Into Slovenia, a land of forests and bears

We are parked up on what looks like a fairly new Aire, about 1km from the town of Kočevje (N45.64421 E14.87140), and next to Lake Kočevje.  For €10 you get the normal – electric, water and chemical toilet and the area is nice and secure, so all is good.  Slovenia sticker is on the motorhome map – our smallest country that we have been in to date.

Lake Kočevje is an artificial lake about 3kms round and 40m deep, and a nesting place for numerous birds.  You can boat, fish and swim in the lake and in winter apparently you can ice-skate on it.  Wow, it must get cold here!

Lake Kočevje

It seems strange to be on an Aire having stayed on campsites for almost a month in Croatia. We have enjoyed the campsites and have stayed on some lovely ones, but would have liked the opportunity to have wild camped as there were some beautiful sites that we spotted.  But, given the volume of motorhomes we saw (and this was out of season) we understand why the authorities don’t allow it.

We tried to leave it as long as possible before leaving Croatia as we knew we wouldn’t be seeing sea again on our travels this year until we get to Amsterdam to catch the ferry back to England. 

Mel takes one last walk around the bay, looking across to the mountains we will be heading across.

Whilst I enjoy a bit of wildlife.

Before leaving Croatia we spent the last of our money in the supermarket and a quick coffee, where we came across this chappy.

Cork Man, who looks like he has had too much wine!

Leaving the island of Krk you only pay a toll coming on to the island via the bridge, so it was a free ride all the way to Slovenia as we didn’t use the motorways either.  It was a pretty ride over the mountain tops, with amazing views at this spot we stopped at for lunch.  The autumn colours of the trees were lovely.

This area we stopped at is at the top of the village of Lokve and is used as a downhill sledge run.

Mel decided to test out the sledge for size

Then we were off again and across the border into Slovenia. The country is in the Schengen area, so although there are no checks approaching from the EU countries of Hungary, Italy and Austria, crossing over from Croatia there is.  It’s only a small checkpoint and we were surprised to be greeted at passport control by about 7 border control men/women. 

It was a quick show of our passports and a chat with one of the guards, who insisted on seeing how many languages he could speak to us in by saying hello and goodbye umpteen times!  No check of our motorhome for illegal immigrants coming into the country though – we must have trusting faces!

Once across the border it was a short drive to Kočevje.  Slovenia is covered by 60% of forests but in this region it's about 90%, and represents the best preserved and rounded forest habitat in Europe.  Brown bears, wildcats, lynxes and wolves roam this area and the lady in the information office next to the Aire gave us a walking map and recommended where we went.  There is a video you can watch on the do’s and don’ts if you meet a bear (there are between 400-500 in these forests) - basically: don’t run or climb a tree, as they will chase you and if you see cubs walk away backwards as mum won’t be far behind.  Hmm… all good advice but what do we do if they attack?  The women reassured us that they are timid animals and just as scarred of us as we are of them.

Before setting off into the forest we had a walk around the town.

Parish Church of St Jernej – Neo-Romanesque style church

War memorial - the raising of the communist star.

As dark a war history as Croatia has (as mentioned in my last blog), it appears that Slovenia has equally dark secrets.  Secret mass graves were discovered in this area and across Slovenia about 60 years after WW2, believed to hold up to 100,000 bodies.  As Tito’s army slowly pushed the Nazis out of Croatia and Slovenia, those soldiers who collaborated with the Nazis headed to Austria to surrender to the British.  The soldiers then became victims of a vengeful killing spree by partisans of the Yugoslav leader, as they were murdered and buried in the woods without trial after British-led Allied troops turned them back from Austria and handed them over. Apparently, the existence of these graves has been known for decades but people were too afraid of reprisals to speak of them. Despite what these soldiers did it saddened me to know that the British Army behaved in this way and it must be a relief for the Slovenian people now that these graves have been discovered.

So after a quick walk around the town, it's up into the forest we go - all up hill!

Our map and route - about a 14km walk

Standing on the remains of Castle Fridrihstajn - built by Count Frederick II of Celje in 1422 as a ‘love nest’ for him and his wife Veronika of Desenice

Lots of funghi to be had in these forests - don't fancy eating any of it though!

Mestni vrh view point (1043m), looking down on Koceveje and the lake in the distance

Unfortunately we didn’t see any bears but at times I felt like they were watching us from a distance.  So I will have to settle with just making friends with this wooden one!

Sally x