Day 8-13 - Indiana Jan on the move in the Soča Valley!

'Zdravo' from Slovenia! No, we haven't lost interest in this blog, let alone in traveling. But since we are on vacation and will be on the road for a few more months, and we don't want to overwhelm you with constant updates, we have decided to take a little social media break. However, we can't resist sharing a short (or maybe not so short, we'll see) report about our first days in this beautiful country with you.

Unfortunately, Slovenia turned out to be not as camper-friendly as we had hoped. Wild camping is generally not allowed - although strictly speaking, we don't own a caravan and we don't want to set up our tent anywhere. That's at least the loophole we're clinging to, because caravans are prohibited on almost all parking lots here, especially overnight. As a result, finding a parking spot in the evenings can be quite difficult. So far, we have only been chased away once, and that was quite friendly.

At least the communication works much better than we had feared. The people are all very nice and speak impeccable English. In fact, we have already been approached by locals when they heard us speaking German, warmly welcomed and given tips for our stay. We have at least already learned 'Dober dan' (Good day) and 'Adijo' (Goodbye) in Slovenian.

Our arrival in Slovenia was unfortunately not very spectacular. From Vienna, it wasn't far to the Slovenian border, but as always, we were running late after a cozy dinner on a Bauhaus parking lot, and we didn't arrive at Triglav National Park until one o'clock in the morning. We were quite surprised when we could admire the Julian Alps the next morning, which we hadn't seen at night. Nevertheless, the drive was quite exciting because we only realized on the Slovenian highway that we needed a vignette for it, which we simply couldn't get at this late hour.

A similarly unplanned start we had on our first day in the National Park, because since we had spent the night directly on its outskirts, we didn't bother with details like tourist information or maps, but simply started walking. And although we only let ourselves be guided by the places with the most evocative names, and of course we never reached our destination (if we ever had one), we still enjoyed some really beautiful views of the Alps and the path along a clear river.

In general, Slovenia impresses above all with its beautiful landscape. Crystal-clear rivers, picturesque villages, lakes and waterfalls, but above all, the mountains are always visible in every direction. Unfortunately, this kind of sightseeing is very dependent on good weather, and we actually had to face the first two rainy days of our trip. But we can now claim with a clear conscience that our Gretchen is big and comfortable enough to spend a whole day in - at least until someone comes to drive us away from our parking spot.

As a highlight of our trip to Slovenia, we can already declare Lake Bled, which really lives up to its depiction on numerous postcards. Turquoise blue water, a small island with a church, a castle on the shore of the lake on steep cliffs - it's almost too good to be true. Tip: To get to the island, it's worth renting a rowboat from three people onwards, both in terms of price and time.

The journey over the Vršič Pass to Bovec, with its hundreds of narrow curves leading up to a height of up to 1611m, was a small adventure and highly recommended. Halfway there, we discovered an army of cairns, one of the parking lots was covered with them, and of course, we also added two cairns to the already 1000 pieces. It was worth it just for that, to have our old lady suffer up this pass. That was also a good thing because we couldn't enjoy the above view due to thick fog - in fact, we could hardly see five meters ahead.

A trip to the Soča Valley was definitely worth it. We spent two days in Kobarid, which is right on the Italian border. We couldn't resist and spontaneously drove to Cividale in the evening for an original Italian pizza. With the Kozjak waterfall, we found the most adventurous waterfall so far in a cave - it immediately created a real "Indiana Jones" atmosphere! We could use that the next day because especially those of us who are not fond of water had to gather all their courage for canyoning in the Soča. But it was definitely worth it! After an hour full of wading and swimming through the river, jumping from rocks, and sliding down waterfalls, we were cold but happy.

During canyoning, we also got to know Matthias and Marie, whom we will take climbing with us tomorrow. We are looking forward to finally getting our hands on Slovenian rock. We always love to hear recommendations for climbing areas! For now, we will explore the Soča Valley area more closely.

See you soon and adventure on!