I was a bit nervous about today. Not sure why. We had climbed higher and steeper, but I was just a bit nervous. I certainly wanted to complete the climb prior to any rain. That was forecast for later on.

We were riding from beautiful Lake Bohinj to Kobarid, in the Soca Valley. In between were the Julian Alps.

The climb is up to a pass at Soriska Planina and is the second highest climb in Slovenia.

Road quality is known to be poor and narrow.

Slovenia as an independent country is young. Other countries have fought to own and control it. It was part of the AustroHungarian Empire, then Italy, then communist Yugoslavia.

It was only in 1991 that the country became independent and they are concentrating on tourism as a way to improve their economic returns.

It is a beautiful country, lovely culture and people, and with time, more improvements such as super shite alpine roads will improve.

Slovenia is one of my all time favourites that we have visited, twice now.

We started off by retracing our steps the previous day along the wonderful cycle path, then turning off to Bohinja Bistrica. We avoided the central part of town skirting around to start the climb at 8 km into the day.

Our legs had warmed up nicely.

Some climbing data.

The first half of the climb is very doable. It was more like 3-5%, but you know that if that is under the average for the whole climb, the second half is going to get sharper and harder.

The road was fairly quiet and climbing the road was patchy in places but better than we expected.

The road was mainly used by motor cyclists and we only saw one other couple cycling up….must have been locals as they had no gear and we passed them. They were doing very wide S’s up,using both lanes which concerned me should a car suddenly appear and they are on the wrong side.

There was a blind bend I approached, could hear a truck ahead and I jumped off. Just as well as the truck took all available space as I wedged into the rock wall holding my bike.

The second half was far tougher. There was around 4.5 km of 9-10% with no easing at bends, it just kept at that percent consistently.

Finally the top, we made it and no rain and no issues.

On Strava there is only one other person we know who has done this climb, and it is our extraordinary friend Kat from Czech Republic, who is the global leader in km on strava all time females cycling! She probably did it as a day trip from Prague!!

We added extra clothing layers on for the descent. The roads were definitely worse on this side of the pass, very cracked up and patchy with overlays of fresher bitumen there and there.

It was a slow descent to ensure we pointed our front wheel away from trouble!

Most na Soci is at the confluence of the Soca and Idrija rivers. Over 7,000 grave sites have been excavated from the Bronze and Iron Age. Of course, the Roman’s hate to miss out, and there is also evidence of villas and walls here.

Whilst these photographs were being taken,I swung my leg over the bike to hop off, but did not swing that leg high enough, clipping the luggage, falling to the road. Feeling annoyed with myself for the misjudgement got up, rubbed my sore hip and shoulder, moaned about the scratch on the shifters, and decided I needed icecream!

Down the Soca valley towards Kobarid, our destination for two nights.

Despite all the map planning, routing time I spend, there are occasional stuff ups. This is apparently the most popular route in the area..I doubt it somehow.

My left hip was pretty sore by now and felt like I had a balloon riding on it. Rubbing my hand over it, it was quite swollen. Feeling more annoyed with myself again.

We arrived in Kobarid, just missing the rain again, how lucky!

Kobarid was occupied by the Italy between the two world wars, and featured a battle for the Soca Front, until the first blitzkrieg in Europe broke a stalemate between Italy and Austro-Hungary.

This photo was taken from the small bridge crossing the Soca river. Tomorrow we hope to ride where than van is heading and further up the river valley.

Checked in to our accomodation and finally looked at the lump on my hip.

So I have iced it, had my hip up as high as I can, slept restlessly as it is the side I usually sleep on so that did not happen. It has reduced in size overnight thankfully, still very large but not as ‘intense’ so hopefully a good sign!

It is likely worse due to my cardiac medications…

Anyhow, nothing broken!

Thanks for reading 😊❣️