Page 17 - DLNsep2015-998
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We are in the middle of nowhere in Slovenia on a Saturday night and
Jayne has a blown rim and bust spoke! On the hunt for a bike mechanic....
Hoping the people of Slovenia are as wonderful as the country is!!!

         Slovenia I am in love! Left Italy at dawn (thank goodness, didn't like
it at all) and once across the boarder Slovenia stole our hearts. It is truly
stunning in every direction across the entire country. Plus it is cycling
obsessed, with cycle paths everywhere and perfect Tarmac and next to no
cars. We should have crossed out the other side this evening into NE Croatia
but sadly 10km from the boarder we had a mechanical in the middle of nowhere.
Turns out Slovenians are as equally as wonderful as their country and we
found a retired bike mechanic who sorted the wheel and spokes for us, and
wouldn't except payment, whilst another man translated. Someone else gave
us their pizza and another helped me find us somewhere to stay. They were
so so kind. Cyclists I would highly recommend a cycling holiday to this country.
Sadly this blip has put us back another 65km, but Istanbul we are coming...
Over halfway

        - Given our fortunes yesterday we had a mammoth day ahead
of us today to catch up, 350km. As I write this we are sat in a bus shelter
10km from the check point in the middle of a huge storm, thunder and
lightening directly over head with torrential rain. Honestly everything has
been thrown at us in this race! All we want to do is go to bed ready for another
04:00 start and on to Bosnia

Apologies for not posting yesterday but we had another catastrophe which
took over all of the evening. The day started well enough in Italy and we headed
towards the border and into Slovenia. What a beautiful country Slovenia is
and a really lovely change from the days of long straight Italian roads! All
was going so well so we decided to make a run for the border and into Croatia.
With just 10km to go and half way up a climb there was a bang and a spoke
in my front wheel blew. I had spare spikes with me, which actually turned out
to be the wrong size and therefore useless (thanks bike shop) but no tools
and no idea how to change a spoke. I couldn't even wheel the bike as it was

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