The previous night I’d been to the campsite shop and bought some pineapple slices and sweet bread like things fully of sugary slop. They weren’t pleasant but I swear they were 600 calories each so I thought this would give me plenty of energy for the morning.
I was glad to be leaving Italy. It’s a beautiful place but the people are odd. 
They have bizarre illogical methods and rules that don’t work with me and I always seem to be breaking them. So today I was heading for the mountains of Slovenia, Lake Bled to be precise. I’d heard it was a gorgeous lake in a beautiful setting.
I quickly started climbing my first mountain. The first mountain I’d climbed since Arezzo in fact so I had to give the legs a good push to get them going. It wasn’t so nice moving so slowly, I was used to whizzing along the flat planes around Rimini and Venice.
I soon got to Gorizia. A town that seems to share itself with Italy and Slovenia, meaning I had a very unceremonious entry into Slovenia. I instantly got in to trouble, the road signs don’t seem to point where I had noted down the previous night, so out came the GPS.
I followed a beautiful turquoise river all the way to Seli Pri Volcah. I couldn’t figure out why it was such a bright turquoise colour, perhaps someone could let me know? The lake at Most Na Soci was the same, I took a photo of it but the colour doesn’t show up.
I then headed deep into the mountains. The mountains were a lot larger than I’m used to, towering above me. I had many small climbs but I was waiting for the big one, and after dinner it came. 4100 feet to be precise, it was a killer! I ran out of water halfway up so stopped at a bar. The barman was an athletic enthusiast and made me up a homemade isotonic drink of sugar, some kind of salt and water from the river in his yard that he swore was drinkable.
I finally made it to Bohinj absolutely knackered. My legs were shaking and I felt I couldn’t go on another mile. I had some sultanas and sweets for the sugar and plodded on towards Bled.
I was stupid today, I bit off more than I could chew. I’ll try not do that again.
Arriving at the campsite on the side of Lake bled I took a cooling swim. What I’d heard was correct. It really is beautiful around here and Slovenia is a gorgeous country. Tomorrow I should be heading out of it though, and into Austria.