Day 23 - and We Are Off Again
Monday 29 July 2019
Come what may we have to leave the Blue House this morning. Time waits for no man etc.
On the warm up the K is still blowing grey smoke and it takes a while before all the cylinders are firing together. It is all rather worrying.
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| Dawn and the sun breaking through the clouds over the church up above the Blue House |
As we set off back through Tolmin and along the 102 to Postaja the occasional misfire continues and the bike is down on power. Then it will run sweetly for a while. Worrying.
At Postaja we turn off the main road onto a small road that winds up the Bača valley and will take us up into the mountains and eventually down to the popular tourist area around Lake Bohinj.
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| Tunnel on the run up the Bača Valley |
Slovenia is astonishingly beautiful at this time of year. I read somewhere that 70% of this country is forested and it is easy to believe as we ride up through the ancient woodlands and back into the Triglav National Park.
Unlike the highest alpine areas we are low enough here to have a real mix of big old trees, deciduous and pines, not managed but wild. England must have been like this once upon a time.
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| View over the Kneza Valley |
The road winds on and up. There is very little traffic about as we climb up through the sleepy little villages to a high point where there is a ski resort.
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| On the climb up to Zgornja Sorica |
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| Ski resort at Bohinjsko Sedlo |
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| Another target for Stickerman |
The run down to the lake is wider and better paved thanks to the skiing.
Lake Bohinj is a popular holiday area with boating and cycling vying with rock climbing and walkers off to see the several waterfalls that are nearby.
We stop for coffee and goulash soup at a cafe on the lake shore.
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| Coffee stop at Lake Bohinj |
The bike is still running rough so I decide it is time to enlist some professional help. A Google search finds a small bike dealership in Domžale, a small town close to our destination for the night.
It has been awarded four and a half stars on the Google search page which may be a good omen or may mean ‘friends’ of the owners have been busy.
As it turns out it is the former. A friendly guy who speaks some English and German listens to my explanation and calls out the boss from his workshop to take a look. He takes the bike for a run up and down a side street and comes back to deliver his verdict.
In his opinion the bike is mechanically sound and his guess is bad petrol. He asked where I last filled up; it was the gas station in Kobarid just before the huge thunderstorm hit us. So maybe I am jumping to a convenient but wrong conclusion when I assume the deluge is the cause of the problem.
The mechanic pronounces that the grey smoke that still billows out of the exhaust when the engine is revved is not oil or water but is in fact diesel contamination in the fuel.
So he finds a can and I already have a length of plastic fuel pipe in amongst my tools. With great care I siphon out four of five litres of the fuel leaving just enough to get me to a filling station.
The guys here are very reluctant to accept the €20 note I press on them. It’s too much apparently but I insist they have a few drinks on me.
Soon the bike is treated with 100 octane at the local garage and the change is almost immediate. By the time we pull into the Pod Skalo (translation Under the Rock) real ale bar and camping ground she is running sweet as a nut. My relief is enormous, visions of a tow truck and all the hassle of repatriation from the insurance company can be banished from my mind. Phew! And double phew!!
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| Tents up at Pod Skalo |
So glad that ordeal ended well! Was in a similar situation but different technical problem back in 2016. Saved by a great workshop and a mechanic on duty on a Saturday :)
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