Day 3 and it's out the door and away, just as soon as we have checked the weather, read the Age, see who liked yesterday's photos, the list goes on. Anyway, apparently the bike is comfortable and the brakes work and the traffic is ok and the road surface is good so it looks promising, for today at least.
Today we are intending to do a lazy 40km ride out along the valley roads. Well as we now know, valleys are generally located between at least 2 hills, or in our case, between 2 mountain ridges and more resemble mountain passes than valleys. It is probably enough to say that there were a couple of nasty uphill climbs, the 8% - 10% variety that went on for a couple of kms, so it was a time for reflection rather than talking, at least until we reached the top. But this is what we signed up for so no point complaining.
The country is absolutely stunningly beautiful. Roads through dense forest with occasional glimpses of snow capped peaks, then we break into a lush green field of corn or golden heads of wheat. Into a village of 20 or so houses, often set in a "U" shape, house on one arm, barn for cows on the other and joined by a shed for the tractor as well as the Saab, Mercedes B, or BMW. So many of these little places seem to still have the medieval feel, little groups of houses with gardens that look like they could sustain families for the year. There are no shops, or cafes, each family cluster appears to be so self sufficient not to need Woolies or Coles on the corner. As we move further into the Alps, the houses take on a distinctly Austrian look, which is not surprising given how close we are to the border. Geraniums in window boxes just about finished the look. Still, no time for gazing, there are hills to climb and descend and kms to click over so it's onward and upward. Although we only rode 44kms it took 4 hours and we climbed a total of 892 metres. Needless to say, we slept well last night.
Day 4 and not feeling any pain from yesterday's ride we brave the hills again for a ride that was described as being a "Merry Music and Culture Tour through little villages nestled between the slopes of the high Karawanke mountains". I refer you to my earlier comment about valleys being between mountains. Today was no exception. With a couple of unscheduled detours, we managed to clock up 57 kms over 5 hours of actual riding and 812 metres of climbing, and of course the same amount of descending. Not so eye watering as yesterday except for one particularly adrenalin charged run full of switch backs and steep long runs between until eventually, and one might say thankfully, we levelled off in a wheat field and had an easy ride through the golf course and shady woods for the last 6 kms back into Bled.
I'm told that tomorrow is an easy 17km ride although the description in the ride notes is "Panoramic (means views from top of mountains) and Canyon (see valleys) Trip."
Stay tuned.