Roadtrip Croatia: Camp Vodenca slovenia

Finally, July 22 of 2022! After two years of only short trips, we leave for a road trip tonight. My favourite kind of vacation. Eighteen days of nature, beaches and different cities.

Our intinery can you find in my blogpost 'Planning the start of every adventure'. After a drive of 16 hours with occasional breaks, we arrive at our first stop, 'Camp Vodenca'. A small and peaceful camping with everything you need. It was a lovely stay, the facility blocks were spotless, and the staff was friendly. The only downside was that you couldn't park next to your tent and that parking your car was not always that easy. Also, because my boyfriend is a teacher, we went in high season. That makes it more crowded than usual.

Because we couldn't check in until 4PM, we parked our car and took our first walk to the socca river. Which was only a short hike of 15 minutes from our camping. We stayed on a pebble beach and closed our eyes, listing to the water.

After check-in, we went shopping in Bovec by car. It is easy to park near the supermarket. You can also go on foot; this is a beautiful walk uphill and will take around 30 minutes. Back at the campsite, we prepared our meals and backpacks to go canyoning the next day.

We found the perfect canyoning route. However, we have our own material for canyoning, and we always go without a guide. The path we found had many descents, and we didn't have rope or hooks. So we decided to get off the road and find our own route. This led to a little bit more adventure than we cared for. But, once in the water, it was all worth it. Because the path was too dangerous, I will not include it in the blog. We were lucky to find a point in our descent to jump in the water. We did not wear our wetsuits at that moment, and I can guarantee that the water was ice cold! When we returned to our camping, we saw that we had landed in the Ucja canyon.

The following two days, we took it easier with breathtaking walks. The Town of Bovec is cosy. Again we went in high season, and the town is only anticipated on a few travellers at a time. Every camping was fully booked, and when it was dinner time, the restaurants were also fast full. We only ate once out because, on a Sunday, you can not go grocery shopping, something we forgot. That evening we didn't find any free table, so we first went to drink something in bar Gouf. Fantastic place with cheap and delicious cocktails. Afterwards, we went again, searching for a place to eat. Everything closes quite early, and the first place we asked was entirely out of food. Finally, we found a spot that was prepared to still make something for us. "Gostišče Martinov hram Martin Berginc" serves traditional Slovenian food in a homely decor.

When planning this trip, we thought of rafting or kayaking on the socca river. However, in the period we were going, it was very dry for an extended period of time. Therefore the water was low, and we decided not to pay for the guided activity. If we had found an agency that rented out kayaks to go on our own, we would have done that because the river and surroundings are stunning.

After four days, we left Bovec and the socca river behind us to go to Split. We planned to stop at the vinegar gorge. Which was the best idea ever. It was a drive of 1 hour and 30 minutes from our campsite. We booked our tickets for 8:30 AM for 10 euros. I did this because while planning, the drive took 2 hours. However, at 7:45 AM, we arrived. You are allowed in the park 15 minutes before your slot, so we had to wait. The hike was beautiful, it started to rain, but that didn't bother us. I was just so happy to see those waterfalls, the river and the gorge. Little did I know that I would be blown away by other nature's amazing wonders in Croatia. The walk back to the parking is through the woods. We did the tour in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

On our way to split, we passed lake Bohinj. We tried to stop, but it was a hassle because it was crowded. If there is something we absolutely hate, it is waiting and walking tightly packed in line. Therefore we didn't stop and went on leaving Slovenia with a smile. We will be back because it is a beautiful country with lots of little gems we need to explore.

One thing to keep in mind is that our trip from Belgium to Slovenia took longer than expected because the road is indoor once through Germany and Austria.

In Croatia, there are tunnels. While in Slovenia you go over the mountains. Driving through Slovenia is nice with amazing views but it takes longer than the GPS said. And it's not because we are scared of driving on small roads. On the contrary, my boyfriend likes those roads and drives carefully but not slowly. We also drive at night when it is for a longer period of time, that way we rarely have traffic.