Day 187: Sunday 21 September – Three Countries In One Day, by Ken

Overnight rain that continued into the morning confirmed it was time for us to move on from Croatia. Neither of us felt it had lived up to our expectations, although neither of us were really sure what we expected of the country. Certainly, it has been an anti-climax after Greece and Turkey, but they are very difficult acts to follow.

The weather hadn’t helped with rain on more than half the twenty days we had been in the country. We have also struggled to find some of the sights we wanted to see, not getting to the Griffon Vulture colony on Cres was a particularly big disappointment. Croatia has very pleasant scenery – green and lush in stark contrast to the dry and arid landscape we have experienced in countries bordering the Mediterranean. Their national parks are very good. In marked contrast to Greece and Turkey it’s a clean country and everything seemed well organised. The roads were some of the best we’ve driven on and the people were very friendly. The majority have sufficient English (after usually initially speaking to us in German) to avoid us trying to speak their tongue twisting language. However, it lacked the ‘sizzle’ of the majority of places we’ve seen in our travels. It would probably be fine for a beach holiday, but it hadn’t satisfied our need to see sights that are out of the norm.

Germany was the next country on our itinerary and would have been reachable in a day. However, having gained a day by deciding to move on from Croatia early, we opted to have an overnight stop in Austria. Jane picked a camping ground in Bad Ossiachersee just over the border from Slovenia, and only a short distance off the motorway to Germany.

Karlovacko - Croatian For Beer

The poor weather and the cramped camping ground at Motovun meant there was nothing outside to pack away except for the electrical hook up and the cheeses once we had de-cheesed. We took the opportunity to empty Mabel’s grey waste tank and toilet cassette and were ready for the road by 9:30. The rain had just about stopped as we headed out of the camping ground and down the hill from Motovun with its many serpentinas. Our route took us initially to Buzet (the city of truffles) from where we headed north on a country road to the border with Slovenia which we came to after about 5km. The customs post on the Croatia side was unmanned and seemed to have been abandoned some years ago. We drove on reaching the Slovenian check point after a couple of minutes. The cop in the first booth was slouched in his chair, he glanced at the covers of our red British passports I dangled out of the window and signaled us to move on with a slight flick of his hand. Apart from that he remained absolutely motionless. At least the cop in the next booth looked at the passports – for about two seconds, handed them back and waved us on. We now had nothing but Shengen countries ahead of us until we reached the UK border in Calais, no more border checks and from now on all the countries we would be passing through used Euro as their currency, except for good old Blighty, of course.

Goodbye Croatia, Hello Slovenia

I was told by the second cop I could obtain the vignettes required to drive on Slovenia’s roads at a filling station about 7km down the road. We had been told that in Bulgaria and only got our vignettes at the fifth filling station we tried. I wasn’t optimistic when I reached the small filling station in a small village. Entering the filling station I realised I didn’t know the language spoken in Slovenia. However, the female assistant greeted me with a breezy “dobar dan”, so it had to be similar to Croatian. Unlike Bulgaria the attendant had plenty of vignettes and €30 later I left the station shop with two of them. There was a man staring at Smarty, like everyone else, he wanted to know how Smarty steered. It turned out he lived over the road from the filling station, had seen us arrive, and wanted to find out more about a towing arrangement he had never seen before.

Speed Limits and Dipped Headlights 24/7 in Slovenie

We continued on a two lane road that was part of a cycle race course. Fortunately, the race was going in the opposite direction to us. Some things like Sunday cycling and motor bike outings are common to a lot of countries

Sunday Cycle Run In Slovenia

Approximately 10km into Slovenia and not far from Trieste just over the border in Italy, we joined a motorway. Like those in Croatia, it had been designed to a high standard and was well maintained. Having armed ourselves with vignettes, we were surprised to see signs warning of a toll station ahead. However, as we approached the toll plaza gantry signs showed two lanes were for vehicles with vignettes and the lanes bypassed the toll booths. At subsequent toll stations I noticed that signs directed trucks 3.5t, and over, to use lanes with toll booths on them. I thought that was probably because there was an extra charge for heavy vehicles. Mabel is a lot more than 3.5t loaded, but all the camper vans ahead of us were using the vignette lanes and we followed suit.

With Our Vignette We Could Bypass The Toll Booths

Unsurprisingly, Slovenia’s landscape looked very much like that of Croatia at first. However, north of Ljubljana it transitioned to sub-alpine and looked very much like parts of Switzerland we had seen two years previously. That was both in terms of landscape and architecture, houses having roofs with distinctive overhanging eaves. The weather took a marked turn for the better as we drove with the leaden grey sky of Croatia replaced by an almost clear blue sky.

Slovenia In The Sunshine

Nearing The Alps In Slovenia

North of Ljubljana we stopped at a rest area to change drivers and then I stopped at the next service area to get Euro from an ATM. We were then well and truly set up for Slovenia and some distance beyond.

Approximately 70km north of Ljubljana we passed signs farewelling us from Slovenia. A short distance ahead were toll booths which we took to be at the Austrian border and where we would buy the vignettes needed to drive on Austrian roads. Signs indicated a charge of €7 for a car and €10.50 for a light truck. Jane handed the attendant a €20 note and said we had a car on the back. The attendant nodded and gave Jane €13 change. A very short distance afterwards we came to a tunnel signed as 7.9km long. It was then we realised we were still in Slovenia and the toll charge was for the tunnel.

Motorway Off Ramp In A Tunnel

Long tunnels have a hypnotic effect on me and I had to work hard continually changing my focus to maintain concentration. Emerging the other side we were clearly in the foothills of Austria’s mountains. A sign indicated vignettes were available at the next rest area so we pulled in. It looked even less promising than the filling station in Slovenia, the only building being a take away food place. However, they had what I needed and even had the Slovenian equivalent for vehicles going the other way. This time we were €17 poorer, but were now legal to drive in Austria.

We left the motorway just north of the town of Villach and reached Camping Ossiachersee a few minutes later. The camping ground was large and busy, it fronted onto Ossiacher See. The temperature was in the mid 20s and a lot of people were lounging outside motorhomes and caravans in togs.

Mabel In Bad Ossiachersee

Neighbour in Purple Mood

We found ourselves a pitch with space to string out a washing line and Jane set to putting three loads of laundry through. While that was chundering away we ate a lunch of Greek salad. After that Jane retrieved one load and asked me to go back for a second. Returning to Mabel I couldn’t help noticing that while the sun was still shining, the sky to the north was almost jet black. I suggested Jane should hang on a while before putting any washing out. She compromised by hanging stuff on the airer under Mabel’s awning. She had only just finished when it started to rain, gently at firsts, but within 5 minutes a thunderstorm was directly overhead and the rain was absolutely torrential. The storm lasted for about half an hour. By the time it had abated parts of the camping ground were under water.

Aftermath Of Storm

Jane had spent much of her free time over the last couple of weeks knitting a pair of chunky woolen socks to keep my feet warm as we head into autumn. She finished the second sock today making me the proud owner of some very warm socks. They are a gay purple colour, but I’m not anticipating wearing them outside of Mabel.

For dinner we ate the remainder of the pasta dish I prepared on Friday.

Today's Trip (232km)