From Italy to Tolmin Gorge

We woke up at 7:30am to the sound of lots of church bells. I didn’t mind as I’d already been awake for 30 minutes debating whether or not to get up, and it’s better than being woken up by barking dogs.
By 8:30am we were pretty much ready to leave put everything away in Wanda ready for the journey. Then I set the sat nav and we left.
According to TomTom it was just a 36 mile journey to our next stop but it would take the best part of 2 hours.
Leaving Italy the rain was unbelievable and the water just ran across the road in streams. We were already up at 1500 meters of elevation when we were parked and for the next 45 minutes we just climbed and climbed and roads that were rain soaked and covered in the autumn fall.
Then we had to start descending into Slovenia and we were in second gear for the next 20 minutes. Rivers of water gushed down the roads and off the switchbacks and parts of the roads were completely washed away. Then just as we entered Slovenia we started climbing again but fortunately although the roads had suddenly gotten a lot worse they had a lot more grip. Probably because the tarmac had been completely washed off.
The rain just got heavier and I did debate whether or not to even come into Slovenia today but we thought we’d risk it and hoped that the whether would ease off. It didn’t ease off and we finally reached our first location in Slovinia at 11am and we’d hardly gone over 25mph all the way here.
While the rain hammered down on Wanda we had brunch of cereal and Wanda toasties and then with the rain not showing any signs of stopping we put on our waterproofs and Wellie boots and wrapped my camera gear in plastic bags before putting it in a rucksack and leaving.
We had parked in P1 for Tomlin Gorges the Motorhome parking area free of charge and had a 1/2 mile walk to the entrance and by the time we got there, the rucksack was soaked completely through and although we were in our waterproofs we were soaked with sweat because it was still 15°c outside.
We paid the entrance fee of €5 each to a lovely lady in the ticket kiosk who looked very bored and then we entered through an electronic gate. Straight away we went down some stone steps and we were next to a beautiful river. On a normal day this river is turquoise but because of all the rain it was now a very pale blue but still beautiful.
We headed over a wooden bridge taking photos and then we came to a tunnel that was dimly lit and went up with steps in. When we came out we were at a huge natural crack in the gorge with water gushing through and an underwater cave with thermal springs in. The steam rising up from the thermal springs and being washed down stream by the river against the massive grey and green gorge sides made it look like something from Jurassic park.
As I was taking photos the rain suddenly stopped and I couldn’t believe it. We were the only ones here and we had the best view in the house.
From this gorge we went back through the tunnels and crossed 2 more bridges. The sound of the water rushing underneath was deafening. Apparently on the Friday just gone they had, had to close the gorge to visitors so that should give you a sense of just how much water is coming through here now.
After the bridges we climb up a mountain of stone steps and came to another crack in the gorge with a huge boulder wedged half way down. I couldn’t really get low enough to get a decent picture so we carried on up and out of the gorge.
Coming out of the electronic gate at the top to get back to the ticket office we had to walk along the road and cross the devils bridge. This bridge was built in 1912 by loggers and was originally used by the villagers to get to town. This was also used in the 2023 cycle race tour of Slovinia, it’s a beautiful stretch of road.
By the time we had got back to Wanda we had walked over 5 miles and just as we got in and closed the door the rain started helling it down again. We had been so lucky.
We stripped off our wet stuff and hung it in the bathroom and then I spotted a tap outside and decided to get some fresh water. It was the slowest tap in the world and I got absolutely soaked to the skin while refilling the water and got back into Wanda took all my clothes off and put my night clothes on then I set the sat nav to find our park up.
For the past 2 weeks we’ve been looking at places to stay in Slovinia and it seemed expensive but we were prepared to pay as we haven’t spent anything on park ups as yet.
It just happened that as I looked to on the map to see how far away our next stop was that I found an equestrian Center that has a free Motorhome park up and it’s on route.
We left Tomlin Gorges at 2pm and arrived at our park up at 3:30pm and it’s beautiful.
We are on a huge park up next to a French campervan and we’re surrounded by mountains and we haven’t been on a road in Slovinia that hasn’t had a river running next to it yet. It really is a beautiful area and so far a beautiful country, even in the rain.
The rain is supposed to get much heavier tonight and there’s storm warnings but this park up is much higher than the river and we’re well away from any mountainsides so there’s no chance of a landslide or being flooded out overnight. We feel safe here and wild camping in Slovinia is illegal this park up is a super lucky find and night 27 of not paying.
We had an early dinner at 4:30pm then we both got into our nightstuff and closed the blinds to settle in for the night as the rain continued to fall getting heavier all the time.Read more