Day two on the lake, and another stunner!

The plan for today was again to leave Bled, and cycle to another apparently gorgeous lake some 20km southwest. Now, much like yesterday, there was a direct route, and an indirect route. The direct route was a highway, fairly flat, 20kms long, but apparently not safe for cyclists (or so I was told by my hostel owner). The indirect route was more hilly, about 30kms long, but apparently perfectly safe for cyclists and was even marked out on my map as a designated cycle route. Seemed ok, and with that I set off into the middle of nowhere, where taking your tractor to the local store is a perfectly normal thing.

Almost every wee village I passed through had one of these or similar, as well as a very distinctive church. Very religious spot by the look of it.

Soon enough I started getting into the hills, and was horrified to see that my designated cycle route involved a fucking 12% gradient hill! Nevertheless I figured it can't go on for too long, so up I went. About an hour later after conquering the 12% stretch and stopping at a little restaurant for a drink, I reached this - bloody 18%, you gotta be kidding me?! At this stage I stopped and weighed up how badly I wanted to see this other lake and how badly I wanted my legs to hate me. I was only about 8km into the 30km route, it was 1:30pm, and I had no idea what the terrain ahead was like i.e. whether it was going to descend again or remain this way for most of the route. I also wasn't sure how I was going to get back to Bled from the other lake now. If there was an equally big descent coming up then I sure didn't want to have to conquer this fucker again on the way back, and I wasn't sure what the options were for public transport with a bike. In the end I thought fuck it, and continued on regardless hehe - if the shit hit the fan I'd find a way out of it. Video here of me punishing myself up this goddamn hill.

I had basically become one of the idiots that Kristina and I have passed in the car during road trips on several occasions, busting their guts up the steepest of hills. After studying my map a little more, I made an educated guess that there was an equally big decent coming up which would take me down to the lake. And eventually, after about 90 minutes of this bullshit and every sweat pore on my body working in overdrive, I reached the top of the hill. My legs were actually quite ok about it all - I was surprised, I mean they weren't happy but they were taking it alright. Atop the hill was an awesome forest with some great views over the valley.

There were several wee farming settlements up there as well, with Farmer Joe having some fun on the tractor.

Thankfully, what goes up must come down, and bloody hell did I have some fun on these roads - video here! 12km ascent, 15km descent, and just a few more kilometres on flat land to the lake.

I loved passing through these villages! The main road through them is usually just a single-lane wide, and they're bloody nice and all had big drinking fountains which I (as well as many other sweaty cyclists) made full use of.

So, some four hours after setting off (including time for photos), and an absolute ball-buster of a hill that I don't wish to ever repeat, I finally made it to this damn lake!

This is Lake Bohinj, twice as long Lake Bled at 4.2km but only 1km wide, and equally as stunning surrounded by more massive mountains and forest! Fucking wow!

This church is an example of what I found in every village and town I passed through.

More crystal-clear water, much like Bled and Vintgar.

First order of business was lunch - I was famished! Huge plate of squid and other bits and pieces, washed down with a couple glasses of natural lemonade - good stuff!

After lunch I rode along the bottom of the lake to my second order of business: a cable car to the summit of an adjacent mountain for some incredible views over the area.

Try as I might, my camera couldn't really do justice to this, but it's amazing up there!

Looking towards the direction I had cycled from, and those bastard hills.

Looking towards the direction I was heading next :)

Imagine if this was your view waking up every morning: lake, forest, mountains - wow.

I continued around the lake for a bit before taking an off-road trail heading away from it and deeper into the valley.

Then after some more walking I made it to this: Savica Waterfall, normally littered with tourists but given it was getting on in the day I had the whole thing myself (except for one guy who I had take my photo). That gate beside me was locked with a big sign saying not to pass, so of course I jumped over it to get the shot on the right :)

From there I headed back on to the lake itself. I had found out I could get a train back to Bled (phew!) leaving about 7:30pm, so I had just enough time to chill down on the shore for a bit. Absolutely beautiful!

This was my beast for the three days by the way - it did the trick :)

Before long I had to leave though, and headed back along the lake and along the supposedly cycle-unfriendly highway to the train station a few kilometres away. This is when I discovered this short flat route that I had been warned away from was hardly dangerous at all! In other words, it appeared I had busted my ass up that damn hill for nothing! Nevertheless, I was a really good scenic ride so I'm not too bothered about it.

Anyway, it turns out the 7:30pm train only runs on weekends, and the next train I could get wasn't until after 9pm. I umm'd and ahh'd for a bit and decided I couldn't be bothered waiting around that long, and rode the damn highway back to Bled hehe. By the time I got back I was beyond fucked. I hit the wall so to speak with about 10kms to go - I officially had no more fuel (carbs) left in the tank after tackling those hills. Thankfully the route was quite flat, but every little incline no matter how slight really took it out of me. However, with the light fading fast, no lights on the bike, and little choice, I soldiered on slowly but surely, and absolutely murdered this dinner hehe! Another awesome day though :)

Incidentally, everything I'd seen so far is all part of the Triglav National Park, which is chocker with 838 square-kilometres of a lot of awesome shit!