Day 14-18 - News from the land of vowelless words

After thoroughly exploring Slovenia as tourists in the past few days, it was high time to visit the cliffs as well. There are certainly plenty of walls and climbing areas here. Maybe we landed by chance in the slightly more remote places, but the walls here, which have been drilled with great effort and material, definitely deserve more attention! The distances between the hooks are so pleasant that with your knees at the level of the last bolt you can already reach the next one, the lines are beautiful, and the rock is grippy and not very crowded. Almost too little, as we can say after a couple of hold breakings. But nothing that cannot be solved with a helmet. So far, we can draw a conclusion about three climbing areas that we don't want to keep from you climbing enthusiasts.

We were near Kobarid at the wall Pod Kopitcem, a very beginner-friendly rock with some nice routes in the French sixth grade and below. Definitely perfect for our quick rock climbing course with our new friends Marie and Matthias! Bonus: there is actually a swing mounted above the belay anchors in the right part of the wall.

After that, we continued to the area Drnulk, a whole collection of walls that really live up to the term "climbing area". The routes are lovingly labeled and the individual walls are signposted. And the best part: from our campsite, we practically fell out of the door into the first pitches. Maybe the location of the area on a gravel road in the mountains, connecting two small villages, explains why it seems to be visited very little (- we were the only ones here -), but it is definitely not due to the quality of the climbing. Nor is it due to the scenery and the locals, who waved friendly every time a car passed us.

It was primarily due to the slowly cooling temperatures and the hope for a south-facing wall that we ended up in Prtovč. What we didn't consider was the location of the wall at an altitude of about 800 meters - so much for warmth, despite the sun. Nevertheless, the routes, mainly slabs and slightly overhanging, were worth a visit. However, to get to Prtovč, a small village consisting mainly of a church and cows, you have to crawl up a winding mountain road.

As beautiful as the areas were, climbing was unfortunately not very successful. After a week-long break, our arms quickly got tired, our skin worn out, and our minds not quite free anymore, especially after the first hold break. In the future, we will try to distribute climbing days and other activities better to have more variety. Anyway, we still have plenty of time to continue developing our climbing skills! So we have at least seen some beautiful spots that are definitely not among the typical tourist destinations. The more remote areas and the few tourists made finding a campsite much easier for us - or maybe we are just getting better and more accustomed to van life. Honestly, who wants to stay at a campground when you can instead make pancakes at 600 meters above sea level with a view of the mountains? We certainly don't mind slightly sloping pitch sites, sliding mattresses, and cold showers in exchange.

We can warm ourselves up well in the van on increasingly colder nights, especially now that our heating system is working again after a few scary moments. It seems that it only works when the van is level and/or the tank is full. By the way, there is also light at the end of the charging booster tunnel! If everything goes as planned, we will receive a replacement device sent to Ljubljana, our next destination. A full replacement battery would almost make camping life too luxurious - but only almost.

Who knows what will go wrong by then. You will be the first to know, in any case!

See you soon and van on!