It has been way too long since I updated this, but we’ve had a busy month and had to make a few changes to our trip that made it difficult. But what an experience in Slovenia! After we left the gorges in Tolmin we embarked on a different adventure, doing “wwoofing” at a house up in the mountains.

We met Will, who was undertaking a huge building task with his family and he took us in, fed us so well and let us stay in his yurt (which if you haven’t done is amazing… the space after van living for 3 months was a bonus!) Circumstances meant we were up there for over three weeks, and honestly experienced every single season as far as weather was concerned, but it was a lot of fun, chopping wood for the log fires, removing trees, sanding wood, and other jobs to help with their house and new build. Oh, and daily goes on the rope swing! I don’t know how it held my weight, but that was a thrill and a view all in one. So good.

We also met Andrej and Larissa up there who welcomed us in with open arms to their house and socially distanced trips to the pub. Plenty of Shnapps was consumed – apparently this is the thing round these parts, but I’m too old for shots and failed miserably (thank you Larissa for looking after me, oops!) But they seriously showed us so much hospitality, cooked us some great food and really made us feel at home up in the mountains.

The weather would be sunny enough for T-shirt and shorts one day, then hail stones and bitter winds the next, we even got to watch as the snow fell on our last day and cosied up for one last time in front of the log fire. Thank you Will for our experience, we can’t wait to see how things are going and hopefully come back one day.

As Slovenia started to get to a point of locking down certain regions, we had to leave the house and start on our journey again and headed off to Lake Bled. Cold, crisp Lake Bled. It was beautiful and quiet and the journey took us through the snowy mountains which was amazing to see how localised the weather is in northern Slovenia.

We walked around the lake each day, it takes about an hour in total but has fantastic views from all sides and cute little cafes and bars dotted around to get warm in. Things were starting to close down once more so we were once again on the road, heading to the North East and stayed in a couple of camper stops with some nice walks and cute animals just roaming around outside, obviously I didn’t want to leave.

But, unfortunately Slovenia locked down. And not just localised regions. So we made the decision to go to Croatia and work our way back west toward the Slovenian/Italian border, where we can hopefully cross safely at some point. We completely realise we are grasping onto the last moments of this trip – we intended to carry on until May – but Covid has stepped in the way in more ways than one, and priorities have shifted.

So, we shall see what Croatia holds, and hopefully get to enjoy the last bits of sunshine before we have to step back into winter again. Slovenia, you have been awesome, thank you to everyone who made it feel like home.