Hove to Bovec, Slovenia – Day 0 to 5
Licques, France to
So after the shenanigans at the Eurotunnel we arrived at Calais at just gone nine. Seemed a bit late to be looking for a campsite.
We were off the train in little time, thanks to the efficient loading and unloading arrangement. We head straight for Reims. The plan at this stage was to just find a place to bed down for the night, so after ten minutes or so on the road, I managed to persuade the GPS to take us via a campsite in Licques near Calais.
Luckily for us, it existed and was ok, the guy was busy socialising at the bar so just told us to take any pitch which did not bother us, it was late. We literally just parked opened the roof tent then headed back to the bar for a beer.
The night, with beer came to 20 euros, not bad.
Cassie was first in bed, we decided we’d drink the beer in the fridge, which led to Wendy and I being up until gone eleven. It also meant a night of pee breaks. I never seem to learn.
In the morning we woke to claps of thunder, it was just before eight.
We did not fancy hanging around and used this as an excuse to get up and out of there, we packed up the tent, sleeping bags and had a wash by quarter past eight. Deciding to have breakfast at a cafe on the road. The first two hours or so were in heavy rain and lightning. The landy did not leak too much, luckily. It was dark until about 10 am.
We were headed in the direction of Stuttgart today, but after the rush of the last few weeks had decided we’d stop fairly early, the main agenda for the day was to get out of France, get food and fuel. In the end we made it to Neufchateau for a late lunch. Somehow, to a campsite we had been to on a previous trip.
Cassie had some water balloons so, we decided to use her desire to soak us as an opportunity to cool down after lunch, much to her delight.
Later in the afternoon we pottered off for a swim in the local lake, which was an uninviting brown pond, for a swim which provided the opportunity for a short walk and a much needed cool down.
We have decided tomorrow to continue heading towards Stuttgart, we’ll probably stop just after at around the 400 to 450 km mark, we need to break some miles off the journey if we are going to get to Albania.
The roads are good in this part of the world, the going will be much slower further down. If we land in a good spot we may spend two nights. If not we’ll move on the following day, to tackle another 450km or so.
Licques to Neufchateau
We decided that Cassie was to sleep in her own tent last night. We set her up and put her to bed. Dan and Wendy enjoyed another beer and Dan went off for a shower. While Dan was on his way back from the shower, Cas got up for a wee, but only for Wendy to have to grab her and hold her as a LARGE GALE swept across the area. Dan mentioned branches falling as he walked back to camp, meanwhile Cassie and Wendy were holding down the ladder in hope the Landy and Tent would not blow over sideways!
It was with some trepidation that we decided to sleep in the roof tent. At one point the wind blew from below the roof tent, seeming like the whole thing was blowing up off the roof of the Landy!
After a pretty sleepless night, (for Dan and Cassie…not Wendy, she went to sleep in the comfort knowing Dan was looking after everyone), we woke to a wet morning. A quick pack up, yet again no breakfast, and a coffee at the campsite restaurant.
Cassie had made friends with the neighbours, a couple and their kids from the Netherlands, the evening before. The kids spoke English and this appealed to Cassie. The Dad came over and asked us how we had faired over the night. We exclaimed that we were glad we had not been carried off into the night, flying in the roof tent. They had lost their awning in the gales and might require some parts to med it…not only that but their battery was dead, and please may we give them a jump start? Of course we obliged.
After showers, a jump start and a coffee or two (in Dan’s case), we headed out onto the road. The weather seemed to follow us and we seemed to drive all day in the rain. It finally cleared at about 1400hrs. We decided to find a campsite after spending a good day on the road. The GPS led us to a monstrosity of a campsite, (The ones with a pool and hundreds of caravans). It had been a long day and Cas wanted to swim in the pool, so we relented.
As we set up the roof tent, The clouds and weather front moved in on us. Cas was so hell bent on going for a swim, we chivvied her into putting her kossie on and getting into the pool. She at least got 20min swimming before we legged it back to the tent. We decided to grace the restaurant at the campsite due to the weather and enjoyed good beer…food not so much to write about.
