Although Bohinj is only 20 km from Bled, we decided that we needed to go for various reasons: 1. There was a cheese and wine festival, where the local wineries and cheese makers come to show off their produce; 2. There was the annual cows ball where they celebrate the cows coming down from the mountain for the winter; 3. Margo, my neighbor from South Africa, was meeting us for the weekend.
We set up camp at our campsite, situated along the banks of the Sava River while waiting for Margo’s arrival. It was a really beautiful evening, so we floated down the river on lilo’s and collected some wood for our braai on the river banks. 2 belgian girls were camping next to us and later joined us at the fire. They had an interesting bat finder which picked up the sound waves which the bats communicated with. It was really good to have a real fire again and eat some delicious meat (sponsored by Margo). As the river was really cold, we were able to build a rock pool and use the water as a fridge so that we could drink cold beers again (as Bud had angrily thrown our useless cooler box away out of frustration!!!)
The next morning, we cycled to Lake Bohinj, around it and up a really steep hill to the Savica Waterfall. Unfortunately, it was quite misty and therefore could not see too much at the waterfall, however, it was an enjoyable cycle. The Savica waterfall is a 2 part waterfall with its highest part being 78 m high and smallest being 25 m. After our long cycle, we arrived back at our campsite, more than ready for the Cheese and Wine Event. Spent the evening drinking local wine, eating tons of cheese and dancing with the locals to Slovenian Classics such as ‘My Pipi’ and ‘EIeIEIO’ as well as Yodelling ‘YEEEEE HAHAHAH’.
The next day was the famous Kravji Ball (Cow’s Ball), which was an interesting insight into the Slovenian Culture. The day was celebrated with cultural dancing, music, wood chopping displays, food (such as Zganci), schnapps (which was so strong that I ended up throwing half away) and the cow parade which was the main event of the day. The locals where very excited about the event and one lady told us that she only sells her work at the Cows Ball. Another lady was so excited about her home-made liquors that she made us taste all 15 flavours. Someone else offered us a pint of home-made cold tea, a half a pint of sweet wine and some sour grapes as a gift which we gratefully accepted with confusion. The festival was really fun, the locals enthusiasm made it special and it was really great to have Margo with us.
We had planned to leave the next morning, however an unfortunate event had happened during our stay at Bohinj: 1.) Dora had started to get tired from all the driving and the right back shock had broken. This did not dampen our spirits in any way and allowed us to stay another night in Slovenia (Yay!!!). Bud spent the day carrying out a little bit of bush mechanics and Dora was once again in good health by the time we left.
Slovenia was one of the most amazing countries and possibly the highlight of our trip so far. The people are really friendly and welcoming, the landscape is beautiful and the culture is interesting. We will definitely be returning here again in the future, maybe in Winter to do some skiing.
HVALA SLOVENIA