On the Soca Trail

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Before

To get to our next destination we weaved in and out of countries as we followed the Alps towards Slovenia. We broke our journey up and spent a night in a camp near St Mortiz and a night near Doube in Italy. We finally drove into Austria before crossing over into Solvenia. It took two long days of driving but ask Chris what his highlight is and he will definitely say ‘Stelvio Pass’

What is Stelvio Pass? Well, I guess we have an episode of TopGear to thank for it’s fame. It is a mountain pass, regarded by Clarkson as one of the finest driving roads in Europe. Based in Italy (not too far from the Swiss Border) Stelvio Pass crosses a mountain range of 2700 metres. There are about 50 switch backs which are a huge drawcard for road cyclists and motorbikes. It’s also meant to be a great place to try out the handling of a nice car… an Austin Martin, Pagani Zonda or a Ferrari. Or…. How about a big blue van named ‘Brian-not-sexy-but-good’ ?

Good ol Brian. The van is a legend. Yes, we were s-l-o-w. Yes, we had to pull over to let people pass. Yes, it was first gear most of the way. But… we… made… it…! While Stelvio might be a mole hill compared to the big mountain passes we crossed in the Himalayas (up to 5500 metres!) Brian is not a 4x4 and isn’t really designed for the mountains. He really is proving to be a great van. Oh yeah, and Chris is a pretty great driver too!

Our great mountain passes didn’t stop at Stelvio either. A short but sharp pass in Austria had a gradient of 18 percent while the road over the Julian Alps into the Triglav National Park had another 50 tight switchbacks!

On the Soca Trail

Ahh Slovenia. It didn’t take long before we were very, very impressed with this area. Unfortunately our Sat Nav doesn’t include Slovenia so we had to resort to using a map. We lasted about five minutes before our first map related argument.

Him: okay, where do we need to turn off?
Her: ohmygod, lookatthat - its so pretty! huh, what? Oh like, up here somewhere... what’s this place called? (pointing to map) Is this Slovenia… and that is… Austria. Assuming the green line is… the border?
Him: left or right?
Her: possibly either… oh actually, sorry, turn around…Hun, why do you look so… tense?

After our little episode, I began to pay better attention to the map and we ended up making camp near the small village of Trenta. This area is in a deep valley surrounded by the Julian Alps. Lucky for us, we managed to get a great pitch overlooking the emerald waters of the Soca River. At night, we could hear nothing but the sound of the water running right next to the van. Brilliant!

We spent our time exploring the nicest parts of the Soca River. The river is famous for its stunning emerald coloured water. It is so crystal clear - definitely one of the nicest rivers we have ever seen. There is a 20km path running alongside the river called the Soca Trail. The girl at the tourist information centre was brilliant and pointed out the nicest parts of the river on the map. We found some parts of the trail to be a bit confusing but we did manage to see all the nicest spots eventually. Waterfalls, rapids, deep pools and moss covered rocks - the Soca River has it all. One afternoon after a hot day of walking, we lay listening to the sound of the gushing waters, and managed to fall asleep. Our first afternoon nap since we started travelling - hey we deserved it!

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