady myself back down to the rocky path. Here I retrieved by trusty tree branch that had got me to the rock and at the end of the path, I left the sturdy helper under the sign for the next intrepid climber.

Worth it definately,  we survived the most challenging thing we have done, Rock climbing up a cliff to get 'the photo' as requested by Elliot. The achievement very satisfying,  even though I can hardly believe we did it. For Tony he likened it to his first attempt at scuba diving in Cairns 25 years earlier. Talk about out of your comfort zone.

Back to Bessie for lunch and a well earned rest, great spot on the lake, we could stay the night, but decided to go back to Lake Bohinj then stay again at railway station to get the train at 9am to Italy.

 

Got diesel  €1.15 ltr got €40  34.7ltrs. Got back 4.45pm to see the car train, asked about our motorhome he said 3m max height, we are 3.10......too high for the tunnel. The heavens opened short sharp downpour,  boy were we lucky with sunny spell for our climb.

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.