Twisting on the Russian road, Vrsic Pass, Slovenia

Dave the motorhome is happily parked up at Camping Bled by Lake Bled (N46.36163 E14.08098) in Slovenia.

We were up quite early for us, but Jon and Anne were already up, showered and breakfasted – looks like the seven months we’ve been on the road has altered our sleep patterns and an early get up is anything before 8.30am!  After a quick Dave tidy up and a bite to eat we set off in Jon’s car to drive the Vrsic pass, the highest pass in Slovenia.

There was a path there for many years that the locals used to ‘nip’ over to the next town for some shopping, but during the first world war it was upgraded from a path to a road to supply the Isonzo front. How do you go about getting the man power to build something like that? You get in 10,000 Russian prisoners of war. The area was so prone to avalanches that the prisoners worked under anti-avalanche fences, but they weren’t strong enough for two of the avalanches and over 300 prisoners and several Austrian guards lost their lives.  On the 90th Anniversary of the road opening part of it was renamed the Russian road in memory of those who lost their lives.

The pass is 24km long, but has 50 hairpin bends and lots of other tight twists and turns, which made over all feel a little queasy, but Jay still managed to get some good video footage – he’s a trooper.

When we reached the other side the temperature was noticeably chilly, so we stopped off for a warm drink. Then, as we’d only gone round 50 hairpin bends, we figured we might as well make it a Century, so we headed back over it – this time stopping off for photos as the cloud came lower and lower down the hills until the inevitable happened, the rain started.  Rain on normal roads is bad enough, but this thing had cobbles on each of the hairpin bends. Jay and I were so glad Jon was doing all the driving and that we weren’t in Dave – sorry Dave, but it would have been touch and go.

We stopped off for a bite to eat on the way back in a restaurant that may have been decorated by Barbara Cartland, there was every hue of pink you could image in there and plenty of frills. A quick nip into the supermarket and I’m faced with the bread counter – why don’t they make it easy for me and have it on a shelf? Lots of pointing and ‘Ne’s’ resulted in a ‘Da’ for the loaf I wanted.

Back at the campsite it’s tipping it down, so we’ve had afternoon naps and Jay’s been doing some search engine stuff on the website. Anyone new to our ramblings, please do get in touch and let us know how you found us – our email address is julieandjason@ourtour.co.uk. This search engine stuff is all a bit of a mystery, but from what we can tell most people don’t find our site by searching for motorhome and Europe – which I thought they would. Looks like we’ve a bit of work to do so more people can join in on our tour with us.

We had thought about a hiring a rowing boat on the lake and having a camp fire this afternoon/evening, but the weather has other ideas. Hope you’re all having a great Monday (and those of you in the UK a welcome couple of extra days off).

Ju x