Trevisio-Mangart-Bled

Me: “Conny, Igor is still in US and it’s holiday on Tuesday. Let’s meet halfway, on Bled, and visit Urška. I’ll take the camper and we’ll figure out the plan on the way. Think about it and let me know.”
Conny: “ Thinking done! What do I need? Surf, climbing gear, bike, high heels?”
Me: “All of it, you never know”
Every year, few of us girls who used to film snowboarding videos together, meet up for the good old days and go on a random vacation. We arrived at Urška’s friday evening and planned the route approximately before bed. Detailed planning was never our virtue but somehow things always turned out well for us no matter where we were.
Morning jog and swimming in the lake, before the swarm of tourists arrive, are the first signs of ageing. Back in the days we used to go to bed at this time and running was the solution only while escaping the police. Snowboarding in the cities was not always welcomed so you need to have some aerobic capacity to make it through the day.

"First in the raw" fruit bar with a view

We’re arranging the bikes into the camper garage and laughing at my parking skills since I parked right under the “no campers” sign. Our first destination was Trevisio with a climbing spot customized for our skill level - retarded monkey without an arm and one legged giraffe. I used to be terribly afraid of climbing but I have a new fear now compared to which climbing is a kids game - driving a camper on the top touristic weekend in the narrow slovenian roads. It looked something like the restaurant kitchen with a Michelin star during the saturday evening rush. “ Urška, get your head out and tell me how much do I have to the wall! Conny, open the window, move the branch! Zvono, dry my forehead! Stop! Wait! Go! No, you go backwards, how the hell am I supposed to do it with this truck?!…”
Once we made it to Trevisio my adrenal gland was already empty and I physically couldn’t be scared anymore so climbing became fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon making fun of each other getting stuck in the rock in the weirdest poses and we found out climbing was not really Conny’s thing. Italians are chilled when it comes to camping and we could undisturbedly spend the night up in the woods under the clear starry sky. This ideal scenery was actually too cold for our summer clothing edition and there was something running in the bushes so we ended up in bed earlier than planned.

This looks like the opening scene from some cheap horror movie

The next day we drove to the bottom of the Mangart road, took our bikes out and went uphill. Urška had an old shitty bike with the bell on it and this bell was was a sign for time out. So our ascent sounded like jingle bells and it took us forever. Although she’s a world class snowboarder and probably going for the Olympics this winter, cycling uphill is not her strength. She regretted not having her motorbike every serpentine and wanted to quit couple of times but bit by bit we made it to the top. We knowingly didn’t take any extra clothes with us since we counted on the sun to warm us up while eating a soup at the mountain hut. Of course there was a total eclipse of the sun, huge cloud and an alien spaceship covering the sun once we made it to the hut. The only reasonable method to get down was to paddle downhill as hard as possible and maybe get warmer from paddling.
Just to make the experience full I didn’t fill enough water into the tank so we had to take a bath in 12C cold river Soča. A bit of frozen nudity never harmed anyone…except those who died of hypothermia. Anyhow, that was just a WARM UP for the upcoming day. We drove to Most na Soči and parked the car on the train station. The idea was to get on a car-train early in the morning and shortcut through the mountain to Bohinjska Bistrica. Train width is just 10 centimetres wider than our camper so that might be the reason why I couldn’t sleep so well that night. Next thing I know I’m trying to thread the needle and park it backwards on the wagon. Stress took over and I have no idea what happened in the following few minutes but we’re on the train racing through the tunnels as if we were on a rollercoaster. Handbreak is pulled as much as it goes and the gear is in but I’m still occasionally pushing on the break, just in case. I wouldn’t want to get the bill from the BMW in front which our 3.5t vehicle could push off the train in a second. My driving instructor would be proud to see me now. I’ve come a long way from parking sideways into the bushes.

Following the random trip pattern, we decided to spice up the last day with some canyoning on Bled. We’re putting on the wetsuits and helmets and choose to ignore the rappelling instructions. We’re too experienced from two days ago anyways. Jumping into the first pool distorted our faces instantly and freezing water is making its way to our backs. We’re trying to find an option to get out the canyon early but the high rocks are surrounding us and we have no other option then to continue downstream.  Jumping off the waterfalls, tobogganing the rocks, swimming in the natural pools…it would all be amazing if it was 20 degrees warmer. This way all I wanted was to get over with it. I didn’t even care that I have to jump off a 9 metres high waterfall in the end which I would normally never do.
Under the impression of everything that happened these days we closed this gathering as somewhat real women and went for a massage. Conny’s back was in pain from climbing, Urška’s leg sore from cycling and my shoulders tight from deep freezing in the canyon. Maybe we should stick to snowboarding.