The Vintgar Gorge

Today was all about the gorge. We bought our tickets online last night, and were off camp by about 8.20 to drive 15 minutes to the parking, from where we caught the shuttle bus to the gorge. Everything was very well organised, including our entry time, which was 9.29am. We scanned our QR codes to get through the gate, picked up our (compulsory) hard hat and were set to go. The gorge, as the pictures show, was seen from a walkway that was set above the river, which was wild in places. It was pretty spectacular. 

I did have a near miss; I dropped my phone on the walkway and instinctively tried to stop it going off the edge with my foot, only to kick it to the inside where there was a small gap. My heart sank. I climbed through the fence and down on to the rocks, and luckily for me, my phone was sitting on a rock under the walkway. Phew!

The rest of the walk was uneventful. Once at the end of the gorge section, we then had the return leg overland. This involved a steep climb through woods before emerging out on to a hillside path with a great view over the valley. We saw some cows with bells (a Jane favourite) and had a leisurely hour walk back to the base, where we timed it perfectly to step on to the shuttle bus to return to our van. 

We then visited Radivlijico, as recommended on the visit guide on the back of the site map, which was a charming village. Jane actually thought it was called Popoldan, but we quickly realised that that was Slovakian for “afternoon”. 

After a beer and an ice cream, not at the same time, we came home to camp for a late lunch and our usual chill. We were both exhausted so it was one part reading and four parts sleeping. 

We have also sketched out our travel plans for the last few days (well, 25 days to be precise) of our trip.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Zagreb, Somewhere Jane remembers with fondness, and me less so. I visited it while inter-railing in 1986, so before the troubles, and recall only a grim, eastern bloc city with no charm. Jane’s memory is of magnificent architecture. We shall see whose memory is best (hint, it is always Jane’s).