Archive for June, 2007
Saturday, June 30th, 2007
26km Kobarid to Hum
After having a relaxing time at a campsite, surrounded by the emerald-green river Soča and its gorges and waterfalls, we recluctantly packed up and moved on today. The area around the Julian Alps is so beautiful, the rest of Slovenia has a lot to live up to. Our first few kilometers outside of Kobarid took us up and down rolling hills, through green farmland and villages. There was no intensive farming that we could see, just large pastures, the occasional chicken coop and many small garden plots filled with lettuce, beans, corn and squash. Before long we arrived in Tolmin and stopped to do some of our regular chores: grocery shopping (two rounds, because we couldn’t figure out what to buy the first time), a stop at the petrol station to get some gas for cooking and some time on the internet at the tourist bureau. The afternoon was already ticking away by the time we’d done all our errands and had lunch under a clear blue sky, watching paragliders soar above us. We thought that once we got over the Dolomites that might be the end of the mountains but there are still plenty to jump from, if you’re a paraglider, or to challenge the legs if you’re a cyclist! We’d planned to forge ahead to Ljublijana, or at least to make a good part of the distance, and we did make a start out of Tolmin, up into the hills, but Friedel was still suffering from a headache that appeared earlier in the day so we decided enough was enough. We took the first shady spot we found as our spot for the night. It looks like a small gravel pit. Not the prettiest of spots, although we do have a babbling brook just behind the tent and we’re out of view of the road, which is very quiet in any case. Tomorrow we are hoping to reach the Slovenia capital, where we’ll probably spend a couple days, and then maybe on to Zagreb. As we’re really just killing time before meeting Friedel’s uncle in Munich, we’re considering all kinds of directions on our bikes!
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Slovenia by friedel
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
62km Amaro to Kobarid
“Why are we going up this hill?”
That was what Friedel wanted to know as we pushed and sweated our way up a gruelling hill.
“Because we like it,” came the answer from Andrew, not entirely convincingly.
Ah. Of course we like it…. this is what we gave up our jobs for, right?!?
We’d heard that crossings into Slovenia could be mountainous, but we hadn’t envisioned going up at an angle so steep that even the racing cyclists had given up trying to pedal up the slope. The official grade on the road sign said 12% over four kilometers but it felt like at least 15% or maybe even more. In all the passes we covered going over the Alps we never reached a road as steep as this one. We huffed and we puffed and after nearly four hours of pushing – making for a mighty speed of 1km an hour – we reached the top at over 1,000m and began the glide down to the border crossing.
Although the road was going downhill we really had to pay attention and put our brakes on at every twist and turn because the route was so narrow there was no room for error and we had to be ready to stop on a dime if a car came along. The scenery was stunning over the mountains but our eyes were almost always on the road, which was not much wider than many bicycle paths.
After several kilometers of coasting along we reached the border, showed our passports to the Italian guard (we thought this was part of Europe now??) and then nearly turned around when we saw another hill looming in front of us. Thankfully this one was not as steep as the last one and we were able to make slow progress until finally the descent began again, this time into the Slovenian town of Zaga.
As we passed a pizzeria the four racing cyclists who passed us hours ago cheered our arrival and we chatted for a few minutes with them about their trip (one week from Munich to Ljublianja) and life back in their home country of Britain. We hit the road again and after a few rolling hills we set up camp in the pretty town of Kobarid, celebrating our arrival in a new country with a bottle of locally made Chardonnay.
Our first impressions of Slovenia are very good. Towns filled with neat, flower-covered houses. Mountains in the background. Emerald coloured rivers. It looks like one month in Eastern Europe may not be enough!
