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

Selce and The Island of Krk – Croatia’s Largest!

We are on the Island of Krk, and Sonny, the motorhome is parked up on a lovely little campsite – Camping Slamni, Klimno (N45.15351 E14.61731), surrounded by olive and fig trees and right on the beach.  It’s at the north-east end of the island in the beautiful Soline bay.  It takes 35 motorhomes and 10 spaces for tents, but currently there are only 8 of us, 5 motorhomes and 3 caravans - Germans, Swiss and us Brits!

We have just battened down the hatches, as the rain has begun and is forecast to lash it down until tomorrow morning!  We can’t complain though because we have had some lovely sunny and hot days in Croatia.  We have just booked our ferry back to the UK – Amsterdam to Newcastle, an overnight ferry leaving at 17:30 on 21 November. We don't want to think about going back yet though, as we have a few more countries to visit before then!

Before leaving our last campsite at Selce we had a stroll around the town.  There isn’t a lot to see but it is set in a really picturesque bay, and was once a big fishing village. It is a  popular holiday resort and I can imagine it is packed full of tourists in July and August.  The Adriatic Sea here is lovely and clear, with lots of little fishes swimming around in the harbour. Here we saw what we first thought was a massive diving board – any guesses?

Well, a quick visit to the Tourist Information Office informed us that it was used by the fisherman years ago to look for tuna fish.  One of them used to climb to the top and when he spotted the tuna entering the bay he shouted to the other fisherman and they would pull their nets across, trapping and catching them in the bay.  Obviously, this method is no longer used and it's just left rusting away in the bay.

There is a small war memorial in the town's square that lists the names of those who died during the war.  Sadly a lot seem to have to same family surname.  

Not knowing much about the history of WW2 in Croatia I looked it up.  Most of us know about the civil war in Yugoslavia about 25 years ago when the Croats fought for their independence.  But, in 1941 Croatia was an independent ‘puppet state’ within the Nazi empire.  The Croatian authorities (Ustashi), under their leader Ante Pavelic, pursued a policy of racial and ethnic persecution as every bit bloody as the Nazis, creating their own concentration camps where they murdered between 70,000-100,000 people.  As the war came to an end the Ustashi did all they could to destroy all evidence of the exact number they killed and Pavelic fled the country and was never brought to trial.  Such a dark history for what is such a beautiful country.

Time for a quick tourist pose at the marina:

Kiss and Tell?  Not likely!

What time is it?  Beer O'clock of course!

We watched boats being lifted out the harbour, their hulls washed and scrubbed and probably put away in storage.  A reminder that the holiday season is slowly coming to an end.

Leaving Selce, it was a short journey of 22 miles (35kms) to Krk Island, crossing via the Krk Bridge.

Approaching Krk Bridge to get across to the island

Coming across the bridge and on to the island there was another reminder that the season is coming to an end - a mass exodus of motorhomes and caravans leaving and heading north to go back home.  Mostly Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Brits.

Yesterday, we took a ride around the island on the scooter.  First stop Krk town, with its 2 thousand year walls, 13^th century Frankopan Castle and Cathedral.

Clambering on the rocks behind the fortress

Frankopan Fortress

Inscription above the town gate

Vela Placa Square - the only town square preserving the characteristics of a square , with a 16th century 6-sided well 

Leaving Krk town we headed around the coastline to Punat, with its massive marina on the right-hand side.

Church of St Donat - a sacral monument of Croatian architecture and world heritage site.

From here it was north-east to the old village of Vrbnik – built on a cliff.

Within its walls, the clustered houses are on narrow, winding and criss-crossed cobbled streets.  The world’s narrowest street can be found here – 43cms wide at its narrowest part.

The world’s narrowest street - breath in Sally!

The world's narrowest street from the other end

Just over a kilometre around the shore from the campsite can be found healing mud baths.  The idea is you cover yourself in the mud, sit in the sun until you bake, then wash it off in the warm sea. This young couple were doing just that!

All looked a bit messy for us, so we just decided to do toes only!

Mel had trouble standing up in this as it was like clay and very slippery

Then it was back to the campsite in time to watch another beautiful sunset.

We plan to spend just one more day on this lovely island before heading north to Slovenia.

Sally x

Gligora Cheese Factory, Pag Island - Everyone Say ‘Cheese!

We are parked up at Camping Selce, (N45.15362 E14.72262) and have a sea view through the trees and over the tops of the holiday lodges – whoop! whoop!

Before leaving Pag we had a look around a cheese factory in Kolan, famous for the making of Paški Sir - the official cheese of the Island of Pag since 1918.  Before going into the production area, we had to dress up in a paper coat, paper hat and shoe covers, for hygiene regions. 

Say 'Cheese'!

We were the only two on the guided tour and our guide explained the history around the factory and the process of making the various cheeses.

The cheese is only made for 5 months of the year from the sheep’s milk on the island and the special flavour comes from the sheep eating the salt herbs created by the Bura winds.  In the curing room, there were rows upon rows of cheese from young to old.  The youngest is 5 months old and the oldest is 3 years before it gets sent out to the shops. Everything is done by hand from milking the sheep to layering the flavours around the cheese (such as rosemary, cherries, olive and wine) and packaging.

Flavouring the cheeses

The cheese isn’t cheap but when you see and hear about the processes involved you understand why.  After the tour it was off to the tasting room to sample all of the cheeses we had just seen.  You can just do the tour on its own but we opted for the tasting platter and wine, which including the tour for 2 people was 167 kuna (£19 approx), which we thought was good value.

Mel ready for the tasting session

Watching the sheep enjoying their salty herbs to make that tasty Paški Sir (Pag Cheese)

Leaving Pag Island this morning, we headed north to catch the ferry to the mainland.  It was quicker than going south via Pag bridge (the way we came onto the island) and then having to head north again. The closer we got to the ferry port the more rocky the landscape seemed to become, until there was no more greenery to be seen.  This part obviously gets battered by the northly Bura winds coming over the Velebit Mountains.

Waiting patiently in the queue for the ferry to the mainland

The ferry journey takes about 15 minutes, so we managed a quick walk around on the upper deck and a look back at the rocky Island of Pag.

Leaving Pag, Mel is looking a bit windswept - must be that Bura wind!

Approaching mainland and the Velebit Mountains that we last saw when we were in Nin.

Disembarking, we took a slow drive up the coastal road to Selce.  Enjoying the views of Pag Island on the other side.

Lovely views looking towards the Islands of Pag, Rab and Krk

Arriving at the campsite late afternoon, we managed to enjoy the last of the sun and a barbeque.  Only one more day until October, and we have started to notice how quickly the night time temperatures are dropping and so by 7pm it's time to come inside!   Tomorrow we are off to explore Selce before heading off to the Island of Krk, the largest island in Croatia.

Sally x