Overland to Slovenia 2024

Reading about Istria it was difficult to know where to head to. While the Adriatic west coast sounded beautiful (and indeed I do remember it being so from visiting there in 1980 - the former Yugoslavia), we were slightly put off by reviews talking about hoards of people and poor (expensive) campsites - September still being high season in Croatia. Instead we opted for a smaller resort on the east coast, Moscenicka Draga, from where we hoped to be able to access the Ucka Nature Reserve in the hills behind. The weather forecast assured us of some dry and sunny weather too, so we were set to go! Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived, and although a picturesque small town, with a lovely coastline and many beautiful grand old villas, some faded and empty, it probably wasn’t really the right place for us. But decided to stay for a couple of days, generally relax, catch up on laundry and shopping etc, and keep our fingers crossed that the weather improved - sadly it didn’t. Again, unpr...

Trying to leave Storm Boris behind, we headed a couple of hours south to the Vipava Valley - famous for its wonderful wine production. But before we settled for the night, we made a touristic excursion to the famous UNESCO Skocjan Caves. Blustery Vipava Valley Horrified by the number of coaches, busses and cars gathering when we arrived, we assembled with around 100 other tourists for the booked 1pm tour 🤣 It was quite an experience! But to be fair, absolutely incredible. The tour took us underground through a 6km network of hidden passageways and huge spectacular chambers full of the most beautiful array of stalactites and stalagmites, carved out by the River Reca over thousands of years - absolutely stunning! The river actually flows openly through one of the ginormous chambers, the Whispering Cave, and with tremendous force given the recent rains - quite a scary experience walking on the narrow walkways that cling to the cave walls above! Interesting too that the river actually eme...