Auf Wiedersein Pet

This is such a lovely place. The site, Schluga Camping, is in the small
village of Obervellach a few km east of Hermagor in Karnische region. We
have a great pitch with some shade for Noddy and from the van we look
straight at the mountains behind us. Spitzegel at 2119m high is mostly tree
covered but the peak is ragged and rocky with a cross on top to mark the
summit that you can just make out with the naked eye. The site is fairly
quiet at the moment but I am sure it will get much busier further into July
and August. There is a nice pool, apart from when the kids invade it, a
shop, a restaurant, and as previously mentioned the small cinema where they
are currently showing the footie games.
The area around is just a haven for walking and cycling in the summer, and
there is also a skiing area just down the road for the winter. Sue and I
have done some short cycles to town and back, and I have also been out doing
some longer rides. There are loads of well-marked cycle and walking routes,
and I have found a nice 20-mile route that I try and cycle most days, takes
about an hour. Also, the son of the family that owns the site takes people
out once or twice a week for a full on mountain bike ride. I did one on
Wednesday and I just about made it back alive. It was only about 20 miles
but we climbed about 650m at one point firstly up a steep tarmac road and
then up an even steeper rocky track. The views from viewpoint we reached
were amazing, and you could see mountains in both Slovenia and Italy. The
ride down was pretty heart stopping especially on the rocky track at 20+
mph. Hopefully there will be another this Wednesday also. We are also trying
to do a walking / running schedule in the morning. So the next time you see
us we will either be totally knackered or very fit.
A few km east of here is a lake, Pressegger See, where there are some
private beaches that you can pay to use. Schluga has its own which is of
course free to people staying on site, and there are all sort of facilities
there to use. We have not yet been to it as it looks very busy and quite
noisy as all the families tend to go down there but we will try and get
there this week.
As Hermagor is only a short ride away we have tried to cycle in to do the
shopping just getting supplies for 2 or 3 days at a go. On the whole things
don't seem to be much more expensive than Italy, and some things are
cheaper, but the fruit and vegetables that are available are not quite on a
par with Italy. I think they tend to eat more meat here than anything else.
Anyway COME ON ENGLAND, hope we can do the job on Portugal later, although I
am not looking forward to an England v Germany final as there are too many
partisan holidaymakers here!

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut

M&S

PS We have managed to find a supply of Rooibos tea here in Austria. If you
don't know, don't worry.