Reid's 2014 Bike Ride

Hit slovenia which is way more developed than I expected (more than some of Italy).

Found an awesome camp spot in this unmanned water pump station right on the stunnimg soca river. however didnt notice the cctv cameras so someone eventually arrived to send me on my way.

There was this crazy storm that night, quite an experience camping in a thunderstorm in a steep valley. You can feel thunder way more when lying on the ground.

Rode to Bovec and spent 2 nights there, didnt some water rafting and then canyoning which was awesome (forgot my camera for the canyoning bugger) and a small hike with these english blokes.

There were two options to get to Bled, so I took the more scenic route which involved a nasty climb.

I met 4 slovenian guys at the bottom that were on a 4 day ride so had little gear but it was great to tackle the climb with them. Had to work at 100% to keep up (and beat two of them :) with the extra weight I had. It was probably most intense climb I've done. We all rode to bled and stayed the night, really great guys.

I stayed for another night in Bled as the slovenian dudes were headimg riding back to go to some festival. Weather was pretty poor so didmt get to see bled at its best.

Learnt not to camp on dirt when there are storms on my way to the capital Ljubliyana, got a tad muddy.

Ljubliyana was nice but very small. I left in the arvo intending to just do 30km but due to beimg stuck in this River valley there was nowhere to camp and was riding til 9.30pm and a pleasurable night in a wet tent.

the next day I came down with whatever the two sick people in the hostel in Ljubliyana had. I got rejected at the Slovenian-Croation border as it only allowed EU citizens through, so was informed the only solution was to go back tomthe last town, catch the train where they do immigration onboard, and get off the first stop over the border. So had lovely 4 hours waiting at the train station feeling terrible, then after being on the train for 5 mintues was told that it didnt stop until the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. So it cut out 30 odd km, but I was feelomg so average I really didnt care. Stayed in a hotel for 2 nights in zagreb to try and recover and planned on leaving on Friday but just wasnt up for it. found a hostel who conveniently had a doctor livimg in the building, and diagnosed me (by phone) of some throat infection. so prescribed me some antibiotics (again just by calling the pharmacy) and I left on saturday. I'm currently in this random motel about 80km from hungary, starting to feel a bit better.... In short the last week has been pretty crappy but lookimg forward to some big, fast km's across hungary and into romania shortly. had to retire my camp mat as its baffles started to rip out amd also the cycle computer replacement was shitty as it didnt auto start so had to change that too

impressions of slovenia and croatia:

man bags seem to be socially acceptable
slovenian coffee is probably the best in europe
people put these guard dog signs out the front of their property (i cant believe i didnt take any photos) but they include an actual photo of the dog itself, what looks to be an actual studio photo with a backdrop and everything. bit the funny thing the dog is always smiling and looking very friendly. there was this funny shot of a rottweiler with this friendly grin i almost stacked my bike laughing at it.