Well folks, here we go again. We finally got away on 13th September, much later than normal but hey apart from a few weeks around Christmas we are away until end of April!!
Our motorhome is by now very much our second home and in some ways we feel just as comfortable living in it as we do at home, I think the bed is actually better than the one at home.
Of course, the comfort of the motorhome is very much weather dependent as we have found out the last couple of days, more on that later.
We chose a route which we had not taken before which took us into Austria. This is when the fun started. As we are over 3.5 tonnes (and honest) we had to purchase a Go Box to pass through the tolls. If you are under 3.5 tonnes you purchase a Vignette, which is cheaper. Our Go Box cost us 90 Euros but we were told that when we leave Austria we would hand it back and any credit left on it would be refunded plus the deposit of 5 Euros for the box.
Well every garage we stopped at told us it would be the next one, and in all we stopped about 3 times to return this bloody box. Finally we were told that the box was to be returned just before the turn off for Ljubljana which of course is in Slovenia. Now why would the Slovenian garages be interested in taking a Go Box which comes from Austria? You guessed it, they weren’t!! So we still have it. Before we left Austria it had started bleeping telling us our credit was low so I doubt if we were going to get much back anyway. Every trip a learning curve.
Our first major stop was the beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia. Famous for its world rowing regattas and possibly one of the prettiest lakes we have visited. It is also famous for a very tasty custard tart called Cremeschnitte, although I think its fame is just a very successful marketing tool, that said it is delicious.
We have visited Bled in the past but this time we stayed at the Bled campsite. Plenty of spaces but difficult for us as they had obviously had a lot of rain and the ground was very muddy. This made it hard for us to find a suitable spot to park for the night as we didn’t want to get stuck in the mud. (We came close to being stuck in the driveway when we left home). We did manage it though and got away easily the following day.
We walked around the lake which is 6km in total and with the autumn sunshine it was quite stunning in places. Certainly the best we have ever seen the lake. We stopped and shared a piece of the famous cake with a coffee and rewarded ourselves even more so with a beer at the end. Walking around the lake we heard plenty of English voices, the most we have heard since we started the trip.
The following day we still had 4 hours drive to get to Rovinj in Croatia. Same campsite but later in the month, the weather by now was a very comfortable sunny 23 degrees. It had been quite a slog to get here and so we did nothing but enjoy the sunshine and chill out for the next two days. It was short lived though, as yesterday (Sunday 24th) we had stormy thunder storms all day and lots of rain. When we get long rainy days, the camper can get a little claustrophobic. This morning was a little better but still wet but the sun is set to return tomorrow. In fact as I type I can see blue sky. Croatia this time of year is a bit hit and miss. When it rains, boy it rains, but the sun can return just as quick and we will still have some lovely warm days.
We are staying here until Saturday when the campsite will close. We are unsure of where we will go next and our decision will be made later in the week and as always, will be weather dependent. Until then we will continue to enjoy the imminent warm weather.
See you in the next instalment.
