31 July 2025 (sun and clouds, warm. Late afternoon downpour) 58km

After having the Frenchies take over the little hut, we'd acquired when we arrived, complete with electricity to recharge our stuff, we lay in the tent listening to them talk while we tried to go to sleep. 

Julia, of course drifted off, whilst I listened to the French take their leave and the Germans take over on the other side of us, playing some form of dice game, where you roll it into a tin.

Don't know what the game was...didn't care, but it was so annoying hearing those dice being rolled against tin every ten seconds.

It was 11.30pm by the time they wrapped that up and I fell into a nice sleep, only to wake at 3am to use the loos. Slept fitfully from then until 6am. 

Pleased to see good weather this morning as we had a hummer of a climb today.

Out of camp as people began to stir and took the main road, but with a beautiful bike lane attached, to Most na Soci. Stunning 5kms ride, without traffic to contend with.

Here we purchased breakfast and not too much further, we found a railway bridge, with a bench seat underneath one of the arches and a litter bin.

Breakfast was great as usual. As we ate, our sodden flysheet was drying in the morning sun.

Also had the odd drops of water from the top of the bridge land on top of us, one straight in my coffee. Dammit, I like it extra hot!

The day had started well and was about to get better. Rather than the main road, we had chosen a secondary route through the Baska Grapa, a stunning gorge filled with trees, mountains and turquoise water. 

Even though it was all uphill today, it was an easy gradient, the sun was out and the scenery was lovely. We pedalled along, enjoying every minute but getting a sweat on as the sun got higher in the sky.

Spotted a pool just right for a skinny dip. Well maybe not just right, but the only place we'd seen a pool deep enough that was easily accessible and where we could keep an eye on the bikes.

It was right off the side of the road, set down about twenty feet. Had within the river, a perfect pool we could wander into and sink ourselves under .

We reckon the water temperature was about thirteen degrees, just right for two sweaty cyclists.

Changed on the rocks by the river and pushed on to Hudajuzna where we spied a shaded bench off the side of the road, in the village.

Here we enjoyed some nuts, crisps and a nectarine. 

Onward...Onward..still really enjoying the weather, the scenery and lack of traffic.

In Podbrdo, we indulged in an ice cream and had a chat with a racing cyclist. He had 50kms to complete a 180 km day.

Told us it got pretty steep from there. 

He wasn't wrong. We began climbing and were doing well.

Came to the 909 turnoff for Bohinjska Bistrica and it was closed. No one around except an older guy in a house set down about fifty feet off the road.

I yelled out and asked, using hand signs as well, if he thought we could get through. He spoke some English from a stint he had in India years before.

Didn't think we could do it as major road reconstruction. About 100 meters of road had been washed out.

Suddenly, a young female German cyclist comes down the closed road. She said it was pretty dangerous up there and showed us a video. Didn't look too bad to us, we've been on worse trails to be honest, so off we set.

The fact that the suggested detour would probably have taken us two hours also factored in our decision plus the fact that in every roadworks we've ridden through, we can't remember one where we couldn't get through. Ten minutes in and we were at the roadworks, riding compacted gravel uphill. No problem. We wouldn't have been going any faster had it been sealed.

Got to the top and met a couple of workers, one of whom was very friendly and took a photo for us. Just past there, the tarseal returned and we cruised on down the other side, wondering why the girl thought it was dangerous.

Just a normal NZ road, except they don't have fifteen guys leaning on shovels doing nothing. 

Climbed to a plateau overlooking Zgornja Sorica and its beautiful village church, used in Slovenian tourist campaigns.

Absolutely Stunning. 

Zgornja Sorica

Ju here. Today as we rode up through that gorge and through the roadworks, we remarked on what a great day it had been. The riding, although uphill, had felt easy and we felt strong. Having the roadworks road all to ourselves with no other traffic was just bliss and then to come upon the amazing view over the valley of Zgornja Sorica, well that was just the icing on the cake. It had been a spectacular day up until that point and thoroughly enjoyable, especially with our midday dip in the clear green water of the Baca river. The next part of the climb was tough with steeper gradients and seemed never ending, but I guess it just takes our leg strength to the next level, which we will need for the Balkans. 

At the ski field at the top, we spied that rarest of things, a WC, so after a quick visit there, we now noticed the cool wind and got our polar fleeces on for the descent. Our fingers froze but every time we stopped for a photo, we felt the warmth of the sun rather than the cold wind, so didn't bother wrapping up any further. Surely this downhill would finish soon anyway.

Lake Bohinj, nestled in the valley.

It's only when you're flying downhill for what felt like at least half an hour that you realize just how far you've pedalled uphill! We had thought about cycling on to Lake Bohinj before we slogged up that hill, but now we were ready to stop. Back to Pete.

By the time we reached the Bohinjsko Sedio skifield at 1300 metres, the sweat was rolling off us.

Filled up with fresh, cold water from one of many watering taps here and began an exhilarating thirteen km descent, with stops for the views, into Bohinjska Bistrica and a Spar supermarket (no Travelocity Gnome however...Georgina and Toff).

Entering the village the sky was dark and it was only a matter of time before it rained. Shopped for dinner and when we came out, it had started.

Fortunately there was an overhang on the building we used to shelter the bikes and ourselves until we could put the covers on.

By that time, the rain had virtually gone.

Into the campground to be informed that we would be paying Euro 51.50, over $100!

Only a five Euro discount for cyclists brought it down to Euro 46.

I am afraid to say, I lost my oohmmmm somewhere along the road and feel these camps are taking the piss.

However, "If the tourists will come, we will rip you off." 

The sun was now out again so we set up tent and Julia showered whilst I blogged. Cup of coffee, then it was my turn for a shower, as Julia gathered info on Non Schengen countries, entry and exit etc. 

Just returned from shower.

That is a vast overstatement.

I am not a big man....well..only where it counts. I stood in that portocom box, with not enough room to swing my testicles.

One solitary miniscule hook on the wall between shower and door that was no more than nine inches wide....don't ask how I measured....

And the shower nozzle attachment kept sliding down the rail.

Is anyone interested in opening a five star camping in Slovenia...we'd make a fortune. 

Ju here again. Well dinner was an interesting affair. Normally we buy 2min rice sachets as they are easy to carry and quick to cook. But for the past week, they have been in short supply and we haven't seen any at all so far in Slovenia. So we had to resort to buying a whole box of 3 min rice and assume the cooking instructions were the same as of course they're all written in Slovenian. 

What to put with it? Well we found a mystery bean stew but thought maybe a bit of cooked sausage chopped into it would be good. So we bought some at the butchery counter.

So while the rice was cooking, I started chopping the sausage and it was not cooked at all. Drats! That meant boiling those before being able to add them to our bean stew I chopped the sausage into small pieces so they would cook quicker and there was a lot of fat and gristle contained within. Not very appetizing at all. We now know why the one Slovenian we know is vegetarian!

Anyway, it was edible, plus it wasn't ready until 8pm with all the pfaffing about, so by then we were starving and would eat anything!

The milky coffee and chocolate went down very well but my God, there's a lot of screaming kids here, two of whom seem to find it necessary to run repeatedly right next to our tent.

I won't be stopping Pete if he wants to go out and wring their little necks.

The camp looked lovely, but was big, noisy and expensive.