COMPUTER FAILURE

Unfortunately our lovely new Asus tablet has stopped working and we cannot download any of our photos from our cameras!!!!!!!!!!
As we are sure it is the photos you really want to see this is a problem and unless we get it fixed here I will not be updating the blog .  However we are really enjoying our trip and everything else is going well.  This is an amazing place!
I'll email everyone if I am able to start putting up photos again.

WELCOME TO NEW ZEALAND

We arrived in Auckland at about 11.00 am tired but not suffering much from jet lag. We picked up the hire car and as we drove south the weather improved until at Taupo it was warm and sunny.  The drive down the side of Lake Taupo was beautiful...

...with views of the snow capped mountains including an active volcano with a plume of steam and smoke. 

We  had booked a week in a time share at the southern end of Lake Taupo from which we have gone on walks in ancient woodlands and alongside the river.  We also drove round Tongariro National Park and visited the ski areas with buildings perched on top of lava from the volcano.  

We had super views of the mountains including Mt Ngauruhoe - Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings.

We always seem to find at least one oddity - this time it was a giant carrot at the town of Ohakune which as well as being a ski resort is at the centre of the carrot growing area that produces 66% of the carrots in North Island!

THE RETURN

What a pleasure it is to be driving in France again – good road surfaces, excellent signage and even the secondary roads wide enough for two vehicles to pass without too much of a problem.

We visited Kevin, Aurelia and their lovely children – old friends from Castle Cary – who now live at Annecy. 

While there we went to Geneva and visited the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

The displays explaining their history and work were very interesting, especially as, when we were first married, Jane did some work for them at Birmingham University.

We also drove up a mountain near Annecy and had lovely views back towards Geneva.

Thanks to Kevin and Aurelia for a most enjoyable weekend with excellent food and for introducing us to a board game called Carcassonne which could become quite addictive!!

The drive north has been uneventful and we are crossing back to UK on Friday for another round of visits to family and friends.  John is also taking a wedding in July for old friends Amy and Cookie. 

In October we are doing something a little different – we are flying out to New Zealand where we will hire a car and tour both islands, stopping off in Hong Kong on the way back to visit Jane’s brother Simon and sister-in-law Ivy.

So we hope you all have a good summer and I will let you know when I resume the blog in October.

LAKES AND MOUNTAINS

The drive through – or over – the Julian Alps was memorable.  Between Bovec and Kranjska Gora we crossed the Vršič Pass, with 50 hairpin bends, built by Russian Prisoners during WW1. 

Part way along it is a delightful little Russian Orthodox Chapel and cemetery where many who died building the road are buried. 

Crossing into Italy we stopped at the two Fusine Lakes and walked around lower one.  The water was mirror-calm!

From there we drove round the edge of the Dolomites between massive vertical faces and towering pinnacles of rock…

..before crossing two more passes - Gardena (2136m) and Sella (2244m).

By the time we reached Lake Garda the weather had become very hot and humid.  We camped just north of the lake which is shaped a little like a leg of lamb and, before leaving the site, cycled 28+km to visit Riva del Garda on the northern tip of the lake…

…before travelling on to Lake Como.  We were unimpressed by either Garda or Como both of which are over commercialised, much preferring smaller lakes like Iseo, and Endine where our campsite overlooked the lake.

Of the three large lakes we definitely preferred Lake Maggiore which seems to have escaped much of the twentieth century development.

Our journey to Aosta took us through seemingly endless residential and commercial areas which was not much fun in the heat.  However, the Aosta Valley with its string of medieval forts was fascinating and from Aosta we drove up a lovely valley with several waterfalls to the mountain resort of Cogne where the air was fresh and clean.  The sun was still very warm but the air, especially at night, was cooler.

At Cogne we spent a day walking about 8 km up the Valmonte valley until we were in the mountains about 300 metres (about 1000 feet) above the town. 

We were able to walk up one side of the river and back down the other, with superb views, lovely waterfalls…

…and lots of wild flowers for Jane to photograph like this Alpine Bird’s Eye Primrose.

Leaving Cogne we crossed the St Bernard Pass into France.  Though not as high as Sella there was still much more snow at the top.

The pass involved 29 hairpin bends going up and 21 going down to Bourg St Maurice and our site for two nights at nearby Landry.

WATERFALLS AND WW1 BATTLES

The north western part of Slovenia is mountainous – the Julian Alps – with soaring limestone peaks, rivers of green water looking milky over the white rocks, waterfalls emerging from caves in sheer rock faces and Alpine meadows, full of wild flowers, below the forest that covers the lower slopes.

