By Bike

Day 5 (8th August)– Bovec to Faaker am See.

At an elevation of 1,611m, Vršič pass is the highest in the Eastern Julian Alps and the first ‘official’ pass of our up and down trek to Nice.

An old trail upgraded for military purposes as well as for logging and timber transportation in the early 20th century. Now known as the Russian Road (Ruska cesta) as its current construction was built mostly by 100,000 Russian prisoners of war during WWI.

Sam and I cycle over the pass from the southern or Soča valley side. The Soča rushes south through western Slovenia and northwest Italy for 138km before spilling into the Adriatic. Turbulent and glacial blue, at one point it disappears below the limestone rock and gravel river bed re-emerging with force before cascading into a deep ravine. A river popular with tourists a small amount of forestry and limited farming operations.

The main part of the climb is about 10km in length at between 8-10% incline. We’re fortunate to be climbing early – it’s shaded and cooler and less traffic.

By contrast, on the north side of the pass, the Sava River mostly meanders east-south-east for 990 km through Slovenia, Croatia, along the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina then Serbia to where it meets the Danube in Belgrade and then on to the Black Sea. The river basin is of huge economic importance and home to more than 8 million people.

After the customary rapid descent, at the base of the climb we stop at Kranjska Gora. I don’t think I’ve seen so many cyclists in one place outside a cycling event or the peak-hour rush I saw in Chengdu, China in 1989! Cyclists of all ages, on all sorts of bikes speeding by or parked at a cafe like us.

After lunch a short, steep climb to the Austrian border.

Another contrast to the morning, by now it’s very very hot, so we’re thankful for the long super fast descent into the Cartinthian region of southern Austria. We meander our way through farm roads and bike paths with a stop off at an ice-cream and beer/ lemon bitter establishment packed with cyclists wearing purple ‘Tour de Franz’ jerseys.

Finally, to Faaker am See – unfortunately, every campsite by the lake (See) is booked out, so we hunt around till we find a roadside stop for the night.

According to Garmin