We shall try and head into Austria tomorrow, out running the weather that seems to be following us!
Neufchateau to Westerheim
We started the day with a good deed, jump starting a fellow camper who had apparently defective heater plugs and a weak battery. I did not ask I just obliged.
Killing miles (or kilometers) again today, we made a plan to be beyond Stuttgart before we stopped. We were hanging by the time we got to Stuttgart, so as we passed we looked up a campsite on the GPS. We picked the nearest in the direction we were heading.
Some 43km later, apart from passing some camels on the way to the campsite, we did not achieve anything of much interest, the campsite was a metropolis. Had we not been stopping for one night only we would have carried on. Cassie loved it, purely because it had three pools.
Needless to say as we rolled in we got one of the last spots and were tired enough not to care. Given the fact that the skies were turning eerie again and we were in for a battering. So the order of the afternoon was tent up and secured, swim for Cassie as Mum and Dad supervised with a beer, then as the rain hit, we headed for the camp restaurant for some Bavarian pork and beer. We had a two person platter which was way to much for us and drank enough beer to help us sleep throughout the storm.
By the way drinking beer to get through a storm is stupid. The rain and beer make you need to pee five times more than normal… Broken night it was then.
Westerheim to Ramsau am Dachstein
We woke to pouring rain again, the flavour of the trip so far. We decided to simply pack up and move on. Dan and Cassie went to get breakfast from the camp shop. Croissants and Coffee to go.
Another day of driving it was to be. We headed out and decided to make it all the way to Austria. Again it was to be a day of clouds and rain. As we decided to stop, Cassie chose the camp off the GPS and we headed in that direction. Unfortunately two things happened…the camp was full and the GPS decided to fail on us. We could not get it to start again and so just drove until we saw a sign for camping and stopped.
Again they were full, but gave us a spot at the top in the car park of the Pension/House. Grey skies loomed and so we battened down the hatches, expecting the worst.
The camp/pension grill was where we decided to have dinner, but the old guy that ran the place decided that it wasn’t good enough to open with just a few people and closed for the night. We made our own concoction for dinner of potatoes, bacon and onions alongside scrambled eggs. We fondly named this “Bubble and Peep”.
We then headed off to bed in anticipation of another stormy night with interrupted sleep.
Ramsau am Dachstein to Bovec – Day 5
Not a lot happened today. Today was a relatively short hop to one of our favourite areas, we have been to Bovec several times, normally because it is convenient to stop at on our journey to where ever we are going. The difference this time was that we wanted to stay at a campsite we had walked through near the river Koritnica, which is actually in Vodenca about 2 km from Bovec. Having left early from yesterdays campsite, stopped for breakfast and lunch we arrived relatively early at about 1330. Unfortunately the reception of the campsite was closed until 1600.
Dangerous Roads
Getting here was exciting, we used the Wurzen pass on the way out of Austria which features 18% inclines and a few hair pins, for this with the fully loaded Landy low range is fairly useful.
The Wurzen Pass was followed by using the 206 road which goes from Kranjska Gora to Bovec. This road we had previously travel in the other direction several years ago and resulted in Cassie reliving her breakfast.
The Vršič Pass road, has some pretty serious gradients and cobbled sections, the views are spectacular. There are 50 numbered hairpin turnings, but I would say at least a hundred turns in total, as they are only numbered if they are proper hairpins! I think both of these roads feature on the Dangerous roads website.
At Vodenca, as we knew the area, we just left the car on the side of the road and wandered down to the river, to have lunch on the other side. To cross the river you have to use one of the wire bridges, which Wendy does not like, Cassie and I bounced over it in joy!
The water was no warmer than usual, it must be about 10 degrees Celsius, cold enough to cause pain in your feet and hands. Cassie got dunked for soaking me having promised she would not and I eventually managed to get in and out in a very short second. Wendy took the option of looking pretty on the stoney beach. By the time this was done it was almost time for the reception to open so we killed the last few minutes, having a Radler at the bar.
The plan for tomorrow was to have a chilled day of walking and swimming.