From Bled we drove along narrow winding roads to another lake – Bohinj…

…at one end of which, in the village of Ribčev Laz is a lovely little church with beautiful frescoes painted on the walls.

From the other end of the lake we enjoyed a slightly damp walk up hundreds of steps to the Savica waterfall…

…and the following day we drove to the nearby village of Stara Fužina and walked up through the Mostnica Gorge...

...to the Mostnica waterfall.

Before we left Bohinj we strolled through the woods and meadows beside the campsite to see and photograph the wild flowers.

By then the sun was shining again and we drove to Kobarid where a “Historical Trail” led us on a circular walk from the campsite, taking in another waterfall – the Koziak – as it fell into a large “bowl” almost totally enclosed by the surrounding rock. 

During the First World War this area was a battleground between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The Italians built defensive positions into the sides of the Soča Gorge…

(did you spot the interesting footbridge which bounces as you cross it?)

...and these still remain in remarkably good condition. 

Many thousands of Italian soldiers died here and 7014 (of which at least 3000 were un-named) were eventually buried in a mass grave topped by St Anton’s Church.

Alongside the road leading up to the church were erected the “Stations of the Cross” beautifully carved in stone.

Moving on we reached Bovec stopping on the way to scramble round and over huge boulders in an almost dry river bed to see the Boka waterfall. 

We were prevented from getting as close as we would have liked by the river which at that point left no room between the vertical rock sides.

INTO SLOVENIA

Leaving Zagreb, we travelled east to a National Park and Čigoč – a village where every house was reputed to have a stork’s nest on the roof.  Unfortunately, there were not many to be seen this year.  Many of the traditional wooden houses were built without chimneys, the smoke exiting via the attic where meat and fish were being smoked.  The restaurant/camp site where we stayed did have a stork’s nest where eggs were being incubated by devoted parents-to-be.

The near-by bird sanctuary had very little to see, the main wild-life being very hungry mosquitoes!!

The next few days were spent criss-crossing the Croatia/Slovenia border.  We spent a couple of nights at a spa in Lendava, Slovenia where we were able to swim in the Olympic-size pool and relax in the thermal pools of warm water containing naturally occurring paraffin!! (apparently very good for the skin).  Back in Croatia we visited an old village at Kumrovec, which is now a museum showing how people lived and worked until recent times and where General Tito, first post-war President of Yugoslavia was born.  

As at Čigoč the houses were built of wood, often with attached barns…

…but people would have had only a bedroom of their own, the cooking being done in communal kitchens.

The necessary trades were carried out in a variety of workshops. 

Slovenia is a land about the size of Wales, mostly covered in dense mixed forest, gentle hills, sparkling clear green rivers, castles, pretty villages and pastureland with small traditional farms.  The towns often have pleasant but unremarkable old centres and spreading residential and commercial areas – almost all spotlessly clean.  A number of towns were bombed heavily during World War 2 destroying much of their history.  Among them was Novo Mesto where little remains of the old town…

…but it is where the Adria Factory is situated.

We had arranged to visit the factory and were treated like VIPs being greeted and showed round by the Director in charge of Adria UK.  We had a very interesting tour and were given several replacement parts, free of charge, as well as “goody bags” containing hold-alls, tee shirts, head tubes and baseball caps!

Near Novo Mesto is “Base 20” – the headquarters of the local resistance group during WW2.  High on a hillside, in dense forest, in natural depressions formed by the surface collapsing into some of the many caves in the limestone, were built wooden huts for dormitories, kitchen, storage, a printing press, hospital, meeting rooms and much more.  The base was never discovered by the Germans.

Passing through several other villages and small towns we arrived at Ljubljana, Capital of Slovenia.

What remains of the Old Town straddles the river and has been nicely preserved and restored.  We had a delicious fish lunch in a little restaurant below the colonnades alongside the river.

We wandered up to the castle…

…and round the Old Town where we found an exhibition of woodwork in the Town Hall, including these wonderful wooden bicycles.

One of the bridges was guarded by four ferocious dragons.

From Ljubljana we headed for the Alps and spent three nights at Lake Bled.

This small delightful lake has an island with a church on it and is overlooked by a castle perched on a high cliff.  Nearby is the Vintgar Gorge…

…where we spent a most enjoyable day walking along the wooden walkways first built in 1893.

We had a splendid view of the waterfall at the lower end before returning to our starting point by another route round the mountain.