Steppe FM, in Slovenia, Croatia, Juin 2021, Cycling under 40°C
We leave Qualso and our project at Giusi's a week later. Despite the rain, we were able to plant and work in the garden. We are heading for Slovenia. The border goes through a mountain pass. We begin to see the end of the hard climb when we realize that we have lost the dog. We will find him hours later... in Slovenia (a complete story in future steppe FM podcast). This evening, we slept on the Slovenian ground, everybody speaks English and our bivouac at the edge of a turquoise blue river is splendid.
We decided to cross the Triglav, a natural park where, apparently, there are still a lot of bears. The road to get there puts us in an appetite: the region is wild and the roads, very steep. We follow the turquoise rivers of limestone water, the inhabitants mow the hay by hand. The more we approach the centre of Triglav (Ucanq) the more we climb. It is hot, the slopes are generally above 10%, and in spite of our (slightly) lighter bikes our legs are in pain at the end of the day.
Finally, we passed the last mountain pass before the big descent in the valley of Ucanq. We arrived in the heart of the natural park and... we sobered up quickly. The place is packed with tourists! There are cafés, restaurants and hotels everywhere. We drive along the main road and cross at least 3 signs "forbidden to camp". We ask the locals for shelter, it is also forbidden to camp in their garden under the penalty of a fine... They thought of a law for that!
We spent one day walking in the park before going away. It is too expensive and touristic for us. This overprotected nature paradise becomes hell.
In Ljubljana we met a lot of people, we planted a small vegetable garden for a private individual and moreover, we bought a new bike (at 35€ if you please!). Thanks to Luka, a Slovenian friend, bike repairs and environmental activist, we left with a new team: a bike fixed as new and our other bike improved with the best parts of the second old one. While everything seemed to be going well, we never had so much breakage... Two broken wheels, two broken chains and at least six flat tires. Not to mention the problems with the bike trailers. We finally managed to get out of the valley of Ljubljana after being stuck there for a good week.
We manage to be vaccinated with the Jonhson to be able to cross the next borders more easily. And after a backlash due to the injection, we reached the Croatian border.
The atmosphere has changed, it is always 35°C in the shade but we really enter the Balkans. People do not speak English anymore. We are offered beers, dry sausages and schnapps. We make rather incongruous meetings... a guy overtakes us on a tractor which looks like a lawnmower, offers us a beer and describes himself as a non-racist Nazi who likes beer, girls and discipline...the Croatian differs from their neighbour of the North who looks rather like "well educated" Germans.
We drive on the Croatian roads early in the morning or late in the afternoon otherwise it is too hot. We go along the rivers to refresh ourselves. We are bitten by mosquitoes. We look at the soccer matches of Croatia with the locals.
We bypass Zagreb by the south but it is still too early to enter Bosnia (it takes two weeks after the injection of the vaccine to cross the borders). We thus continue in Croatia, towards the south. We arrived in a magnificent region around Slunj. We decided to stay in the surroundings to take advantage of the turquoise rivers. After some days of rest, to read, make podcasts and swim in the delicious freshness of the river, we got back on the road...
Direction Bosnia-Herzegovina!
Commentaires