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries, Slovenia by friedel
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
70km S. Stefano di Cadore to Amaro
If you cycle in Italy, you can almost count your distance by the number of roadside chapels and offerings to the Virgin Mary. In the Alps, when we first crossed into Italy, we saw a picture of the Virgin attached to a tree. More common are little shelters made of stone or wood with candles, flowers and a religious painting or statue. Many devote Italians put glassed in tributes on the corner of their home and tonight we camped behind a rather large chapel, decorated with huge iron gates and an oil lamp. It’s the second time we’ve set up for the night near a chapel as the land isn’t obviously private and they tend to be fairly quiet. Before we reached our resting spot, we spent the day cycling out of the last of the Dolomites, mostly downhill! Some rain slowed us down in the middle of the day and when we stopped for lunch we must have looked pretty funny to some of the passing locals as we drapped a tarp over a bench, tied one end to our bikes and sat underneath this tiny covered area to eat. From the outside it looked like little more than a green blob on the ground but to us it was a dry, warm place to have our meal, even if we had to crouch to fit inside our makeshift shelter! The rain gave us plenty of time to think about our next destination. We are now less than a day away from Slovenia and are excited to get out of western Europe, where so much is familiar to us. It will be the tenth country on our tour but the first land we really have no preconceptions about.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by friedel
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
48km Cortina d’Ampezzo to S. Stefano di Cadore
I
t was time to move on today, after a weekend of curling and partying. For seven years now we’ve come to Cortina in June for their curling tournament and when we discovered we could make it this year on our bikes we weren’t about to miss our chance to get back on the ice and catch up with friends we haven’t seen for months. Maybe the numerous beers and late nights didn’t help our cycling – it was hard work getting back on the bikes – but we had a great time and did pretty well in the tournament. Our team placed fifth and we all got new iPods… amazingly a prize we wanted and could carry with us! With the tournament over, we hit the road again, setting a course this time for Slovenia. A few more mountain passes lie between us and the border and the first one was just outside Cortina; Passo Tre Croci at 1,809 meters. We took it really slowly since Friedel picked up a sinus cold , which makes climbing at any speed almost impossible. It was early afternoon before we coasted over the top and then downhill for quite some distance, through a large stretch of woodland and pastures, always with the mountains looming over us. After gliding down for a good 25km we turned east and soon found a camping spot for the night, just beside a river. We’re hoping a good night’s rest will see off the cold germs so we can carry on a bit further tomorrow.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Italy, Journal Entries by friedel
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
39km Costadedói to Cortina d’Ampezzo
We flew down the mountain that leads to Cortina this morning – doing a steady 50km an hour as we cruised into the valley and still racing cyclists were passing us. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Every couple of minutes another group sped by on their way to the bottom. It was a great feeling coming into Cortina, two days of hard climbing and three mountain passes later. We’ve been here every June for the last few years to curl with our friends and, after a year on the road, we can’t wait to see them again for a last time before we head into more unknown territory. Before we crossed our last pass this morning we rose at the crack of dawn and finished off the last few kilometers of climbing to the Passo di Valparola at 2,192 meters. The journey to the top wasn’t as tough as we’d expected. Sure, we still had to stop for a breather every few minutes, but the grade was gentle enough that we seemed to cover a good distance between stops. We’d gotten out of our tent and on the road early, so the temperature was still cool and we had the great pleasure of being the second and third cyclists to the top that day. We would have been first had it not been for one speed cyclist who breezed past us just before the summit. The view from the top was stunning. Peaks all around us with clouds floating alongside their rocky tops. A glacial valley off to one side. A green-blue lake just below the road. Cows in the pasture, their bells ringing as they grazed in the flower-filled fields. The night before we sat on a bench and just stared at the mountains for a good while. They are so beautiful they almost look surreal, too good to be true. Even though we have seen the Dolomites many times now, we never fail to be enthralled by them. Once we picked a campground from the several in Cortina we set off for a round of shopping, then lunch and an afternoon of relaxing by the tent. Books in one hand, beer in the other. It’s a tough life. Tomorrow the real fun will begin as we try our hands at curling once again for the first time in nearly a year. There could be some sore muscles!
