Keen to try another camper trip, and in particular to test the use of a smaller camper, Ellen & I rented a buscamper for a 2-week trip through Austria & Slovenia in September. We knew that we would not have the freedom as we did in Norway with regard to camping in the wild, but elected to do all overnight stops on the bonne-foi so as to give ourselves some flexibility.
Our first day was a long-distance drive to get into the south of Germany, and we drove the route Arnhem–Cologne–Frankfurt–Stuttgart before touching down at a municipal camping site in Blaubeuren (close to Ulm) whose claim to fame is the source of the Blau. Our starting weather on day 2 was not great – grey, misty, drizzle, rain – but it was beautiful countryside to drive through; we headed for the Austrian border, and towards the Hahntennjoch for our first mountain pass and the first patches of blue sky. Within the first kilometres we had the affirmation that we had made the right choice for a buscamper: shorter, and therefore slightly more manoeuvrable, and no extra width behind the cabin to consider(!). A lovely first mountain drive … 😎
From there via Innsbruck to Zell am Ziller and on to the Gerlos Alpenstraße, our second mountain pass of the day. More spectacular (and longer) than the first, with a lovely drive past Gerlos and through the Zillertal, and a view of the impressive Krimmler Wässerfalle. Our second overnight would be in Wald am Pinzgau.
Day 3 would only entail a short drive, but one of the most spectacular of our journey – the 48km Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, the highest road in Austria, and a must-do for every petrolhead. This was emphasised by a chance meeting with 2 Caterham enthusiasts, and a quick photoshoot …!
Fantastic views in all directions, in the midst of no less than thirty 3.000m peaks …! At the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, the visitor centre, we got close to the Großglockner itself (3.798m) and the Pasterze Glacier. As a last view, our exit through Heiligenblut am Großglockner was really special too – a truly magical vista with the impressive Pfarrkirche – before heading to Oberdrauberg for our overnight stop, at another municipal campsite.
Day 4 would be our exit from Austria, using the route through the Carnic Alps via Udine & Trieste to get to the Istrian peninsula (we had decided to head slightly further south due to a forecast of bad weather in Slovenia). The Alpine route was another jewel, first crossing through the Gailberg, and then through the Plöckenpass into Italy. Wonderful vistas served by a lovely winding road; narrow in places, but we had no issues; we also stopped at a World War I cemetery – clearly one of many through these Alps. Once out of the mountains the drive was easy (even boring), and our crossings into Slovenia and then Croatia were uneventful. We skipped our first target for an overnight stop at Kanegra (it turned out to be a naturist campsite … 😳), but found something close by in Umag. At first view a mega-campsite, but in retrospect just fine, and by far the cheapest of our whole trip … 😉
Here we cycled down to the beach, and wandered a while, enjoying the approaching dusk; a seaside cappuccino rounded our day off – we had made it to the Balkans …!
➡️ Continued in part II …
📷 A photo gallery with more photo’s is available here.