May 22, 2023
Pristava nad Stično to Ljubljana
Without rain we had a much more restful night in the tent, although we didn't pump our mattress up enough and didn't want to wake Tobias when we went to bed at 9 and realised this so we were pretty close to the stoney ground.
We struggled making a route through the lumpy Slovenian terrain for today. Nothing was particularly direct and there weren't too many ways to avoid losing all the elevation we gained last night and then immediately climbing the same again. In the end we chose one that had a small section of gravel in the morning, but shaved about 10km off the total distance.
Again the elevation didn't look too bad, but there were some seriously steel climbs. After a quick descent and before we had time to warm up properly we were on the first one. Unfortunately some people were out walking their dog who didn't really like the sight of us, but we weren't going any faster than their walking speed so it just kept barking and chasing us. Because we were wearing less clothes the straps on Tobias' seat were loose and he managed to wriggle his arms out. I didn't want to stop to fix it while I was barely able to turn pedals so I just ignored it, but having him leaning out the side watching the dog yapping at my ankles didn't make it any easier to get up the hill.
We stopped to make a coffee at the bottom of the first serious ascent of the day and encountered our first angry Slovenian. We often stop at farm driveways because they are grassy, generally off the road enough to spread out, and not very frequently accessed. But this time someone actually wanted to use it and was not happy to find 3 foreign cyclists in her way. We hurried away and pushed the bikes up the hill and came back for the coffees and finished them off in a quarry 50m up the hill (and out of her sight).
Near the top we rounded a corner and I spotted diggers and dump trucks off on a road up to the left. I knew we were due to go off road, but we didn't know what sort of condition the road would be in. Thankfully that wasn't our road and the gravel we did encounter was hard packed and generally pretty easy going. There are so many roads in Slovenia, I was daydreaming about moving to Ljubljana and riding in the hills we were in on my road bike.
We started descending just before lunchtime and when we came across Prežganju which had hints of a restaurant. Our hopes weren't too high when we tackled the steep hill up into town, but we felt good enough to give it a go. It was, being a Monday in non-summer season, closed, so we descended again down 15% gradients and worried a bit about out brakes. Tobias learnt "steep" as his new word today. We passed a few promising picnic spots, a bit scared of trespassing again, but in the end we needed to stop. We were down to the dregs of food but hadn't passed a supermarket all day. Tobias was pretty stoked to have crackers on the menu instead of bread.
I messaged our friends we were meeting in Ljubljana to let them know we were on track and that we had a mostly downhill ride to go. I was overly optimistic. We had another steep climb beginning with what looked like a wall with a gradient of 15-20%. James is certain Tobias has grown because he had to push up this part. I made it, but just. I was zig zagging up the road, counting to 6 pedal strokes then heading back the other direction. After the first steep section it became hard, but manageable. It was pretty hot in the sun and James was out of water though. Near the top we encountered our second grumpy Slovenian for the day. He was a speedy road biking guy who called us stupid (or something similar) in Slovenian, then said "you've got the wrong idea" in english while he shook his head descending down past us. We saw lots of road bikers out the last couple of days. We are close enough to Ljubljana to be on a good days ride out and the weather has been wonderful. I definitely get that people wouldn't want to ride like we do, but even while we are panting up the hills, we are where we want to be.
Luckily at the top we passed a mountain tap so could fill our bottles with cold water before the actual descent down the valley. We had a small detour on the road into Ljubljana that gave us a bit more gravel, but it was nothing too serious. I called our host about 5km from the destination, but she was going to be delayed so when Tobias woke up in front of a watermelon stall we stopped and demolished a quater watermelon between the 3 of us.
There was a lot going on once we finally found our way to the apartment. Tobias became super needy and we were exhausted. When planning our trip I broke it up into semi-arbitary legs and Mostar to Ljubljana was leg 3, so we feel like we've reached some kind of end point. We still had admin to do though. We are staying in the centre of town and bike theft in Ljubljana is a real problem, but our hosts were very clear (luckily ahead of time) that the bikes couldn't stay in the house. So we found a warmshowers host who agreed to host our bikes in his cellar for the week, but that, and the needy toddler, meant we couldn't just chill out but had to head out and get our bikes to their hosts and try and get Tobias a bit more comfortable. Luckily getting out of the house helped and by the time we stopped for pizza on the way home we could enjoy a beer whole Tobias raced around on his bike or danced to the music. He also loves pizza so that helped.
We arrived back at the house at the same time as our friends arrived. Rohan is an old friend of mine and she is in Europe with her partner and their 6 month old baby. Tobias has been so excited to meet "baby Arlo" for the last few days and luckily he found the real baby as interesting as the imaginary one. James and I are relieved to have extra adults around for a few days. We're here 5 nights and have a fair bit of administration to do to sort out the rest of this trip and hopefully let our legs recover a bit.
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Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 1,091 km (678 miles)
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