Day 22 - A wet day in Slovenia, going nowhere!
Sunday 28 July 2019
It’s pretty obvious by 10am that we are going nowhere today. It has rained for most of the night and shows no sign of respite as the thunder rolls around the mountains that surround us. However the Blue House is not a bad place to hole up in.
Valentin the owner has been collecting old artwork, icons and solid wooden furniture from the Ottoman era for many years. It is like living in a cross between an art gallery and a museum.
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| Valentin the always smiling proprietor of the Blue House |
Just across the road there is a bar and pizzeria. Everything is as cheap as chips compared with the Dolomites tourist areas. There seems to be two pivo (beer) suppliers in Slovenia, Lasko and Union. Both are pretty decent ales. The huge pizzas are €6 or €7 euros and to round off the evening the local hooch, a Jagermesister style of firewater is $1.20 for a decent slurp.
Breakfast has slight variations every day, mostly egg-themed. The Slavic influence is apparent in the selection of meats and all the jams and confitures are locally made. The bread is heavy duty and delicious.
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| Mick gets to grips with a Slovene breakfast under the chandelier |
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| And there is plenty to choose from, including rhubarb crumble |
Last night we had separate rooms, but after checking his calendar Valentin asks if we would mind sharing for the second night. Since we hadn’t booked for two nights this seemed like a reasonable request and since Mick’s room has two single beds whereas mine is a double we are happy to comply.
For this we are promised a very special rate! Top man.
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| Watching the gear slowly drying on the balcony |
By late afternoon the rain is clearing and a watery sun is creeping through on the horizon. We have spent much of the afternoon watching lady cricket on the iPad, Sky coverage of the second T20 international where Australia’s ladies are hammering England ladies by a fair margin.
It beats watching the bike clothing drying silently at the adjoining table on the balcony at the Blue House. With the rain gone we decide to do a little maintenance on the bikes. Oil checks, tyre pressures, brake pads, simple stuff. In order to check the oil levels the bike require starting up and running for a while. My poor K is blowing clouds of grey smoke from the exhaust and is misfiring badly.
I put it down to water getting in somehow but as the bike warms the misfire is still there intermittently and the exhaust continues to smoke.
All sorts of possibilities occur, few of them good. The K has a very enclosed engine and it has never displayed symptoms like this in all the years I have been riding it. Could a piston ring be broken? Has water got into the petrol tank? Will the injectors need cleaning out and the plugs have to come out for a clean?
Any job on the K will require removal of the fairing. By no means particularly difficult but a ball-ache none the less. For now I get her thoroughly warmed up and decide to wait and see what the morning brings.
However the problem has put a definite damper on thoughts of our future progress.
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| Worrying times for the big K at the Blue House |
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