After a lovely breakfast we set off on our journey to Italy. It was only a two hour journey but we decided to detour via the Vintgar Gorge to make a day of it and see more of Slovenia.
I also wanted to see more of Slovenia by road, so had rejected Google's preferred route and chosen a different one that spent more time driving in Slovenia and less in Austria - unfortunately over the corner of Slovenia that we needed to cross, the terrain is very mountainous, hence the diversion across the bottom of Austria. My route took us most of the way along the route in Austria, but then dived into Slovenia to approach the Gorge from the south. According to Google maps it would only add an extra 20 minutes or so to our journey time.
The first issue we had was getting an Austrian vignette. Most countries we'd passed through, there'd been a way of buying them at the border, and the website mentioned border crossings as an outlet. It also stated very clearly that we needed to get one before we entered the country, even though we weren't going anywhere near a motorway in Austria today. I tried to get one online, which I've done in other countries to be covered instantly, but for some reason in Austria you have to do it at least 18 days before you need it. So we got to the border and there is a shop selling vignettes... But only Slovenian ones :(
We pressed on through the unmanned border crossing since we didn't have much choice, while I looked on the official vignette website on my limited mobile data to try to find an outlet. We eventually found one despite the extremely hard to use website, about 4 miles away, but on the way James spotted a petrol station and decided to try his luck in there. I was very dubious as there were no obvious signs from the outside that they sold them (and there usually are) but a few minutes later he emerged victorious and we could relax for the rest of the journey.
The scenery in Austria was very pretty, but eventually we came to the part where I'd decided we should turn off into Slovenia. It turned out to be a very high mountain pass, with the scenery I'd been hoping for in spades, but also a very dramatic and quite frankly scary drive, with Ezzie coping admirably on both the ascent and descent. It would have been amazing to stop and explore by foot but we were pressing on to the Vintgar Gorge.
We arrived at a dual carriageway (the kids love dual carriageways as it's the only time they're allowed to go on their phones in the car), and took the turn off for the Gorge, only to find ourselves about to merge into a big queue. Part of the reason I'd chosen the Gorge over Bled itself (which is nearby) was hoping it wouldn't be too crazy busy (everyone I've seen who is visiting Slovenia says they are going to Bled!) and we'd hoped that the Gorge would be a little quieter. It may have been that it was a shorter queue, but at over 6km from the Gorge, and not having anything for lunch, we made a split second decision to push on instead.
We drove to the nearby town and stopped at a supermarket to buy lunch and food for the next few days. Then we took our lunch along the route, hoping to find somewhere to stop and eat. The next part of the route was back on the motorway, but we could see as we approached that it was queued up. Google maps was offline so couldn't tell us anything about the delay, but when we put it back online briefly told us the new best route was along a smaller road that ran by the river (which is the way I wanted to go anyway!). A few miles along the scenic route we saw a layby with an iron bridge, picnic benches, a toilet, and people paddling in the river, which looked absolutely ideal, being as hot as it was.
So we stopped, gobbled down our lunch, and the kids put on their beach shoes for a paddle in the gorgeous clear water trickling over white stones. In the background were several high peaks jutting out over the forested lowlands - an amazingly scenic location. After everyone had cooled off a bit in the river, we had a brief walk into the woods of the national park, but the kids were still wearing their beach shoes, so we didn't go far.
Then back to the car. We got some diesel just before the border and were very glad we did as the prices jumped up by 0.4E between countries! Just after the border in Italy we saw loads of police, a cordoned off road and what looked like some filming equipment - not sure what event was happening. We drove on a bit until we found a roadside gelateria - perfect! We sat outside the shop in the shade eating our rapidly melting ice creams, and then I decided to have a quick wander around the town (which may or may not have been pokemon based!) but no-one wanted to join me in the heat.
I walked down the small main street and across a bridge to find a car park by an abandoned bottling plant and a small arch that had a sign outside. Curious, I peeked inside to find 8 hard hats hung up on the wall, a load of info boards in Italian and a bit of text in English that explained that it was open, and it was 1E each to go through the door in the wall. I called James to come and join me (as an added bonus the car park was shady) and a few minutes later we all had our hard hats on, had put 5E in the honesty box and were ready to go through the door.
It was a fairly small limestone cavern, but with added multimedia to explain a bit about the history of the area and what the caves were used for. If nothing else, it was a great place to go to cool off, and the kids spent some time clearing gravel from the emergency lighting strip on the floor (as you do!) A bit random, but fun. After coming back out into the heat, the kids wanted to go paddling again so we headed to the river and sat in the shade with our feet in the river for a while, enjoying the amazing views and killing time before the time we'd told our host we were going to arrive.
After another short drive past some beautiful scenery we arrived in Tarcento to find a lovely apartment with amazing views and a host that only spoke Italian - though thankfully I could just about understand it all. After a good dinner, we retired to the balcony with a glass or two of Slovenian wine to take in the views properly - bliss!
Published on Monday 6 August 2018
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