Day 26 - Wednesday July 6th

Weather - fine, sparing cloud, mid/high 20's.

Ahhh Italy - you've gotta love a country where the hostel coffee machine has a 'Cafe Macchiato' button and the dodgy highway petrol station serves one of the best coffees you've ever tasted!

After checking out we followed ViaMichelin again, who this time seemed to be kind and headed us straight into Slovenia without a qualm.

We were both a little bit ingorant about Slovenia - it was really just the country between where we were, (Italy), and where we had to drop the car off at the end of our trip (Vienna). Well we have to tell you that it is one of the most beautiful countries we have ever seen. (For those of you who have seen the NZ South Island, the highlands are sorta like that).

It didn't take us long to reach our guest house as Slovenjia ain't too big - it's about the size of Wales if that helps. (Doesn't help me that much!) We were staying at a place on the river just past Lake Bled, before Lake Bohinj, which are both ski villages. Our digs for the night were in one of four new (May) rooms which had been added to a largish house that in all, could accommodate 12 guests. It was run by Clive (chef) and his wife Myrna and their huge dog Aaron. The river was stumbling distance from our door (I mean it, you wouldn't want to stumble, as you'd roll straight down the slope into the rapids).

So consequently, we booked ourselves into a kayak tour (mainly flat water and a few small rapids) for the afternoon, and headed of to Bohinj to take a walk around the lake.

Bohinj is about 4km long and 1-1.5km wide with massive mountains either side. Cory couldn't bear to look at the map for too long, lest he start crying with what slopes would be on offer in Winter with the gondolas clearly marked. Instead, we started walking. Dense, almost rainforest like cover gave way to an open grassy alpine plain and then a mix of lakeside/forest/mountain face as we ambled along. The lake itself just looked too inviting so we took a dip in the refreshing, but not cold waters. We then headed back for some lunch and the kayaking.

Clive introduced us to Petr, who in Summer runs kayak tours and in Winter is a Ski/Snowboard instructor - both primarily for the residents of our guest house, although many others staying elsewhere also take up his assistance. Naomi and I were joined by two lads from London - and if they are anything to go by, I don't think that England is going to significantly increase its Olympic medal haul even if they do have a home-ground advantage.

We all had a great fun, however, and half-way thru Petr swapped his high-performance kayak for Cory's beginner 'on-the-top' one. MUCH more responsive, and consequently, Cory had an unscheduled dip from having a bit too much fun in it.

After warming up with a great cup of tea (Clive IS a chef from England after all), we waited for dinner. Now I've already mentioned that Clive is a chef twice, so I'm guessing you already have an idea of what dinner was like. Entree of fried cheese (a local slovenian edam-style variety) followed by awesome Goulash (Mushroom for Nai, beef for Cory) and a wonderful berry parfait for desert. Accompanied with local wines and conversation from the other guests (a couple from Melbourne and a couple from England) and it was already way past our bedtime.