Wet and cold, but not unhappy!

It’s all my fault- I had been saying yesterday morning that I’d been missing no proper rain since we’d set off. The rain that started last night didn’t stop and was astoundingly and consistently heavy. We set off for the lovely area of Bohinj and found that the heavy rain was of course heavy snow in the higher areas. We felt very pro in our knobbly tires and four wheel drive mode, with low range gears and snow chains also in hand should we need them and winch at the ready in case someone else was stuck. By the time we descended into our destination valley it was back to rain but we decided, fully water proofed up, to still go on the walk around the WW1 Italian army bunkers and trenches that still remained in the hills of the area. We also planned to take in the picturesque waterfall mentioned just off the route. We didn’t make it to the waterfall- the immense amount of rain had turned the gentle sluggish river into a roaring

maelstrom and higher up it had breached it’s banks and the path. Not to worry though, we saw plenty of small waterfalls spurting every couple of meters over and above the path as the limestone rocks channelled the water magically in and out of mysterious and invisible holes. The climax waterfall for us was down the hundred or so steps we faced to reach the climax viewpoint on our route. We stood, warm but sopping wet, (even on the inside of our waterproofs a little) and laughed and laughed at the fully fledged stream now cascading down the steps. We turned tail and headed for a warm, dry car and lunch!
The precipitation continued and, despite being only between 500-700m high, driving all afternoon the thermometer was stuck firmly at minus two and the water firmly formed as snowflakes. As for the morning journey we averaged 25km per hour. The snow was obviously unusually early- there were still fairly green leaves on the deciduous trees which made them bow and sometimes break onto roads. The fire brigade were out in force in one town affected by two fully fledged trees across the main street and on one bit of road we had to get the local resident out with his chainsaw to (surprisingly rapidly) clear it for us!
We enjoyed the dynamics and excitement of the trip but we were tired and it was dark when we arrived at the at the thankfully open camp site so we cruised into town for dinner. We tried in vain to find a nice, inexpensive local place serving Slovenian food but they were all shut for the season so we trudged into the pizza place everyone had been directing us to and found it buzzing with local people with lots of local twists and specialist side dishes that made it about an 85% Slovenian experience after all!
Photos to follow