16 May – Stunning ride to Bovec

16 May – Stunning ride to Bovec

Today we did a breathtakingly beautiful route in our tour, from Idrija to Bovac (82km), at the start of the Julian Alps.

The road was mostly flat or downhill, especially for the first part of the ride that followed the Idrija river (route 102) to Tomlin.

Road and river scene

The river is crystal clear and obviously a popular fly fishing attraction, as we saw a number of fishermen with ostentatious gear on the side of the road and some in the river.

fly fisherman

fisherman in river

The green vistas across the river were so pretty I kept on stopping to take photos.

The weather started out overcast and pleasantly cool, though after lunch (when we hit the hills), we did begin to suffer a bit from the heat again. It is good we are not trying to do this in mid-summer! We had a few more uphills working our way up to Bovec.

We got our first views of the Alps.

first glimpse of the Alps
On coming around a corner, we came across lake Isonzo and paused to admire it’s unusual blue colour. There were a number of children in kayaks on the lake, making a very idyllic picture.

Lake Isonzo – note kayak in background

From here on the river also had this unearthly blue colour – we saw more kayaks tackling rapids with an instructor.

Unfortunately Kris’s front wheel began to play up, making his cycling harder. We believe that the generator (that powers the bicycle lights) on the front wheel is faulty and this is causing more friction on the wheel.

Interesting castle on the hill here – Kris’s wheel already playing up

Bovec is a lovely little town, but the bicycle shop was a disappointment. We thought we may replace the wheel, but they only service bicycles on the weekend and they had no spare parts.

Our accommodation is on the bottom floor of the house, but none the less has a small balcony where we can sit and look at the mountain.

Our accommodation – Apartments Skok

Mountain view from our balcony

We enjoyed some beer and our usual bread/cheese/tomato combination while watching a glider circle around the mountain peak. Later on we went for another walk into town to eat an ice cream.

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