Slovenian Border Ridge Road (606, 605 and 604)

I ask at the reception of Hotel Lipa if I breakfast is included in the 35€ that I paid for the room. It is! Great! I turns out to be an excellent breakfast, better than I am used to, and especially for this price. The have omelets, sausages, croissants, everything. That 35€ are well spent. The room was very comfortable (and large) and the breakfast is excellent.

After the breakfast I take off and after a kilometer someone starts tailgating me in a 50km/h zone. At the first possibility she overtakes me. There is plenty of space to drive 100m extra on the lane for opposite traffic… but the driver decides to cut me off and force me completely to the right side of the road and almost to make a full stop.

I am angry. Adrenaline is pumping through my veins. There is a roundabout in 200m and the car has to wait. I drive to the drivers side of the car and see a woman, staring to the car in front of her. She doesn’t even want to look at me. I knock on her window and make a gesture how close that just was. She looks at me and then slowly turns her head back to continue staring at the car in front of her. After seeing her… sitting with her face almost against the steering wheel, I realize that some people are just to stupid to drive (or communicate with). This must be one of these people. Risking the lives of others and being ignorant about it… The roundabout is clear, she drives off and takes the next exit. I follow my route and park at the next gas station to cool down. I don’t want to drive when I am not completely relaxed because it totally affects how you drive a motorcycle and behave in traffic. I would become more impatient, take bigger risks, every car driver becomes an idiot, and I would not be able to enjoy driving anymore. I don’t want to be like that woman.

A bit later I am outside out the city and I can start enjoying the views:

My navigation sends me left but I see this cool gravel road on the right… what would happen when I go there? Where would it lead to? Garmin will probably reroute and I have time enough for a quick detour. Therefore I decide to drive the gravel road and enjoy every second of it.

Not much later, Garmin has rerouted my route and sends me into a small trail through a forest. The beginning seems okay although there is a farmer who tells me that I better stay on the gravel road. I decide to ignore his advice and not much later I start to regret that. There is a path through the forest but it is difficult to drive. Very difficult. It is a path full of (big) stones, that are covered by slippery leaves and some parts are quite muddy as well. I should have taken photos at the most difficult parts but I did not want to make things even more difficult by stopping. To give you an impression, here are some photos.

After a while I manage to get out the forest without letting the bike fall. The off-road training at Hechlingen paid off! This path was a bit too much for me now but I will try to improve my off-road skills bit by bit. I should take detours more often!

I continue on my planned route and finally I find the gravel paths where I was looking for. I did not have to take the detour after all! There is no traffic at all on this road and it leads next to the river next to the Italian – Slovenian border. Although everything is flat and there are no really spectacular views, it is nonetheless very beautiful here.

After taking the last photo above, I get approached by a farmer on a tractor. “Nice tour?” he asks. We start a conversation and I found out he actually lives in Nova Gorica and bought a farm on the country side but does not live here. He introduces himself as Vojko and invites me the come in. I follow him to his house and his wife brings me some homemade apple juice. The juice is homemade and made without adding any water. It is delicious. I also get some homemade cake and Vojko tells me about how he made a motorcycle tour through Yugoslavia when he was younger (and Yugoslavia still existed); an experience he never forgot. I get a tour around the farm and I get a jar with their homemade honey and sausages to eat on my way.

We exchange email addresses and he tells me that I should write him, if I would be in this part of Slovenia again.

In Slovenia see you a lot these sign by the way: “Risky road section”. All these signs are with motorcycles on it… the roads are very twisty and easy to drive with higher speeds. But you never know what awaits you around the corner…

I take the highway in the direction of Hrastovlje after my Garmin navigated me back to Nova Gorica. In Hrastovjle should be a nice church with awesome ancient Roman murals that I would love to see. I take the highway and directly after entering the highway I get stopped by the police. They want to see my highway vignette. Luckily I bought the vignette a couple of days ago, otherwise it would have costed me a couple of hundred euros… Lucky me!

I continue my way to Hrastovlje and book a room at a small restaurant that also doubles as a hotel. The room is small but okay. I have quite low requirements to the places where I sleep. There is a bed and that is enough for now. I have to watch my budget carefully because otherwise I will not be able to continue this trip for 7 months…

To be continued.