On the road to Slovenia

Sunday 22 July 2012  - Croatia to Slovenia

Day 100 and 59 to go

What a blowy old night. We were woken in the middle of the night by an almighty gale ripping through the camp ground, throwing pine needles around creating havoc with those in tents. Our van was a rocking and the wind was howling through the vents so we got up to close all the hatches and windows then back to sleep.

We were awake at 7 and it was nice to see the window had blown away. We got up and organised, having a shower and breakfast while doing a last minute net check with the time I had remaining.

At 8am we had the van ready, I paid up the camp fees and we were following the motorway towards Zagreb, Croatia’s capital and only 390km away!

The motorway was so smooth and free flowing driving was a breeze until we reached Posejarde an hour away. Here we met up with the winds from last night. They were whipping the  van around from side to side it was like trying to ride a wild horse. With the electronic boards showing us to slow we were eventually waved in off the freeway by local cops where we joined other campers, trucks and busses deemed too tall or large to continue to travel safely.

With no one to ask how long we had to wait we sat in the back eating and playing cards for an hour the whole time we were being battered by the winds. It really was incredible. So was the view. The large stone mountains rising before us were blanketed in a thick cloud that appeared as a wave rolling over the top, ready to engulf all in its path.

After waiting an hour and with no information coming we decided we would follow some others who had decided to rejoin the motorway. It proved a good choice.

We were still being hammered by the wind, but doing 40km an hour meant there was a bit more control. And soon we were passing through a 6km long mountain tunnel to surface the other side of the mountain away from most of the wind.

This side of the mountain range was quite flat with wide plains. The weather was threatening and it became very grey, but we only saw a few spots of rain the temperature readings fluctuated between 13 and 17 a bit different from our 33 yesterday.

The drive continued to be an easy one as we sipped along quite comfortably at 130km an hour. We stopped about 50km short of Zagreb at 1.10pm to fill up with fuel. Once at Zagreb we had to join a massive queue of vehicles to go through the toll. There were cars from so many nationalities returning home after time in the sun.

Once through the toll we were able to clear the backlog of cars and begin heading to Slovenia. About 5km short of the border we stopped at a fuel station to spend the last of our Kune and to have lunch then it was back to it, passing through border control shortly after, having our passport stamped and into Slovenia at 2.20pm.

The drive through the country was beautiful, with large wooded areas and many barn style houses dotted together, some brightly coloured while others were stone and wood. It reminded us of the Swiss and Austrian style of home. The weather was still cool and cloudy outside that made a pleasant change after some hot days. Paul is likely to sleep better.

At 3.30pm we finally made it to our camping spot, a parking area attached to a small hotel. We hooked up the power and I paid the 10 Euro. We sat back in the van enjoying the fact that we had finally stopped. Ahhh. We played cards to unwind. It was trying to rain outside but it was more of a spit.

When we had finished our cards we went for a wander into the small town of Smlednik. We found a camping ground so we decided to walk through it as it lead down to the Sava River that we watched flow passed us. We then made the trek back to the van. The area we are in is obviously farming, with good dirt and flat surface. It looks out on to the mountain range in the distance. It is very pretty.

I cooked dinner when once we were back and we read up on Slovenia and Austria to determine our plan of travel for tomorrow. I am looking forward to another interesting day.

After dinner I read some more of my new novel “50 Shades of Grey’ before playing cards with Paul. At 9.15pm it was time for bed and a bit more reading.  

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