34km Total 1311km
We spent a rest day in Maribor cleaning the bikes, going to the local bakery, eating icecream, visiting the bike shop etc. Maribor is a ski area in winter and big mtb area in summer. There was a world cup downhill earlier this year.
The campground in Maribor is excellent. Great wifi, extremely clean, nice grass to camp on. A few other cyclists camping there including Magnus and Anita from Germany. While Dermot stayed in bed getting his beauty sleep the 3 of us caught the gondola up at 4am to join in midsummer celebrations and watch the sunrise. Blown away at the number of people either walking up or catching the gondola.
We were planning to stay an extra day in Maribor, but once we found out we could take the gondola up with our bikes we did a quick packup and headed to the top again - Magnus and Anita decided to join us.
What we're finding with the Eurovelo track is that there doesn't seem to be an official gpx file to download - when we google to download it, people seem to have just labelled their track as Eurovelo, but with no indication of whether they've ridden it or not.
So the 4 of us headed off, following the gpx track and in no time it was a narrow walking track. Magnus and Anita turned back to find an easier route, but Dermot and I pressed on!! Many circles later and after a thunderstorm, we finally caught up with the Germans again at a cafe we'd arranged to meet at - they got there about an hour before us. Our track was often up under ski-lifts so lots of pushing!
Lost again and sheltering from the thunderstorm
From the cafe we travelled with Magnus and Anita, with them navigating, so it took us totally away from our gpx course. Beautiful country to ride through.
Eventually had to find somewhere to stay for the night and ended up camping on the front lawn of some locals who were kind enough to say yes when we asked. They even brought out home made cherry wine for us.
And the view from their place was spectacular. Lots of fun using google translate with them.
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